Astronauts are escapists.
Astronauts - Astronomy Quotes
The eyes are witnesses that the heavens revolve in the space of twenty-four hours. But certain men, either from the love of novelty, or to make a display of ingenuity, have concluded that the earth moves; and they maintain that neither the eighth sphere nor the sun revolves… Now, it is a want of honesty […]
Astronauts… submit to the severest bodily ordeals in order to satisfy the ritual demands for space travel to distant parts of the solar system. To a certain degree, vicarious participation in these rites by the earthbound inhabitants of the planet, made possible through film, television and radio, restores the waning sense of high adventure; and […]
Some astronomers try to cheer us up in the moments of depression by assuring us that one fine day the sun will explode, and in the twinkling of an eye we shall all be turned into gas. I do not know whether this is going to happen, nor when it will happen if it does […]
Beautiful! Beautiful! Magnificent desolation! (as he joined fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong on the first moon walk.)
Observatory, n. A place where astronomers conjecture away the guesses of their predecessors.
“Where are we going?” (Bishop Aringarosa) had demanded of his driver. “Alban Hills,” the man replied. “Your meeting is at Castel Gandolfo.” The Pope’s summer residence? Aringarosa had never been, nor had he ever desired to see it. In addition to being the Pope’s summer vacation home, the sixteenth-century citadel housed the Specula Vaticana – […]
The more I know of astronomy, the more I believe in God.
What we need is a big telescope in every village and hamlet and some bloke there with that fire in his eye who can show something of the glory the world sails in. (inventor of the Dobsonian telescope and “guiding light” to amateur astronomers)
In this matter, it behooves all those who wish to make such observations to be forewarned. For it is necessary first that they prepare a most accurate glass that shows objects brightly, distinctly, and not veiled by any obscurity; and second that it multiply them at least four hundred times and show them twenty times […]
