SoCS – ESO Chile

Day 314

My late-in-the-day Stream of Consciousness post is brought to you by the lovely Linda G. Hill. Up for discussion today is:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “astronomical.” Use it any way you like. Have fun!

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Credit: ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org)

When I saw the prompt my mind immediately went to an IMAX movie we saw at the Tampa Science Center titled “Hidden Universe”. The film centers around the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=gq59GeX-GGQ

ESO has the most technologically advanced telescopes. I chuckled when I saw how they named them. For such technology, the names Very Large Telescope (VLT), new Technology Telescope (NTT), and Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) seemed so low key for such power. Say what you mean must have been their motto.

Back to the film. I remember feeling so small, so insignificant when I watched it. For we humans who tend to be so full of ourselves, we are nothing in comparison to the astronomical number of stars, suns, moons, planets, solar systems, galaxies, back holes, etc.

The universe would not miss a beat if we went up in a puff of smoke. We should take a step back and think about that sometimes.

I cannot imagine the vastness one would experience when looking through such telescopes. I felt small…very small.

The number of requests for time slots to use these telescopes are astronomical in comparison to the amount of time available.

We would do well to curb our egos and take a cue from the ever changing universe.

Galaxy Centaurus A

Credit: ESO,ESA/Hubble, NASA. Digitized Sky Survey. Acknowledgement: Davide de Martin

Lagoon Nebula

Credit: ESO/VVV Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

Another journey I would recommend when you have an additional 29 minutes to spare is this one:

https://vimeo.com/planetarycollective/overview

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