Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  Extremely wide field
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Open your eyes, under velvet skies, Tom Gray
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Open your eyes, under velvet skies

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Open your eyes, under velvet skies, Tom Gray
Powered byPixInsight

Open your eyes, under velvet skies

Acquisition type: Lucky imaging

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Description

Taken last March, a reminder of dark skies, as we approach the summer solstice.

In these dark times - a pandemic of coronavirus, racism and violent protest - we reflect on hope, on better, brighter days to come. The universe is a curious mixture of extremes, violent encounters, impossible distances, yet long term, seemingly peaceful co-existence.

Our perspective varies, depending on our focus, but we do well to remember that we are all in it together, on our little blue dot, our spaceship... or life raft ... awaiting rescue... largely from ourselves.

As Carl Sagan reminded us, commenting on that iconic image of earth taken by Voyager 1 at 4 billion miles, we need to open our eyes, and "look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us... a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

What about the mote in our own eye? Carl Sagan finishes the opening chapter of his book 'pale blue dot: a vision of the human future in space', "there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world... it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever know."

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