Astronomy 365

Astronomy 365 Days: The Best of the Astronomy Picture of the Day Website  by Jerry T Bonnell and Robert J. Neimiroff

2006

Weight: 4.4 lbs

Method of Disposal: Selling

In a time when “space junk” is a widely used term and  said junk is falling from the sky frequently, I thought I would put this beautiful astronomy book out there to remind people of the natural beauty of space—the hardly tampered with or never tampered with parts.  It is starting to seem like every time you turn on the news a satellite or failed probe is descending ominously on earth. According to the LA Times,  we have had 3 large items come down in the last 4 months and “three or four times a year, witnesses on the ground see debris fall — and if the researchers are very lucky, they'll get an email letting them know. If the item has come from an Air Force launch, the military picks it up and brings it back to El Segundo” (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-space-junk-20120122,0,819657.story)

In this book you see Saturn’s rings and moons, Andromeda’s Core,  star clouds, comets.  I wish I could spend my time in these pages.  Daydreaming and wandering.  Wishing there was some safe, easy, inexpensive way for me to float from planet to planet in a timely manner and beat the crowds.  Alas, it is time for me to go to work. 

OWL: Overwhelmingly Large Telescope, Earthgrazers, and Omega Centauri

Oxford Astronomy Encyclopedia: An A-Z Guide to the Universe
General Editor: Sir Patrick Moore
2002
Weight: 3 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donation




This book is chock-full of definitions that enthrall me and entertain me each time I open it, but I will inevitably forget all of them by the end of the week. My brain just does not seem to retain any information that hints at the inclusion of numbers and formulas. I think this is part of what my fascination with astronomy is about. I cannot understand it, and there are so many questions that will have to go unanswered. I don’t even know that I can ask them. Perhaps some theories will supplement not knowing but, luckily, they will not replace my confusion with definitive answers. It is something I can get lost in when I am not looking for a way out.

Just please do not ask me any questions on the topic. I have no answers. I just like to believe that the false colors they put into the photographs of galaxies and planet compositions are really out there somewhere and that sometime, when I finally lose my mind, I will believe I am out there swimming in it, unscathed by heat, lack of oxygen, or time. There is very little more comforting than the obscurity of the Universe.