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RE: [APML] Private: What is Astrophotography
Glenn,
As always, an entertaining story, well spoken, and fun to read. Thanks,
Mindport
Jon A. Kolb
Senior Director, Product Development
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Glenn Shaw [mailto:gshaw@alaska.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 5:27 AM
> To: astro-photo@seds.org
> Subject: Re: [APML] Private: What is Astrophotography
>
>
> Dear List:
>
> In reply to all this discussion lately to "religion" as it pertains to
> "astrophotography" I have to tell you all my own experiences
> in the field.
>
> It was my good fortune to have studied astronomy in graduate
> school under Bart
> Bok who wrote the most famous of all books on our galaxy. Bok
> is student of
> Harlow Shapley, a famous left-leaning astronomer who
> "discovered" the galaxy by
> plotting distributions of globular clusters. I could tell
> stories about these
> experiences in graduate school forever. For just one small
> story, the guy who
> "hired me on" as a young grad student was Aden Meinel, who
> had previously
> directed the astronomy dept at University of Arizona. While I
> was in residence,
> Aden was busy builking the Air Force on the idea of starting
> an optical science
> center of excellence on the campus and indeed this came into
> fruition. Nowdays
> the Optical Science Center at University of Arizona has
> eclipsed the old famous
> optical center in this country centered at Rochester. Op Sci,
> as we call it, is
> the most famous center of optics now in the world.
>
> Being a young guy in the center of all this activity, I
> noticed a surprising
> degree of "tolerance" among these big muckedy yucks coming
> from everywhere in
> the world of astronomy to religion. Naturally all these clowns were
> self-proclaimed soft atheists, having said so to get
> disconnected from the
> nonthinking usualness we find among our population.
>
> But all the big astronomers, including Edwin Hubble and Bart
> Bok and Issac
> Newton and Galileo coulden't stop themselves on commenting on
> deepseated
> spiritual beliefs that welled to the surface when observing
> the heavens. Often,
> when they let themselves go, which was infrequent, they
> commented on the
> loneliness of the big, evidently more or less empty universe
> they were coming to
> discover.
>
> All these people I met, who were discovering planets,
> galaxies and big bang
> theories were good and decent people and I share with them,
> as do all the people
> on this list, a certain admiration and puzzelment and
> fascination for the
> beautiful small "signals in the sky" that we
> astrophotographers capture in our
> own individual ways.
>
> best regards,
>
> glenn shaw
>
> Bobby Middleton wrote:
>
> > Whooops!!
> > Sorry about the slip of the reply button guys. That's a
> private message of
> > course. Blame it on sleep deprevation; I got up at 3:30 the
> last 2 mornings
> > to shoot Mars.
> > Since it went public though I'd entertain all private
> replies to the 2
> > questions <g>
> > Bobby never check the address until after you hit the send
> button Middleton
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Bobby Middleton <bobm@koyote.com>
> >
> > > Shoot Jon, you sound pretty religious to me! <g>
> > > Seriously though, if you ever want to wade into the deep end of a
> > discussion
> > > about it just give me an e-mail.
> > > Ask yourself these questions:
> > > 1) What's the main motivation for an atheist? (hint: it's not the
> > > intellectual part)
> > > 2) Why doesn't God just make it easy on everybody and
> just show us He's
> > > real?
> > > Bobby Middleton
> > >
> > >
> > > From: Jon Kolb <jkolb@mindport.com>
> > > To: <astro-photo@seds.org>
> > > Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 10:34 PM
> > > Subject: RE: [APML] What is Astrophotography
> > >
> > >
> > > > Jerry, I'll bite,
> > > >
> > > > > Astrophotography is proof there is no god.
> > > >
> > > > That's certainly a provacative and bold comment, and I
> suspect that you
> > > > meant it to be so. As religion itself is clearly
> off-topic for this
> > list,
> > > > it would be easy to suggest what I'm about to ask
> off-list as well. But
> > I
> > > > also suspect that a lot of list members would like to
> know, as I do, how
> > > you
> > > > arrived at this assertion. Proof is a strong word, and
> implies a basis
> > in
> > > > fact - actually it demands a basis in fact. In scientific and
> > engineering
> > > > circles, where many on the list spend their days, a
> proof requires a few
> > > > things to, er, prove it, as it were. These are:
> > > >
> > > > 1) An hypothesis
> > > > 2) A sound methodology to provide evidence to support
> or disprove the
> > > > hypothesis
> > > > 3) Evidence, determined empirically, experimentally, or
> from previously
> > > > established theory
> > > > 4) A conclusion supported by the evidence, and
> consistent with the
> > > > hypothesis
> > > >
> > > > As an engineer, and not a particularly religious one at
> that, I'd be
> > > > fascinated to know how you support your claim, if it
> indeed it can be
> > > > supported. A good engineer is a curious, open-minded,
> and skeptical
> > > person,
> > > > so I hope you'll understand why I ask. If you think an
> off-list reply
> > is
> > > > called for, I'll understand.
> > > >
> > > > Sincerely,
> > > > Jon Kolb
> > > > Adventures in Astrophotography
> > > > http://home.datawest.net/jkolb/
> > > > jkolb@noochee.com
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > -- APML Archives at <http://www.system.missouri.edu/apml/> ---
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> > >
> >
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