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“In the Shadow of Saturn” - a photograph of the dark side of Saturn, as the planet eclipses the sun. The pale 4-pixel dot in the left-middle of the image (you need to zoom in to see it) is us, the Earth. Stunning. This was on APOD back in ‘06, but I saw it for the first time today at a talk by Niel deGrasse Tyson at UW. The lecture was titled ”Musings of an Astrophysicist”, and apart from a few sporadic factoids wasn’t necessarily focused on academic aspects of astrophysics or science, but was rather a commentary by Tyson on various interesting subjects like life on Mars, black holes, Pluto, asteroids, the Big Bang, doomsday, astronomical naming rights, the ‘nobility’ of gases, the LHC, science illiteracy in modern society, the role of education etc. The lecture was brilliantly delivered and spawned a real sense of wonder and cosmic perspective. Awesome and humbling. I particularly enjoyed the conclusion, where Tyson requested the lights be dimmed, and concluded his narration, as images from the Hubble were projected on the screen. Very planetarium like. (Fitting, since Tyson directs the Hayden Planetarium in NY) The talk was fun and engaging and I’m glad that I was able to attend. Dr. Tyson is a wonderful speaker, entertaining, eloquent and genuinely passionate about what he does. Science really needs more people like him. (Image: NASA APOD) Zoom

“In the Shadow of Saturn” - a photograph of the dark side of Saturn, as the planet eclipses the sun. The pale 4-pixel dot in the left-middle of the image (you need to zoom in to see it) is us, the Earth. Stunning.


This was on APOD back in ‘06, but I saw it for the first time today at a talk by Niel deGrasse Tyson at UW. The lecture was titled ”Musings of an Astrophysicist”, and apart from a few sporadic factoids wasn’t necessarily focused on academic aspects of astrophysics or science, but was rather a commentary by Tyson on various interesting subjects like life on Mars, black holes, Pluto, asteroids, the Big Bang, doomsday, astronomical naming rights, the ‘nobility’ of gases, the LHC, science illiteracy in modern society, the role of education etc. The lecture was brilliantly delivered and spawned a real sense of wonder and cosmic perspective. Awesome and humbling.


I particularly enjoyed the conclusion, where Tyson requested the lights be dimmed, and concluded his narration, as images from the Hubble were projected on the screen. Very planetarium like. (Fitting, since Tyson directs the Hayden Planetarium in NY)


The talk was fun and engaging and I’m glad that I was able to attend. Dr. Tyson is a wonderful speaker, entertaining, eloquent and genuinely passionate about what he does. Science really needs more people like him.



(Image: NASA APOD)


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