2006-04-28

The Space Race is Over

My son and I stand beneath the great night sky
And gaze up in wonder
I tell him the tale of Apollo and he says
"Why did they ever go?"
It may look like some empty gesture
To go all that way just to come back
But don't offer me a place out in cyberspace
Cos where in the hell's that at?
From The Space Race Is Over by Billy Bragg.

Sometimes, just sometimes, when I've not been out for a good observing session for a while (thanks to weather and other things), I start feeling a little like that about maintaining an astronomy weblog.

File Under: Astronomy, Armchair Astronomy, Blogging, Billy Bragg.

2 comments:

Ian Musgrave said...

Billy Bragg can always be counted on for a good thoughtful song. But even if you are clouded out for days on end (like I am too) there are still lots of space telescopes picking up amazing things (like the breakeup of 73P, I still haven't seen this comet with my own eyes), that you can enthuse over or share.

Dave Pearson said...

While that's true enough, the bit that really resonated with me the other day was the fact that, no matter how much enjoyment there is to be had out of the images and information there is online it's still no substitute for being out there and doing it for yourself.

When weather and free time don't coincide for ages it gets quite frustrating.