Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Epiphany: In Space There Is No Sideways

Earthrise, Apollo 8
December 29, 1968

From Great Images in NASA:
"This view of the rising Earth greeted the Apollo 8 astronauts as they came from behind the Moon.... The photo is displayed here in its original orientation...."

I love stuff that knocks me sideways (gently)--like this reminder that "up and down" are strictly local concepts, serving our specific biology.
It helps me somersault more lightly through inner space.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome photo. God, the beauty, of the photo, of the reality, of the possibilities

Anonymous said...

MMMM....ethereal beauty...living "down under" taught me many things, among them how arbitrary and one-sided history and geography can be, depending on who is doing the story-telling and/or the mapping/imaging. And, it took me a few years' living there to realize why there was something about the moon that I had found unsettling... we see it from a different perspective in the southern hemisphere. I remember trying to explain this to Avra, who was only two at the time, outside on the dirt road in front of our little house, with a rubber ball and an Aussie penny... that if we ever got to the other side of the equator, the face on the moon would look different. Of course, I was so excited and felt sorta dumb when I understood how long it'd taken me to figure it out and how I had to reassure myself with my improvised space schema. I have also been so fortunate to see the auroras borealis and australis from our Home.

Happy to be Here and Enjoying your BlogWonderments!

Stefalala

Fresca said...

I love the upside-down perspective you bring to my blog, Stef! Thanks!

Marz said...

Makes me go hmmmm. Fascinating.

Fresca said...

It's kind of like messing with gender pronouns--shakes up the brain, eh?