The First Starship

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This is a poem written by Stuart Atkinson to commemorate and celebrate the Sept 12, 2013 announcement that Voyager 1 had entered interstellar space.

The First Starship

The music you hear is “Long Road Ahead” by the awesome Kevin MacLeod. If you need music to go with your video or podcast, look at Kevin’s site http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/

He has a ‘search by feel’ feature which really helps me out when I’m looking for a certain kind of mood-setting music for my videos.

—–

The First Starship

I needed no nacelles to push me onwards;
No dilithium crystals crackled in my heart.
Yet I have left Sol so far behind me she is
Just a star now, a golden spark in a salt grain sea,
And I can feel her gentle breath on my cheek
No more.

In my ears now the whalesong of the universe
Drowns out the sounds of distant, troubled Earth.
Oh, the blissful peace!
Out here all I can hear
Is the fabled music of the spheres.
Each trembling tone rolling under me,
Every mellow note washing over me
Was sung somewhere Out There.
Melodies ripped from ravenous black holes’ throats,
Screamed from the broken hearts of dying stars
Swirl around me, multi-wavelength whispers
In the dark and endless night.

My head is full of memories…
Skimming Titan’s marmalade-haze atmosphere;
My first sight of Jove’s great bloodshot eye,
Staring back at me, into me, as I flew by;
Earth as Pale Blue Dot, a Sagan sequin
Dancing in a sunbeam…

Ahead now — the solar system’s Barrier Reef.
Terra will whip around Sol 300 times before
I reach the Oort’s icy inner harbour wall
And tens of thousands of times more before
I finally leave port, sailing on in serene silence
For forty millennia more before I venture anywhere
Near another star…

And in ten million years, when Earth’s proud citadels
And cities have crumbled and whatever evolves
In their dust to take Mankind’s place
Stares out into space with curious, alien eyes,
I will still be flying through the stars.
Your legacy. Proof that once you dared to dream
Noble, Camelot dreams
And reached out, through me, to explore eternity.

(c) Stuart Atkinson Sept 13th 2013

Poor Pane Andov

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Pane Andov doesn’t like it when we talk about how bad his ideas are over at 2012hoax.org.  In fact, he’s sent an email demand that we remove the page on him because it ‘blacks his name’.

Well, Pane, we’re happy that you have read the page on you.  I’ll make you the same offer that I make to everybody: If there is something that is factually incorrect on the page discussing your ideas, please demonstrate that it is incorrect, and I will fix it.  What I will not do is take the page down over a hollow and empty threat that you are going to have your lawyers contact the FBI.

 

 

Really pretty view of Orion this morning

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As I was walking out of the house this morning, I happened to see a really pretty view of Orion and Canis Major in the South. Orion was near zenith, and Sirius was burning brightly just below and to the left. Off in the East Venus was peeking through the trees. I wished I had the scope set up and about 1/2 an hour of time to take it in, but I had to get to work.