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aspartame
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16 Nov 2009, 1:51 am

Tonight I was reading about Voyager I, which is now more than 10 billion miles from Earth.

I found this photo, called Pale Blue Dot. Though it was taken in 1990, I'd never seen it before. The infinitesimal whitish speck located approximately halfway up the brown band on the right is the Earth.

Looking at this image gives me an incredibly unpleasant feeling. I'm not sure quite how to articulate it; it's akin to horrible vertigo, I think. Contemplating the vast expanse between here and there makes my brain feel like it's quivering, I guess.

Anyone else dislike the feeling evoked by the photo?



wigglyspider
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16 Nov 2009, 3:25 am

I sort of get the opposite, I think.
Haha, sorry..;;
But it's like.. wow! Look how far away we got. That's so cool. Think of what might be out there.


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outlier
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16 Nov 2009, 5:08 am

Not from this particular photo, but I occasionally have when viewing space photos such as this projected onto a screen.



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16 Nov 2009, 5:49 am

This photo not so much but this thought does. Since I don't live on the North Pole, my position on Earth is not "up" in relation to the galaxy, even though my mind reads it that way. When I think about how when I look at the night sky I am really looking out to the side and not up I get this sensation of vertigo.


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16 Nov 2009, 5:56 am

That photo has a bit too much noise in it to evoke much in me. But yes, I kinda get an overwhelming feeling when I see space in movies on a largish screen. 2001 A Space Odyssey is a good example, though maybe the accompanying soundtrack in some of the movie's scenes contributed to the feeling. It's the infinite open space and my mind comprehending it all.



leejosepho
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16 Nov 2009, 5:57 am

Aimless wrote:
When I think about how when I look at the night sky I am really looking out to the side and not up I get this sensation of vertigo.


Yeah, me too ... and I was fine until just now when I read that ...


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Aimless
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16 Nov 2009, 6:08 am

leejosepho wrote:
Aimless wrote:
When I think about how when I look at the night sky I am really looking out to the side and not up I get this sensation of vertigo.


Yeah, me too ... and I was fine until just now when I read that ...


:lol: I think about odd things.


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aspartame
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16 Nov 2009, 12:36 pm

Quote:
That photo has a bit too much noise in it to evoke much in me.


I think that's exactly what I find so disturbing about it. Had I just seen the photo without reading the description, I'd probably be inclined to think that it was the result of photographer error or something. That is, the image simply doesn't look like much of anything at all. However, it's actually an image of...the human everything. Carl Sagan said, "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives."

On some inward level, I find it unpleasant and rather disconcerting that the Earth can be captured in a photograph that looks like nothing but noise. I spoke with a friend about it last night and said that looking at it made me feel "estranged from myself".