View Single Post
  #15  
Old May 10th 13, 01:23 PM posted to uk.sci.astronomy,uk.media.tv.misc
oriel36[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 8,478
Default The Sky at Night since Patrick's death

On May 9, 8:38*pm, James Harris wrote:

Someone commented on this thread about the target audience being those
who have no interest in astronomy and that seems remarkably apt. At
the moment I feel they are trying too hard to make The Sky at Night
interesting to the masses and ending up making it boring to everyone.

James


What makes it boring for everyone is that the vital interpretative
element of astronomy was squeezed out centuries ago leaving what is
essentially a magnification exercise on one side and a speculative
modeling mess on the other.Kepler had identified 3 areas of astronomy
even before telescopes emerged as a new tool -

"To set down in books the apparent paths of the planets and the record
of their motions is especially the task of the practical and
mechanical part of astronomy; to discover their true and genuine path
is . . .the task of interpretative astronomy; while to say by what
circle and lines correct images of those true motions may be depicted
on paper is the concern of the inferior tribunal of geometers" Kepler

The reason astronomy is now boring for everyone would be best
presented as a documentary outlining what exactly went wrong and for
what reasons ,of course people do not like to hear ugly words like
scam and fraud but unfortunately that constitutes the bulk of what
passes itself off as astronomy today where the celestial arena has
turned into a dumping ground for mathematicians and their speculative
nonsense.I firmly believe that once responsible people start to see a
picture emerge that they will want to know more and particularly why
Isaac Newton's clockwork solar system established a section of the
mathematical community to chant voodoo at the celestial arena and pass
it off as explanations.

Sometimes the wider community does catch glimpses of the voodoo and
the pretense from which it springs -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nptDP35Tb0

A documentary full of technical and historical details understandable
to the wider public is feasible and will they get a shock as to what
is driving these scientific modeling disasters which began in
astronomy and has now spread to everything else.