viz.

Image Credit: NASA

With the recent passing of Neil Armstrong, the decommissioning of the space shuttles, and the release of the latest "deep field" image from the Hubble Space Telescope, the rhetoric of space imagery has been on my mind. Except for the occasional "why waste money on this?" argument, astronomical images find wide appreciation, appreciation which I certainly share. However, I also see a certain risk in the arguments made using space imagery that can be lost amidst the optimism and wonder.

(Video credit:  NASA, public domain)

Image Credit: Cassini's Carte de la Luna (Map of the Moon), 1679

Via Harry Ransom Center

Last Friday, I visited Other Worlds: Rare Astronomical Works, showing through January 3 at UT’s Harry Ransom Center. Although overshadowed, as it were, by the HRC’s Edgar Allan Poe exhibit From Out that Shadow, Other Worlds is a worthwhile destination in its own right. However, the creative energy invested in these often visually stunning artifacts from centuries past left me with questions about the current (non-)status of astronomy in the public imagination.

But first: let me explain why an Immensely Pleasurable half-hour can be had by stopping into this exhibit.