space – Christa Avampato

Happy 50th birthday to the moon landing! If you are anywhere near NYC before Sept 22nd, I highly recommend seeing The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York‘s exhibit Apollo’s Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography, a beautiful combo of science, art, & dreams.

Among my favorite pieces there:

Images from and of the refracting telescope at Lick Observatory (1870s and 1880s)
The first book entirely dedicated to the moon (from 1647)
Images from the lunar atlas created at the Lick Observatory (1897)
Venice by the light of the moon (a trick of photography by Carlo Naya – 1875)
A light-refracting telescope similar in technology to the one used by Galileo (1800)

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creativity

Joy Today: Opportunity

February 13, 2019February 14, 2019 Christa Avampato

51960747_10104789291263726_1676595936316358656_n Opportunity’s last words from Mars: “My battery is low & it’s getting dark.”
May we all have lives as rich with discovery and a final chapter as peaceful. We’re lucky to have known you, Opportunity, and to see this world through your eyes. Thank you for your service.

creativity

A Year of Yes: Be a Young Person’s Carl Sagan

January 7, 2018January 3, 2018 Christa Avampato

This week I was watching an episode of Cosmos, and Neil deGrasse Tyson told the story of how Carl Sagan invited him to Ithaca when Tyson was just 17 years old and growing up in the Bronx. Sagan encouraged him to pursue his passion in science. It was a pivotal moment in Tyson’s life, a moment he’s never forgotten.

That’s the power of mentorship, of caring about the future and the success of young people. Carl Sagan had plenty of other ways to spend his time. He chose to make time to help young people, to support their dreams and aspirations, to share his love for science.

Whatever your talents, I hope you’ll find a way to use them to help our youngest generations. They need us, and we need them.