Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey (Television documentary) 3/9/2014

[notorious bum]

Orgasmic special effects paired with a host that oozes swagger is just not enough to keep the attentions of our ADD-ridden society, I guess lol

I bet learnin stuff for 1hr is too much for some people to tolerate, even if most of it is grade-school science.

[Vaspinne]

I'm an episode behind. I do enjoy the show, I just ain't got time for it.

[Waraji]

Was that Patrick Stewart voice acting for William Herschel?

The “Heroes of Science” animated segment of “Cosmos” will examine the work of the pioneering astronomer William Herschel, voiced by Patrick Stewart. Herschel discovered Uranus and was the first to understand that the night sky is full of “ghosts” because by the time the light from a distant star reaches Earth, that star is “already dead.”

:D It was!

I'm also quite aware of most of the topics they cover in each show, save for the specifics on actual scientists other than the most widely known. But I am very entertained by the presentation. I remember getting goosebumps on episode 1 when they pan the camera inside the eye of the storm on Jupiter. I thought that was very well done.

[Sho]

I won't sit here and lie. I learn a lot of new Cosmological things (history and otherwise) watching this show. As a man who knows very little about space outside of what I binge read on Wikipedia, I must say it is a very well done presentation of facts done in layman's terms.

It has been giving me even more feels because this is the stuff that Woozie loved to muse on about for years now. Now I have a visual representation of just how big the universe actually is, and how small and insignificant we all are.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is my hero.

[archibaldcrane]

The hyper-earnest "WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE" tone from the first episode was pretty jarring for me and made me feel like I was watching an exhibit at a museum or something, but now that they're doing each episode on a particular topic it's more focused and less...elementary? I really enjoy how they show how historical astronomers first came upon ideas, and then show how they were proven. I feel like Darwin could've been repped a little harder in the evolution episode but meh.

[Rhinox]

You really want those 10 posts don't you?

[BerenTebogo]

Last scene made me tear up something fierce. Damn you, Neil. Right in the feels.

[Viq]

When Neil deGrasse Tyson started playing Minuet in G Major I was like, "That's it. This show now contains all of my favorite things."

[quannum]

The absorption spectroscopy part looked pretty convoluted, i don't imagine that people were able to follow the process.

[Correction]

I think I understood it, but I'm sure our resident astrophysicists would want to go into it with more detail, yadda yadda

[notorious bum]

Those who are watching this show regularly should get it, but it was a bit rushed. You just have to remind yourself that this isn't a science class telecourse lol They are doing a pretty good job tip-toeing the line between lecture, entertainment, and trying to reignite curiosity.

[Waraji]

I enjoyed the spectroscopy explanation very much, had totally forgotten most of that since I first learned it way back when. I actually learned the electrons path as wavy and not just a straight line around the proton while phasing, didn't know that before.

lol NDT getting so damn emotional is making me laugh every time, but I can dig his excitement.

[notorious bum]

Yeah, the electron stuff was awesome, never seen it visualized and described that way. I was a huge science nerd, but I failed to grasp the electron concept in HS lol

To misquote* a wise bald man, to describe Cosmos: "It's like real life, but with better graphics!"

[Skidz]

Had no idea that the electrons just 'jump' to a new orbit randomly. Actually, I'm still not sure if I understand that correctly. Oh, after last weeks episode when he mentions how when we look at distant stars and galaxies, we're actually looking back in time, my little sister said that must be why aliens don't visit us, because when they look at us all they see are cavemen... Thats never even occurred to me.

[Daydreamer]

The absorption spectroscopy part looked pretty convoluted, i don't imagine that people were able to follow the process.

We JUST went over this in Chemistry. I'm not really sure if there's an easier way to explain it than he did. My mind was completely blown though when he mentioned using that technique to figure out what stars are made of. That jump never occurred to me. Definitely blew my mind.

[Waraji]

I remembered that concept from back when Keplar was still a thing, remember reading a lot about its operations. Can't say I ever covered it in any physics/chemistry class I ever took, unfortunately.

[Day]

I LOVED that last episode. So much stuff I didn't really know about. The spectroscopy thing was so cool. I don't remember learning about that in school, simply mind blowing we can tell whats in the atmosphere of other planets with that information.

[archibaldcrane]

Quantum mechanics manifesting in a way that can be observed with a simple prism and magnifying glass is the coolest shit ever. There's an exhibit at the Griffith Observatory in LA that shows the light "signatures" of different stars and galaxies. I recommend the observatory to anyone visiting LA.

[Aragon of Odin]

The show is incredible so far, and has been a complete information overload lol

Will have to go back and re-watch each episode a couple of times, and I'm sure each time I do I'll catch something new as well.

My favorite part so far would have to be where he de-bunks Christianity and the idea that our world is only 6k years old with the explanation of light travel, and how if our world was only that old we would only be able to see a tiny iota of our observable universe.

[Kaslo]

The show is incredible so far, and has been a complete information overload lol

Will have to go back and re-watch each episode a couple of times, and I'm sure each time I do I'll catch something new as well.

My favorite part so far would have to be where he de-bunks Christianity and the idea that our world is only 6k years old with the explanation of light travel, and how if our world was only that old we would only be able to see a tiny iota of our observable universe.

But maybe god made the universe so we could see much more? I mean we weren't there to observe it right?