Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that is the study of celestial objects (such as moons, planets, stars, nebulae, and galaxies), the physics, chemistry, mathematics, and evolution of such objects, and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth, including supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, and cosmic background radiation. A related but distinct subject, cosmology, is concerned with studying the universe as a whole.

Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. Prehistoric cultures left behind astronomical artifacts such as the Egyptian monuments and Nubian monuments, and early civilizations such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Chinese, Indians, Iranians and Maya performed methodical observations of the night sky. However, the invention of the telescope was required before astronomy was able to develop into a modern science. Historically, astronomy has included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, and the making of calendars, but professional astronomy is nowadays often considered to be synonymous with astrophysics.

During the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects, which is then analyzed using basic principles of physics. Theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain the observational results and observations being used to confirm theoretical results.

Amateur astronomers have contributed to many important astronomical discoveries, and astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can still play an active role, especially in the discovery and observation of transient phenomena.

Astronomy is not to be confused with astrology, the belief system which claims that human affairs are correlated with the positions of celestial objects. Although the two fields share a common origin they are now entirely distinct.

Astronomy: Songs and Music

"Astronomy" is a rock song by Blue Öyster Cult that has appeared on several of the band's albums. It was first published on their 1974 album Secret Treaties. Their second live album, Some Enchanted Evening, included a version with an extended guitar solo and a third version was included on the Imaginos album. It was also re-recorded for the band's Cult Classic collection in connection with the TV miniseries of Stephen King's The Stand. Most recently the song was included on the A Long Day's Night album.

Blue Oyster Cult – Astronomy lyrics

Clock strikes twelve and moondrops burst

Out at you from their hiding place

Like acid and oil on a madman's face

His reason tends to fly away

Like lesser birds on the four winds

Like silver scrapes in may

And now the sand's become a crust

Most of you have gone away

Come susie dear, let's take a walk

Just out there upon the beach

I know you'll soon be married

And you'll want to know where winds come from

Well it's never said at all

On the map that carrie reads

Behind the clock back there you know

At the four winds bar

Hey! hey! hey! hey!

Four winds at the four winds bar

Two doors locked and windows barred

One door to let to take you in

The other one just mirrors it

Hey! hey! hey! hey!

Hellish glare and inference

The other one's a duplicate

The queenly flux, eternal light

Or the light that never warms

Yes the light that never, never warms

Or the light that never

Never warms

Never warms

Never warms

The clock strikes twelve and moondrops burst

Out at you from their hiding place

Miss carrie nurse and susie dear

Would find themselves at four winds bar

It's the nexus of the crisis

And the origin of storms

Just the place to hopelessly

Encounter time and then came me

Hey!hey! hey! hey!

Call me desdinova

Eternal light

These gravely digs of mine

Will surely prove a sight

And don't forget my dog

Fixed and consequent

Astronomy...a star

Vangelis - Cosmos

Cosmos is a collection of space music from the early Vangelis CDs of the '70s.

Heaven and Hell, released in 1975, is the fifth solo album by Greek electronic composer Vangelis. It got worldwide recognition through the use of "Movement 3" as the theme for the television documentary series Cosmos. Heaven and Hell was the first album Vangelis composed and recorded in his new Nemo Studios in London, the studio he used between 1975 and 1987.

The album has classical overtones, in contrast with the progressive rock on both the previous and the following albums, Earth (1973) and Albedo 0.39 (1976) respectively. Vangelis would return to classical style work ten years later, on Mask (1985).Vangelis dabbles with choral sections joined with his now typical electronic washes of sound, a concept he would return to in the nineties with his Conquest of Paradise and Mythodea. By now, Vangelis had left behind his electronic-progressive-rock forays. In fact, this album constitutes the first album where Vangelis establishes himself as one of the main figures in the growing musical genre of electronic instrumental and new age, creating a web of sound linking several simultaneous beats and melodic lines of different timbres on his synthesizers.

This album also marked the first collaboration between Vangelis and Jon Anderson, on "So Long Ago, So Clear", which would continue more fully a few years later.

The Galaxy Song - Learn some astronomy

Monty Python's Galaxy Song, from the film: The Meaning of Life, with lyrics and relevant illustrations.