|
|
Science Meets Art...
There is art in science. Science is creative and inspiring. And it brings
out the poet in some of us. Keith Gottshchalk is the only poet invited to
this year's Sasol Scifest where his poetry performance will celebrate some of
the great astronomers and engineers. Here he gives us a sneak preview of 'First
Light' and tempts us to 'Ride the Rainbows'.
FIRST LIGHT
- praise poem of the Southern African LargeTelescope (SALT)
"At the mountain's top, I reach up,
I fill my haversack with stars."
- Tatmkhulu Afrika: Nightrider
when the sun sets
we stand in the falling light
stretch out our arms, cup our hands,
catch the falling drops.
Stobie & Marang cup our CCD,
save all falling photons,
deepening into a pool of light
whose surface reflects:
stretchmarks from the birth of time
hints of gravity's lenses
the pulse of stars
& mating dance of binary suns;
galaxies digitalized, a heaven
captured in butterfly nets of circuitry
red on the readout, disked for storage:
mysteries, solved & sensuous.
GLOSSARY
Dr. Bob Stobie - Director, South African Astronomical Observatories.
Freddie Marang - Night Assistant at SAAO, Sutherland.
stretchmarks... - Cosmic Background Radiation
pulse of stars - asteroseismology
mating dance ... - cataclysmic variables
RIDE THE RAINBOWS
Joseph von Fraunhofer 1787-1826
full moon thru silk of cloud
that too-faint moonbow:
sunshine sparkling thru raindrops
cascades of colours.
this Joseph discovered a new coat of many colours
a pot of gold at the end of every
rainbow:
a cache of data.
to reach the unreachable
needs only a prism of glass
or scratches on a pane.
von Fraunhofer recorded these talkative black lines
a celestial bar code
telling us readers:
your make-up?
if you're blowing hot or cold?
is your blood pressure high or low?
do you feel positive?
are you coming or going?
if you're still or all in a spin?
have you a magnetic personality?
- & more !
spectrums are a celestial semaphore
signalling answers, flagging the facts
our galactic information superhighway.
by Keith Gottschalk
Your 
to this article
|
