A little bit about this and that.
Wow.
This is a Youtube video taken from a space shuttle's boosters during launch and their subsequant descent into the ocean. Incredible.
When I was a little kid in school, the Space Shuttle was shiny and new, and promised all sorts of good stuff. The Challenger disaster happened when I was in primary school, and I can still clearly picture the televised explosion and the worldwide sense of shock and grief.
It was thanks to my dad that I gained my initial interest in astronomy and astrophysics. He bought me astronomy books as soon as I was old enough to read, and would take us up to the hills with his friends to peer through telescopes and take long-exposure photos of stars. I've long since lost the photo of Halley's comet that we took, but the act of taking it (around the same time as the Challenger disaster) introduced me to another of my main interests: photography.
Dad is also the guy responsible for my interests in a range of sciences. On a three week trip across the Nullarbor to the Snowy Mountains at age 7, he showed me fossils in the rocks that lined the truck-stops we camped at, in the middle of the Australia outback. When we returned home, he gave me books about dinosaurs for my birthday and Christmas presents. Sometime around then he bought me a microscope, with slides and cover slips, and introduced me to the amazing world of microbiology.
It's a bit strange that with all of this scientific influence in my life, I ended up being a sound engineer. I don't think it's a bad thing. My interests are so broad that I'd hate to choose just one to dedicate my professional life to. So I have them all still, to pursue in my personal time and at my leisure.
There was a time when I very nearly became a physicist. I had had an interview with the dean of physics at a university here in Perth, and had enrolled as a mature-aged student (22 years old - sooo mature!) but after successfully auditioning for a prestigious audio production course (250 applicants, 10 accepted, 3 graduated) I flipped a coin, and chose my career path according to the whim of the universe.
It's been pretty good so far.
But back to the Space Shuttle. Isn't it incredible that we can even receive such images, let alone send things like that into space. People take so much technology for granted. If you haven't watched that video, have a look now.
This is a Youtube video taken from a space shuttle's boosters during launch and their subsequant descent into the ocean. Incredible.
When I was a little kid in school, the Space Shuttle was shiny and new, and promised all sorts of good stuff. The Challenger disaster happened when I was in primary school, and I can still clearly picture the televised explosion and the worldwide sense of shock and grief.
It was thanks to my dad that I gained my initial interest in astronomy and astrophysics. He bought me astronomy books as soon as I was old enough to read, and would take us up to the hills with his friends to peer through telescopes and take long-exposure photos of stars. I've long since lost the photo of Halley's comet that we took, but the act of taking it (around the same time as the Challenger disaster) introduced me to another of my main interests: photography.
Dad is also the guy responsible for my interests in a range of sciences. On a three week trip across the Nullarbor to the Snowy Mountains at age 7, he showed me fossils in the rocks that lined the truck-stops we camped at, in the middle of the Australia outback. When we returned home, he gave me books about dinosaurs for my birthday and Christmas presents. Sometime around then he bought me a microscope, with slides and cover slips, and introduced me to the amazing world of microbiology.
It's a bit strange that with all of this scientific influence in my life, I ended up being a sound engineer. I don't think it's a bad thing. My interests are so broad that I'd hate to choose just one to dedicate my professional life to. So I have them all still, to pursue in my personal time and at my leisure.
There was a time when I very nearly became a physicist. I had had an interview with the dean of physics at a university here in Perth, and had enrolled as a mature-aged student (22 years old - sooo mature!) but after successfully auditioning for a prestigious audio production course (250 applicants, 10 accepted, 3 graduated) I flipped a coin, and chose my career path according to the whim of the universe.
It's been pretty good so far.
But back to the Space Shuttle. Isn't it incredible that we can even receive such images, let alone send things like that into space. People take so much technology for granted. If you haven't watched that video, have a look now.