That is truly profound, Kurt, and I would extend the idea about the astrophotography to photography in general. It helps train the eye because the eye is actually an external part of the mind, with the nerves tying directly into the brain. -- Joe ________________________________ From: Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> To: Utah Astronomy List Serv <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tue, May 11, 2010 6:13:41 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] why photography? "To collect photographs is to collect the world. . . . Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood." - Susan Sontag, On Photography. - Kurt P.S. - Astrophotography is a way to extend the senses (in magnitude depth and by spectral frequency) - as the telescope itself does - and to fix the image seen the eyepiece. Much detail can be missed with the eye at the eyepiece, which with a photographic record, can be revisted. By engaging in the discipline and play of taking one's own photographs - which do repeat what professionals have done better - it forces a focused experience and increases one's connection to the object. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com