Humans have accomplished some pretty amazing things, from putting men on the Moon (with old technology!) to sequencing their own heredity. But stubborn problems that look much easier persist.
Our photographer draws our attention to how differently the same objects appear in different light. It’s a lesson easily generalized.
Our astronomer ponders the state of the science in the middle of the last century, when things were so different and difficult.
Our astronomer points out that that pictures of outer space don’t actually show what you’d see if you went there.
Having mentioned the difficulty of finding the distances to stars last week, our astronomer tries to put some unfamiliar numbers within your grasp.
Our astronomer describes how an assumption widely made in his science in past years turned out to be completely erroneous.
Our photographic consultant is reminded how complicated things are for beginners, no matter how straightforward it all seems to the professionals.
Our astronomer offers an apology and an explanation.
As things go in the universe, the Moon is a small thing, insignificant compared to a distant star. Yet our astronomer found that it can have a definite influence on measures of the latter.
Our astronomer answers a question of interest to science-fiction writers.