Universe Insights and Cosmic Delights
Jerry Gerber on his art of astrophotography and the inspiration he takes from The Urantia Book
Imagination is the essential tool of my work as a creative musician. While many astrophotographers come to the craft from a science background, I came to astrophotography with decades of experience in music composition and recording and more from an artistic/philosophical perspective.
If there is any influence outside of music that has helped to set my imagination on fire it is no doubt The Urantia Book. Though the sizes, ages and distances to nebulae, galaxies and star clusters are so huge that it's almost impossible for the human mind to grasp, the ideas presented in the UB regarding conscious, intelligent life in the universe makes imaging deep space objects even more fascinating to me.
The UB says that that there are about one trillion worlds that are either inhabited or inhabitable in our galaxy alone**. Astronomers have at present confirmed the existence of at least 5,000 worlds orbiting stars beyond our own solar system. The current astronomical estimate as to the number of planets in our own Milky Way galaxy is between 100-200 billion worlds. Not quite a trillion, but then again we cannot see the entire Milky Way as we are inside of it and much of it is obscured by dust.
In the 1920s the great debate in astronomy was whether the Milky Way is synonymous with the entire universe or whether the many "faint fuzzies" (nebulae) are in fact galaxies far distant from our own. The matter has long been settled, and current estimates are that there are between 200 billion and two trillion galaxies in the observable universe.
The UB speaks of physical, mindal and spiritual gravity. Physical gravity holds solar systems in place, mindal gravity is what pulls us toward living truth and spiritual gravity is what we experience as love. I've come to think that this "gravity of the soul" is what allows us to form lasting bonds in marriage, friendship, community, and eventually—hopefully—a planetary culture will emerge that recognizes the bond that unites all of us as sentient beings, as unique individuals embracing cosmic citizenship.
As the planet grows about 10% brighter every year due to light pollution, there are many people and organizations that recognize what we are losing by being unable to look up and see thousands of stars. Not only does light pollution affect astronomy and the sense of wonder that stargazing inspires, it also impacts the mating, gestation, hunting and migration habits of birds, insects and other animals.
We must find a way to use lighting responsibly. It's not that difficult: use the proper wattage and no more, turn on lights only when needed, aim lights downward or toward the direction that light is needed and use motion detectors to keep lights off when not needed. These remedies will go a long way to help us to preserve the beauty, wonder and mystery of the night sky that is our common heritage.
The images in Cosmic Delights (watch the video below) were taken with 100mm and 130mm refractor telescopes using a specialized astronomical camera designed to capture photons from deep space objects. Unlike terrestrial photography, astrophotography requires many complex procedures such as aligning the mount to the Earth's north pole, calibrating a guide camera that keeps the mount synchronized to the rotating Earth to within a fraction of an arc-second of error, and taking hundreds of exposures (subs) that must be integrated into a single image and then digitally processed as a normal photograph.
I composed and produced the music for this video in my electronic music studio in 2024. I hope you enjoy watching Cosmic Delights.
**Due to the nomenclature of the early 20th century when the UB was created, there is some confusion over whether Orvonton is synonymous with the Milky Way or whether Orvonton is a galactic cluster, known as the local group, which itself is part of the larger galactic supercluster known as the Virgo supercluster.
May, 2024
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