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Already before the recent increase in Satellite constellations, many satellites were visible in the night sky on any given night. This image is composed of 300 short 13-second exposures taken within 70 minutes from Waldenburg, Germany, on the night of the Perseids meteor shower 12 August 2018 from 00:57–02:07 CEST. The image has a field of view of 84°x62°. Most of the dozen of lines are made by satellites reflecting the sunlight from the Sun below the horizon. Caption from the International Astronomical Union; photo source, Eckhard Slawik... |
Coruscant, the planet that was all city in Star Wars had a really congested sky and not just from orbiting satellites. Lucasfilm, Ltd, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace... |
About six months ago my department chair, Kelly Krieble, mentioned the movie, Cosmos (2019), in an email. He said the first half was a little slow, but the second half of the film got better. S-l-o-w may not be the correct adjective; “glacially slow” might be better. Okay, that might be too harsh a criticism. I simply have difficulty getting into British drama because of the generally sluggish pace, but indeed the second half was much better as Kelly predicted. The film is about three PhDs that go out into the countryside to work on their “hobby” astronomy project. They are in search of the big discovery, ET, but there is conflict in the chilled British night air. One of the characters, Roy Kennedy (Arjun Singh Panam), after designing a state-of-the-art satellite called Goodman was fired after his tech company was bought by Astraeus Space Technology. Roy was replaced by the computer expert of this ET search, Mike Webster (Tom England). You might have thought that under these circumstances, they would have brought their guns to the O.K. Corral and duked it out, but in typical British fashion, Mike was never told about whom he had replaced. They are both pretty nerdy about the whole situation, and the conflict clumsily simmers throughout the first hour of the 128-minute film. • Interestingly, most of the film takes place in the cramped quarters of a hatchback station wagon where all of the computer equipment is housed. The astrophysicist in the front seat, Harry Night (Joshua Ford), seems to be the go-between, awkwardly trying to bring Roy and Mike to some type of resolution to restore the friendship and the camaraderie of their red-hat team called the Astronomy-Nuts. It was during this “high stakes” portion of the film that I dosed the first time I watched Cosmos (Yes, for this article, I saw it twice). • The second half of the feature moves at a much quicker pace. All visual and auditory sensors were on board as the trio made their great discovery and heroically attempted to bring the news to the known world. This is despite a host of pacing problems which were particularly annoying during the second viewing. • So why am I hyping a film that on the four-star rating system might just be warranted one and one half of them? It is because Cosmos had a budget of zero dollars. That’s right, nada, nix; no money was spent in making this film, according to its codirecting/producing/script-writing/film-editing brothers, Elliot and Zander Weaver. They had a big budget production in mind, but they couldn’t get the funding. They were told by their prospective investors to get cracking, to make a movie to prove themselves, and that is exactly what they did for the next five years with friends and family. Cosmos was the result. That is what made me watch it twice. • Cosmos does have a number of good qualities going for it. It certainly had the feel of a big budget production. The acting was adequate, the sound was good, the music by Chris Davey was sensational, and the nighttime lighting was well thought out. Keep in mind that the entire film takes place in the dark over just one night, but the viewer still needs the ability to see. Also, the computer equipment and other gear used in the production appeared accurate enough to win the day. The astronomy content was also accurate enough. If somehow the storyline was improved, the tension during the first half of the film escalated, and the pace quickened, I believe Cosmos would have had a much better chance of gaining success. Still in all, you have got to admire the Weaver brothers and friends for taking on what appeared to me an impossible challenge. In the truest sense, they were Making Love Out of Nothing at All. Watch these Cosmos clips in the order presented here to get the most from this feature film which is also included. Ad Astra!
COSMOS, you may just want to watch this feature film. The link and my review are above, but view the trailer and featurette first. Images from Elliander Pictures... |
If you don't believe the Earth is warming, then perhap this graph will help convince you. Wikipedia... |