Good day. Are we at the center of the universe?

In some communications with David S. F. Portree I read his tag line which made me think about our point of reference.
- LRK -

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DSFP homepage
http://members.aol.com/dsfportree/dsfp.htm

"D'you know like we were saying? About the Earth revolving? It's like when you're a kid, the first time they tell you that the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it - the turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, the entire planet is hurtling around the Sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me. Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go..."
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I remember when tracking Pioneer 12 (Pioneer Venus) that the round trip light time varied as the distance of Earth from Venus changed while both went around the Sun on there yearly travels.

When you looked at a computer that was continually updating the round trip light time you suddenly felt the Earth move in your mind's eye.

If you went out in the morning as the Sun was coming up in the East you might look up and suddenly see that the Moon was up as well. The next day at the same time, if you looked up, you would see the Moon had moved to the East about the width of a fist. Having noticed this you might continue your daily checking and you would notice that the Moon continued in its path, about a fist worth in distance each day. Something was moving.

You might observe that the Sun was coming up about a fist width in distance every fifteen minutes. Was it the Sun going around Earth, or was it that Earth was turning? You place a stick upright and mark the point of the shadow on the ground. Come back later and put a new mark on the ground. Do this a few times and you suddenly notice that something is moving. You feel it inside you. You KNOW there is something happening here and you want to know what is REALLY happening.

That argument got Galileo in trouble. You weren't supposed to feel the Earth turning under you or that it was going around the Sun.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/galileo/mistake.html

Where you stand as you look out can affect your judgment of what is real and true. Your eyes, inner ear, and stomach argue when riding in an elevator.
When you go to the Moon and look back at Earth or look at Earth as you come up from the far side of the Moon and see Earth, is it rising or are you in motion? If you stand on the Moon will Earth rise? Will the Sun rise?

The universe will not seem the same as before. You have a different point of reference, and you see the view open up in front of you and open up in your minds eye as well.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo/

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http://wapi.isu.edu/Geo_Pgt/Mod06_Moon_a_b/mod6Part1.htm
GEOLOGY 422/522
The Moon - Part 1
by Scott Hughes
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Never will your thoughts about where we are in space have the same feel.

How will you enable people to FEEL that inner gut feeling of where we are as a speck in space?

On your way to the Moon, Mars or Beyond, what will it FEEL like when you look back at mother Earth?
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article872.html

Our emotions, that gut wrenching urge, is what gets us up off the couch.

We paint a picture, because we WANT to. We start a project, write a book, build a rocket, because of something inside us that drives us to go on, even when others around us say it CAN'T be done.

Now if you will just hold that "spark" in your hands and offer it to another and watch them light up we may find that there are many who will help us see and feel where we are in this vast universe.

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsltr.: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update

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http://moon.google.com/
Welcome to Google Moon

In honor of the first manned Moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969, we've added some NASA imagery to the Google Maps http://maps.google.com/ interface to help you pay your own visit to our celestial neighbor. Happy lunar surfing. More about Google Moon.
http://www.google.com/help/faq_moon.html

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A snip from one of David S. F. Portree's messages below.

David doesn't think there is any readily quantifiable reason for exploring space if you phrase it in purely economic terms.
- LRK -
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Snip

The U.S. and the current economy aren't likely to be around in a thousand years, yet that's the kind of time-frame we need to be thinking about when it comes to space exploration.

The real impact, the real value, of space exploration is to be found in the knowledge and ideas that come from it. The proper model for space exploration, if one feels the urge to look to the past for analogs, is Darwin and the Beagle. He studied finches on the Galapagos Islands and reshaped our world-view, moving us forward as a civilization.

Snip

David S. F. Portree
author & educator
dsfportree@aol.com
Flagstaff Arizona USA

DSFP homepage
http://members.aol.com/dsfportree/dsfp.htm

"D'you know like we were saying? About the Earth revolving? It's like when you're a kid, the first time they tell you that the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it - the turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, the entire planet is hurtling around the Sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me. Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go..."

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http://www.marsinstitute.info/rd/faculty/dportree/rtr/
Romance to Reality: moon & Mars plans
by David S. F. Portree

Snip
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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