Sometimes, human endeavors so perfectly capture how infinitesimally small we all are in the cosmic scheme of things, the irony becomes part of the process. So it is with this piece, our first in the Terra Ethica category. This time-lapse video, Alex Cherney’s award-winning video Ocean Sky, is the result of almost 1.5 years of work, 31 hours of taking images during six nights on Southern Ocean Coast in Australia. Ocean Sky won the overall winner prize at STARMUS astrophotography competition:
starmus.com/pages/en/winners-starmus-astro-photography-competition128.php
Imagine, for a moment, that any one of the billions of stars that appeared in Alex’s videos were part of a solar system like our own. Now, imagine someone like Alex, setting up equipment to take time-lapse images of the sky on their planet, in that solar system, and then marveling during playback at a sweet little star in the feathery mass of the Milky Way, around which circles a pale blue planet called “Earth”. Might that onlooker be, as Alex is, an ambassador for all that is right with the evolution of intelligent life? Might their kind be struggling, too, with stewardship of their fragile little planet? We wish them well.
Thanks so much, Alex!! What a beautiful planet we live on!
For more information about Alex’s work, visit his website, Terrastro.