I can’t see a lot of stars from my house; the light pollution of New York City obscures all but the brightest ones. Whenever I leave the city, I spend a lot of time looking up at the night sky, marveling at the continued existence of the cosmos and earth’s place in it. Visit individual stars within constellations with the click of a mouse. It’s a far cry from gazing through an actual telescope, but for those of us at a remove from the “vault of heaven,” it’s one way to connect. I’ll listen to the old Nada Surf album, “The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy.” The irresistible videos explaining red dwarfs, black holes and neutron stars by the German animation studio Kurzgesagt will take up the better part of an afternoon.

Source: New York Times October 16, 2020 19:52 UTC