Seeing in the Dark (2007)
Stargazing is the subject of Seeing in the Dark, a 60-minute, state-of-the-art, high-definition documentary written, produced and narrated by award-winning filmmaker, journalist and best-selling author Timothy Ferris. The program introduces viewers to the rewards of first person, hands-on astronomy. It is based on Ferris book, Seeing in the Dark (Simon & Schuster, 2002), named by The New York Times as one of the ten best books of the year
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Reviews
Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.
Brilliant and touching
Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
This is a Timothy Ferris film shown on PBS. Ferris talks about his early experiences with astronomy and because he was born on August 29, 1944, he is someone I can identify with. He is a mere 16 months older than I am. His film focuses on amateur stargazers and their telescopes. Ferris gets into the life of E.E. Barnard, a Nashville-born astronomer who photographed the Milky Way. It was the Horsehead Nebula which convinced Barnard that the dark regions in the Milky Way were gas and dust. Exoplanets were the rage by 2007, and Ferris talks about them and the means by which they are detected. As much as I enjoy astronomy, I realize that it takes us out of a world in which we have to function.