Tuesday, 2 October 2012

The life of stars

I have created (from scratch), using a number of sources, a flow chart. The intention is for it to be used to help explain and summarize a little of what goes on during the life of stars (click on this link to see a larger version).
The life of stars continues to show what an amazing universe Jesus has created. The fact that it is so hard to understand shows how much higher His ways are than our ways. We have good reason to honour Him.
-->WEB: Psalms 104:2. He covers himself with light as with a garment.
He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.
Now if anyone with astronomical experience can tell me where the diagram is wrong, please let me know, as I am happy to fix it.

Sources for this have been:

  • The Australian Telescope and Outreach Education (i.e. CSIRO) pages on the Life and Death of stars
  • The High ZN search.
  • Notes from the CLI on Astrophysics by Richard Morante, Published by Learning Material Production. OTEN. NSW Department of Education and Training 2001.

Looking for the words

So what's with the title?

"Looking for the words" is the title I have chosen for the blog.
What?
It has a number of dimensions to make me choose this:
  1. One of the most amazing parts of the Bible is John 1, where we are told:
    WEB: John Chapter 1

    [1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] The same was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made. [4] In him was life, and the life was the light of men. [5] The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn’t overcome it.
    So, what has been translated as "Word" in our English Bibles clearly is a viable description of Jesus - the most important person in the universe, and the reason for our existence.
  2.  So what is with the plural words in my title? Well I am certainly not suggesting there is more than one God. No there is only one God. Instead it is that it is also true that I am not great at expressing myself with words - a constant frustration, so I will be looking for words to clearly express what I want to say.
  3. As a teacher, I want to look for words that will help students understand what a wonderful universe Jesus has created for us. This page will be a way to explore that.

Procrastination

You know the saying:
"Procrastination is a big waste of time, ... and so are a lot of other big words"
Yes I have been putting off the creation of a better blog than my former efforts. I may have been slow also working out the best way to do what I want to do. Clearly a blog like this is best. These are the reasons:
  • I control what is published
  • I control the comments
  • Being a managed system means I don't have to have ftp access.
  • Being a managed system means it is quicker to edit (though I am beginning to doubt this now that I have started to use this).
  • No expenses are involved in this managed system. 
The negatives with this system:
  • As I write this I am finding limitations of what I can do.
  • Questions will remain as to what extent I am giving my content to someone who will not let others use it. (One motivation for me to publish is to ensure that I can follow the principle "Freely you have received, freely give"). Sharing is an important value of mine - more on that later.
So I have made a start.