Convering With Stars

By Shim Hyun-chul

Staff Reporter

Last year, the nation's first rocket, Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) unfortunately failed to make it into space. Yet scientists are ever busy preparing for a second attempt with the Naro-2, in addition to the launching of the satellite Cheollian.

Human civilizations have studied the sky and stars since ancient times, looking to constellations to guide nocturnal voyages and to make choices regarding the fate of kingdoms. Today, space science is the pinnacle of modern technology.

The Seoul Museum of History is currently holding a special exhibition, ``Celestial Rendezvous,'' featuring various items related to astronomy that were donated by local citizens. The scale of the event may be small, but a wide-ranging array of objects from different time periods can be viewed. Moreover, the relics reflect not only astronomical technologies but also the thoughts of the time periods from which they originate. Furthermore, they provide a sketch of how East Asian astronomy has evolved.

The exhibition is split into three parts: the astronomical chart and related observations, observation balloons and related documents, and the sun dial.

``These days, 3D movies and television are all the rage, but seeing how people charted astronomical discoveries from such a long time ago, I think they were already thinking in 3D back then. It's amazing that these `earthlings' traveled ― in spirit ― back and forth between the Earth and space,'' said one visitor,

The exhibition runs through Sept. 5 on the first floor of the museum. Visit www.museum.seoul.kr.