So the goal became to see the first light of stars and the emerging of galaxies.
"By the light of stars, the shadow is as long as the body, but by firelight it is longer".
The light of stars was caught in the photographic emulsion on the plates, and the resulting complicated shapes of galaxies reminded me of insects preserved in amber.
Turrell's concerns, though, are both ancient and modern: his fascination with perception and the revelatory properties of light – of stars, sun or sky – is as old as man.
Up to the 1930s, dust particles were widely considered as idle materials that dim the light of stars, redden their colors, and interfere with studies of stars themselves.
This effect has been confirmed by observing the light of stars or distant quasars being deflected as it passes the Sun.
Kepler-11, the host star, was named for the Kepler satellite, a NASA telescope that searches for terrestrial planets by measuring small fluctuations in the light of stars that occurs when celestial bodies transit, or cross in front of, the star with respect to Earth.
The stick is called an occulting stick because it blocks (occults) the light of stars that appear to pass behind it.
Once restricted to looking at the pearly lights of stars, astronomers have increasingly sought to look for what they cannot see in the darkness between the stars.
