The Travelogue of Hameed

In The Travelogue of an Astronomer, I think Hameed does a wonderful job of explaining his surroundings on the island. I think that in this case, it was more important for him to explain the island's atmosphere rather than what he was actually doing, looking at the stars. Because of his vivid descriptions of the island, the reader actually feels like they are there along side of Hameed living in the moment as well. I think that Hameed does a great job of describing in detail how the island looks. I think he includes so much history about the island because by doing so it makes the reader appreciate the lifestyle of the island. I dont think it was necessary for him to describe the actual star gazing so much, because by describing the island's atmosphere the reader already had a feeling of what it would be like to be there star gazing.

The Travelogue

I think Hameed talks so much about the Canary Islands to help the reader understand the location and how it was actually formed. He says that it is located off of the Atlantic Ocean and formed from a volcano which collapsed and formed a caldrea. He gives you history like how many people live on the island and when it was form to help you understand the island more. He talks little about what he sees through the telescope because there is so much to see. He mentions how long it takes the light of the sun to reach us and how stars are dying out but we are just learning about them.

Alman Hameed's journey

In reading this story, i have to say i got excited because i enjoy astronomy. Hameed started off giving you a visual of the beauty of the land he was in. The thing i noticed most about this story was that over the two days that Hameed traveled to The Canary Islands, he noticed how big our own world is. Some examples that led me to belive this come from the people he met. How each of them came from a different part of the world to study something as vast and infinite as the universe. Now, some can say that in the end we are wasting our time studying the universe, but Hameed shows you that in his journey he realized how vast and amazing our own planet is. I believe he documented mostly about the islands and the journey to those islands to show readers the journey he took to get to a small place in our gigantic world.

The Travelogue of an Astronomer

Hameed vividly describes how the island was formed, the dimensions of the island, its dominance in the Atlantic Ocean, and even its idealistic surroundings that are perfect for star gazing. He describes the island in such detail to amaze the readers who are mainly attracted to the island because of its history and its vastness. However, he does not give much detail about what he observes through the telescope because there is so much to see, space reaches on for infintity; whereas, the island of La Palma is only about 706 km squared in area. Hameed says that it only took him two to make his trip to the Canary Islands, but the light photons that hit his telescope started their journey 17 million years ago. His description of the island and the time it took to reach the island were simply given to shock the readers when they found out the vastness of space and the fact that it goes on for eternity.

Travelogue

When Hameed describes the island and the history of the island, it seemed to really focus on the timeline of the island. It tells how old it is, when the caldera was formed, and basically it was to amaze the reader with its impressive age. Then when he finally talks about the galaxies so far away and so much older than the creation of earth even. He sets it up so the reader is completely and utterly astonished by the idea of space and time. In comparison to outerspace, the island seems utterly insignificant.

Response for Friday: Hameed article

1. In this account Hameed writes little about what he observes through the telescope and a great deal about the Canary Islands. Why does he include so much history about the islands?

--Elizabeth

Carnary Islands

I believe the reason he concludes so much about island's history is because its easy to paint a picture in your mind of what they really look like and what they have evolved from. In the first paragraph alone, you can vividly picture a volcano and how it shaped the island to what it is today. I think he includes us more into the story by telling us what the island has seen over the years. You can picture blood shed and tears as well, from all the unfortnate wars and battles the island went through as well.The history gives you a better understanding of the island and makes you apprieciate it more, in my opinion.