Sounds of space

As the Voyageur 1 spacecraft leaves our galaxy, bursting through the heliopause, I would like to point you to a University of Iowa website where students collect sounds from space recorded from instruments they've placed on various spaceships. It's good nap music.

A few months ago I was obsessed with sounds sent back from Cassini-Huygens, the probe that went to Titan, a moon of Jupiter, to sit there for an hour before dying. Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) liked looking at the moons of Jupiter. His tract Horologium Oscillatorium contains work on the pendulum. Horologium is a constellation that resembles a pendulum. It is a curious asterism but has very little to offer to the advanced star-gazer, although the star R Horologium, located within the constellation, is a mira-type variable, of mild interest. To find it, look two degrees northeast or iota Horologii. Giovanni Cassini also enjoyed looking at Jupiter.

CASSINI-HUYGENS

My tongue is electronica
a radio left on in an ammonia room playing zeros and ones
while one clock hand dusts the light off Horologium.

Swung off the light then through the pendulum's pressed white parabolas
as angels predicted on yellow pads, not one iota off the edge of the asterism

their gold wings, earth-bought and ion-thin brought me this shore where fartherhood
is obscured by one more world.

Asterisk, unelectrified in an hour and so little time
to fugue, inspired by the littleness of my eye
among all these asters.