Max Ruf
Stadt
16 November 2016 - 14 January 2017
MuriasCenteno
Rua Capitão Leitão 10/16
1950-051 Lisboa
Portugal
Stadt
16 November 2016 - 14 January 2017
MuriasCenteno
Rua Capitão Leitão 10/16
1950-051 Lisboa
Portugal
Images courtesy the artist and MuriasCenteno
If you look out from an empty field into a dark sky; you get the impression that you are standing
on a flat plate, enclosed by a giant dome. Our perception of depth fails us, for the distant objects
we see in the sky. This creates the appearance that all of the stars have the same distance.
We observe the sky as it looks, not as it is. You feel like you are on top of the Earth (the result of
gravity drawing you toward the Earth’s center.) You are at a latitude (your location along an arc
from the Earth’s equator to the rotation pole, given by lower case Greek letter Phi) of 45°, halfway
between the Earth’s equator and the north pole. The latitude of the north pole is 90°, that of the
equator 0°. The Earth appears to lie at the center of a fictional celestial sphere. You pretend that
you are inside the sphere at the center looking out around you. Above your head is your
zenith, while directly below you is your nadir (both of which are points on the celestial sphere).
In between is the great circle of the horizon, which is the circle on the celestial sphere cut by a
plane tangent to the Earth at your feet.
Everything in the sky above the horizon is visible, while everything below it is not.