Universe (1960)

Directed by

Roman Kroitor, Colin Low

Genre

documentary film

Country

Canada

Runtime

29 min

Rated

G

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 14 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A short documentary that takes you on a journey through space using realistic animation. It shows astronomers at work preparing equipment and photographing stars to study their motion relative to Earth.

awe-inspiringcontemplativeatmosphericmeditativeeducationalscale-expandingblack-and-whiteslow-paced

What happens

Universe (Notre univers) is a 1960 black-and-white documentary short film made in 1960 by Roman Kroitor and Colin Low for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). The NFB writes: "[The film] creates on the screen a vast, awe-inspiring picture of the universe as it would appear to a voyager through space. Realistic animation takes you into far regions of space, beyond the reach of the strongest telescope, past Moon, Sun, and Milky Way into galaxies yet unfathomed." This visualization is grounded in the nightly work of Dr. Donald MacRae, an astronomer at the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, Ontario.[1] Using the technology of his era, MacRae prepares his largely manually operated equipment and then photographs, by long exposure, one star. He actually strikes an arc between iron electrodes and makes a simultaneous exposure, which he can compare to the star's spectrum to determine its movement relative to Earth. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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