Synergous.com

Dedication

It’s been 12 months since founding this site. In that time it has seen several content iterations. A place to sound off, to vent. Spouting philosophical and theological positions, coming to terms with a changing world.

A phenomenon of this age is the retirement of baby-bloomers, their hobbies and generally substantial disposable income, providing convenient distractions following a life-time of work, raising the next generation, investing in the financial markets and generally trying to stay ahead of the game.

I too, like my hobbies, particularly astronomical photography, it’s an engaging interest. It is however, a significant distraction and one that consumes vast amounts of spare time, in a relaxing sort of way – though standing in the cold for hours, timing exposures of a patch of the heavens has questionable merits – still! It’s absorbing, peaceful.

It was this fascinating interest back in 1986, when Halley’s comet graced the skies and Supernova 1987a was just around the corner in the large Magellanic Cloud, where, in skies of remarkable seeing, the Macedon ranges in central Victoria, I stood frequently at 3 am with flimsy tripod and ancient 38mm camera desperate to catch an image of Halley’s – the best  was a meteor, streaking through the edge of the film.

This experience was not lost on me, though it was some 20 years before opportunity permitted a return to what was then the beginnings of a search beyond the universe itself. I confess that the warm fuzziness of sentimentality and faulty memory has transformed those nights photographing Halley’s into an idealistic age, never to be seen again, and in some respects that is true – but far from idealistic it was.

During that time, I came to realise that the universe was created so that life may be known. God, not withholding that which he knew possible, brought forth the cosmos, thereby  realising the expression of conscious life in a being made in His image. A physical creation, quite apart from himself yet connected, in which free thinking choice bearing individuals might know of life as God knew it possible. Yet, with choice comes responsibility, and while God created in perfection, his thinking creation must, by need, be fallible.

The gift of will is the expression of freedom that God in His love bestowed upon mankind – and who would trade free will? Their humanity? No one in their right mind – wars are waged over such things. Yet with choice comes responsibility, and we find many ways to write God out of the picture in this Post Modernist world.

I have little choice then, yet willingly, to dedicate this site to the God who created all things and resolved the dilemma of poor choice, through the agency of His Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things were made and sustained, and through whom our intended fellowship with God is restored, if we so choose. The choice is simple, for in fellowship with God is eternal life, and by no other means!

Warning:

Digital astrophotography can become an exceptionally expensive hobby. A camera and a carefully constructed Double Arm Drive is all that you need to take interesting shots of our stellar neighbours. A DSLR camera with a good quality lens is ideal. I started out with a Canon G9, but any old digital camera will do, if it can take a standard 30 second exposure in Manual mode. A little patience, a little extra knowledge and imaging software will do the rest – Try GIMP – it’s free!

Synergous is a Greek word meaning co-worker. Used by English speakers from time-to-time as a synonym for synergetic, cooperation, but more usually for synergistic, a working of parts together, which describes the Tracker design. Paul the apostle used synergous referring to his helpers, spreading the Gospel.

“..the heavens declare the Glory of God and the firmament reveals His handiwork…”

Please feel free to email me at my name rowland followed by the usual at format including the domain name of this site. Yes, God even created spammer’s, difficult to believe at times – redeemable all the same!