I saw Cosmos when it first aired on Channel 13 in New York City on public television. I first heard about Carl Sagan in 1973 when I came across a little book called The Cosmic Connection.
I started a correspondence with him and later became acquainted with him. He was one of the most generous, giving, self-less, kindest individuals I have ever known in my lifetime. Whether it was a new discovery in the realm of planetary science or a joke he had just heard, he couldn't wait to share it with everyone. What a sense of humor he had! What a joy he was to know! He shared his love of knowledge and love of life with all who knew him, and I'm starting to miss him again, so I'd better stop right here.
My thanks for airing Cosmos again. I caught it quite by accident last night — couldn't sleep, woke up at 12:30 a.m., started watching — how wonderful to see Carl again!
Thanks, Gail E. Dow
Carl Sagan hooked me forever on science and astronomy. I remember being just 14 when the series debuted on TV. We only had one television and this was before many people had VCRs (you had to be rich to afford them), so I begged my mother to take me to Kmart so I could get some audio cassettes to tape it. I listened to these cassettes over and over again while looking through my telescope. My mother met her future husband at that Kmart that very night while we were buying cassettes, so Cosmos is directly responsible for my wonderful stepfather!
Now that I'm a father I have bigger telescopes and fancier equipment than when I was a kid, but I never forgot those simpler times and the way I feel about this series. Thank you, Carl.
Jon
A few years before the TV series aired, Dr. Sagan visited our college heralding the upcoming landings of the Mars Viking missions. I asked him how long the Viking landers would be able to send data back to Earth. He looked perplexed and answered that it was "a most interesting question," but he confessed no one had pondered long about that detail. They were interested in the landing and perhaps a few days of telemetry.
Little did we know the bonanza of information that was to be sent back and studied for years. Carl Sagan is sorely missed today and needed to teach the next generation of science students. Thankfully he returns with the Cosmos series. We'll be watching.
Doug Ross
As I sit here affectionately patting my first printing of the book I purchased when I was 14 years old, I remember weekends up at the North Jersey Astronomical Group. A teenager then, I remember Phil and Julie, the curators of the observatory, opening up the dome to equalize the atmosphere on our new Celestron 8 and gazing at the stars.
Dr. Carl Sagan was the honorary chairman of our self-developed astronomy club. A few good friends (Glenn, Terri, George and Paul) and I met once a week to play billiards, plan the telescopes we eventually built and watch our favorite show, Cosmos.
How I wish Carl could have attended those meetings. How I wish I could have told him how we reveled in his lyrical sense of humor and the way he captured our minds and set them on flights far beyond our rural doldrums. Actually, I did in a letter to Ithaca, which I also remember receiving a reply to from his wife, Ann Druyan. She took the time to consider my future and ended her note to leave me even more excited at the prospects of my passions. Truly two people who, amid the turmoil of the world, saw the light in the future of mankind.
Now I've grown to watch science and astronomy reveal scintillating and awe-inspiring discoveries: planets on other suns, new speculations on space travel, proposed voyages and new horizons. Even given the rise of new resolution graphics and access to knowledge, nothing compares to what Dr. Sagan did for the minds of the young in bringing the universe within arm's reach.
When life affords me the time to sit quietly and reflect, I like to put in one of the timeless Cosmos DVDs and take a trip with the good Dr. Sagan. Truly Cosmos was, is, and shall ever be, the comfort food for my voyager's mind.
Edward Ford
Although I was brought up with reason and logic — as well as school and sports — there had been no scientists in my extended family, nor had any science classes in public school inspired me to search out more. Wandering and searching for a meaningful life while working in a factory at age 24, I happened upon Cosmos on PBS in 1983. If I'd ever imagined what a "calling" might be like, I'd just experienced it.
Within three years I was studying biology in college, having finally found a group of people who used a method for understanding nature that relied on rational thinking supported by physical evidence. And they were all checking each other's work for validity. THIS was how to think, and it was exactly how Carl Sagan operated. Despite my material insignificance as a speck of dust on a slightly larger speck of dust in the universe, my intelligence coupled with science's method for understanding natural truth allowed me unbounded creativity and fulfillment.
I took the further step and specialized in secondary science teaching. I've been teaching for 14 years now, and Cosmos is always the first book/video I recommend to any student willing to view their existence in a more enlightened way. They have never been disappointed, so I then recommend more of Carl's books.
Carl touched many people during his all-too-short life, and like many others my life was changed utterly and completely. After sending a similar email to a similar request at Carl's Web site after his passing, how surprised was I to get an appreciative reply from Ann Druyan, who graciously took the time to reply in person. She (and Carl) are just simply "that kind of people."
Jerry Papers
When this series first came on TV, I just stumbled on it one night. I think I had even missed the first episode. The man I was engaged to at the time was not an avid reader or interested in anything scientific, but Carl Sagan presented the universe in such a way that anyone could understand it. This man made notations on the calendar and we worked our schedules around each episode.
When the series came out on VHS, I really couldn't afford to buy it ($100), but I spent the money and gave it to my best friend, who was just as into science and sci fi as I was (yep! we're Trekkies!). It was several years later that this friend gave the set back to me because he said he had never watched it.
I have shared the series with anyone who would sit still long enough. I have quoted lines more times than I can remember. And I have encouraged young people to look to the stars, because that's where our future is — which makes it so much more gratifying that NASA has resumed space exploration. I can hear Carl cheering!
Last year I painted a wall mural in my doctor's office. The painting is a tribute to Carl Sagan entitled "A Starry Day on Vega." The scene in Contact on the "beach" is blended with elements of Van Gogh's "Starry Night," and if you look close you'll see the USS Enterprise among the stars. This room is requested by every patient the doctor sees!
The world lost something great when this man passed, and I can't wait to see his face and hear that voice again!
Deborah Gordey
