There are a hundred billion galaxies and a billion trillion stars. Some stars are 100 trillion times as dense as lead. In the Hercules Cluster, individual galaxies are 300,000 light-years apart. Some samples from this first episode: our galaxy has about 400 billion suns.

Cosmos is remembered (and parodied) for Sagan's use of 'billions and billions' to describe the universe, but the numbers really are staggering - even today after decades of exposure to huge numbers during our space programs (and our budgetary problems). This was synthesized music that some of us had previously heard on the Hearts of Space radio series, from a composer who would then go on to create the scores for Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner.īut the greatest impact was from the content. The theme is Heaven and Hell, created by Vangelis and featured in the YouTube segment embedded at the top. The visual special effects were (for the time) awesome not so much the 'spaceship' of the voyage, but in the first episode the recreation of the Library of Alexandria in apparent 3-dimensional space which Carl Sagan then walks through as he speaks. It's hard to explain the immense impact that the Cosmos series had on a young(er) and still impressionable mind way back in 1980. Fud Livingston - Imagination from 'Thesaurus Of Classic Jazz Vol.I discovered yesterday that the entire 13-episode series of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is now available for viewing on Hulu - fullscreen, high-definition, and free.* Last night I watched the first episode - The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean - for the first time in almost 30 years. Rimsky Korsakov - Russian Easter Festival Overtureġ4. Some of the missing pieces may be here but the rest are either inaudible or have been edited out.ġ3. The next are listed in the original cue sheets.

Hovhaness - Spirit of Ink - This is only available on LP at the moment Rimsky-Korsakov - Tale of Tsar Sultan (2nd Movt)Ĩ.

Le Orme - Notturno - From the album 'Contrappunti'ħ. This link is not to the original, although with Giulini, is a good alternative. Bartok - Miraculous Mandarin Suite No 8 - Adagioģ.

The shores of the cosmic ocean