Astronomy

5 went for a small search on astronomy. Astronomy is about universe, planets, stars, galaxies, space, and the big bang, for instance. Without doubt much more.
Astronomy as a science is observations and theory, like physics, chemistry, biology etc. Theory always checked by observations, although there is a small knowledge loop involved: theory shaping what can be observed. The history of astronomy on the other hand, for the science unimportant, shows the magnificent struggle of human beings to become able to observe without being dictated what to see by others, kings, dictators, popes, religion, old writings,. The Babylonian priests observed eclipses, right to Ptolemy (around 150) observations were made freely with the naked eye, then the Almagest of Ptolemy somehow became a sacred book, and “real observations”, without prejudice, stopped. Until Galileo, who made himself a telescope using the principle of Huygens, observations were curved back to those of Ptolemy, heavily supported by the church and leaning on Aristotle.
So it took a while to put the sun in the centre of the planetary system. It took another while to place the sun in the outskirts of our galaxy and our galaxy somewhere in a big framework of a curved universe. Hubble of course “identified” the first galaxies as such in the 19th century, the universe was shaped by Einstein, his general theory of relativity the 1920ties , and the shape of our own galaxy after the second world war, with radio astronomy.
Well, what can 5 find back of this in Second Life?
First 5 visited

Jenika's Astronomy Park of Jenika Connolly
Which is a nice start. Jenika presents telescopes, which offer images of the wonders of the universe. The images are shown when using the "sit" for the telescope in a central circle. But don’t think buying a telescope in real life will show you these very intriguing pictures. With telescopes “for the amateur” one can observe very interesting things like the moon, the planets and groups of stars, maybe even the Andromeda nebula (the nearest galaxy), but never the images of the Hubble telescope. Jenika also makes eyes and paintings!
Then 5 found an extended exposition explaining about observations and astronomy in:
Physics and Astronomy

Very nice equipment is shown and a very joking picture of an astronomer not being able to observe through his small telescope because of pollution in the air….
This is a bit what you can find in public observatories with movies about the universe and domes where they project stars on. It is the presentation of science, an introduction to all kinds of aspects. A bit about instruments, o bit about observations, stars, galaxies. All very neat and objective. You can get a list here of other Science-Related places in Second Life, like eco-systems, marine and biology exhibitions etc.

The third place is called Prospero's Astronomy Gallery
This is a private sort of gallery, explaining a few things like the birth of stars and planetary systems.
Also a very nice transparent map of the stars in the sky is presented which can rotate around a central earth. (Oops, 'central' have we returned again to Ptolemy? Well, no, th earth is just the place from where we see the stars around us. So to observe and find these stars, this position is the best.)
So the main focus on the moment is on the tools, telescopes, and the explanations. Of course theories like modern relativity are a bit beyond the reach of the general public, and Second Life of course is the general public.
The Carl Sagan Pavilion in the sim of the Illusion Factory is more a tribute to the astronomer, Carl Sagan. He was involved in programs to discover radio messages from extraterrestrial life in the 60ties. He supported a steady state universe. Certainly somebody who tried to think along other lines than the main stream astronomer.