Revel in the World Around Us

[dcseain]

I spent part of this evening in a dark place where i could see stars in all their glory, but not the moon. I reveled in the awesomeness that is the night sky; the awesomeness that makes us feel small, that makes us feel isolated, that makes us feel alone, if yet enthralled by the wonder that surrounds us.

Peace to you, my friend.

Comments

[acelightning]

The Dark Moon was only two days ago, so She wouldn't have provided very much light in any event. But I love being able to see the night sky from a dark place. There are so many stars! That's where I belong...

[dcseain]

Yes! I spent so many, many hours staring at the night sky growing up. Took my first astronomy class at the local community college when i was 11 -- back when we could walk to the tennis courts, shut of the lights, and see the milky way. Alas, that is no more thanks to urbanization of that area. Astronomer was one career i imagined growing up. I wish the now-extant astrophysics lab at the HS i attended existed when i was there.

[acelightning]

Astronomy - what I now know is "observational astronomy" - was the gateway to the realm of Real, Serious Science for many science-minded children, at least of my generation. Most other forms of science, the stuff we saw on "Mister Wizard" on TV, required lab equipment and things that children generally didn't get to play with, at least until you were old enough for a chemistry set. But all you needed for astronomy was a cloudless night! Look up - there's the Big Dipper, and Orion, and Cassiopeia, and the Pleiades, all filled with stars called Aldebaran and Mizar and Deneb and Algol and Zubenelgenubi! When my family went to the "summer cottage" in New Hampshire, I could look up at the night sky and identify the major constellations even without my glasses. (That was why I always chose to sleep on the screened porch, instead of in one of the bedrooms inside.)

Now, of course, I know that astronomy is closer to what our friend Nomad does, and very few astronomers spend their nights peering into a telescope... but the sky is always there, calling...