A Better Night's Sleep

This has been a busy week, as usual. The last two nights, though, have been wonderful; I have been stargazing. Friday night we went to the fireworks in a nearby town, and when I returned home, I saw that the skies were clear—wonderfully clear. I drove the car to the top of a hill, took a lawn chair out of the trunk, and observed the heavens until after mid-night. Just me and the soybeans.

I had a little red MAG-LITE that allowed me to look at my planisphere without losing my night vision. I also had my laser pointer and my copy of Skywatch. I slowly moved from north to west to south to east, identifying each constellation. Usually there are many stars within the constellations that are too dim to find and sometimes an entire constellation cannot be seen, but they were all there in their glory Friday night. I found every star in Virgo and Aquarius that was on my chart—something I had never done before. I found Scutum, Equuleus, Lacerta, Coma Berenices, and Canes Vanetici—so small the average person has never even heard of them. It was glorious.

Last night my husband joined me as I drove out to my astronomy club’s site. One of the members kindly offered to show me how to run the computerized telescope. By the time Leo has slipped below the horizon, I was able to swing the dome around to match the telescope’s direction and push the right buttons to find globular clusters, open clusters, nebulas, double stars, and planets. Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury were all there in their glory—we missed Saturn by searching for her after she had slipped below the horizon. Jupiter’s colorful bands were there along with 4 (or where there 5?) moons. Venus looked like a 1st quarter moon. I did not make it to bed before 1:00 A.M.—and I think I’d go out again tonight if the skies were clear.

What draws me to the skies? It is, certainly, one of the wonders of creation. It is so vast that we cannot begin to comprehend it. I’d like a chance to see a double star close up—instead of one star surrounded by planets, this is a set of two stars circling each other. Even more amazing is the Double Double—a set of double stars circling another set of double stars. And did you know that our sun is considered relatively small? If you were to exchange it with another star out there, you’d have to be careful which one you chose-- many of them are so big that our orbit around the sun would be INSIDE the boundaries of another star. Think of that one for a few minutes.

Next time our lives seem to be spinning out of control, I think we would do well to look up into the skies and remember that the one who orchestrated the dance of heavenly bodies is the one who is caring for us. That should help us all get a better night’s sleep.

Blessings.