Star Gazing

Date: 14 April 2017

Time: 9:00pm

Temperature: 65°F

Star light, star bright.

First star I see tonight.

Wish I may, wish I might,

Have this wish I wish tonight.

I’ve always loved star gazing. Out here, in the middle of nowhere (or close as I can get sometimes), the stars are abundant and bright. I love laying in the grass and watching the stars, watching them move through the sky as the summer moves forward. Light pollution from our street lamp (as well as the bon fire and kerosene lamps) lighten the almost endless darkness, hiding so many of the tinnier, further away stars.

I’ve read so many facts about stars in the past, some I know are true and some I’m awfully skeptical about. Here are some I can remember off the top of my head: The closest star is eight light-years away so if you’re wishing on it, you’re wishing on a star from the past, on a star that could be dead. Space (the center of our galaxy) smells like rum and tastes like raspberries, according to some astronauts. Stars twinkle; planets don’t.

Here are some facts that I know to be true: Stars really are just large balls of gas. They are held together by their own gravity. The sun is also a star. It’s a dwarf star actually, which should tell you something about how small our own galaxy is. When larger stars die, they explode into a cloud of dust and gas called a supernova (what a way to go).

I do not know many constellations, but almost a year ago, I found an app that helps me see what is up there. It’s called “Star Chart.” It helps the average star gazer to see different stars, constellations, planets, messiers. Because it was a free app, the information I get is a little lacking, but it gives me what I need. Instead of just being able to find the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) and the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), I can see Scorpius, Draco, Hercules, Andromeda, Canis Major, Cassiopeia, and so much more. Granted, it has to be a wonderfully clear and especially dark night to see some of these, but the point is, I can.

Our galaxy (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) is so large, that it takes years, years, just to get a satellite camera to its outer edges. That’s just our universe, our universe in the innumerable realm of universes. We are part of something so much bigger than we can even imagine. I’m one person in a cog, in a system of people at Chatham, in Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, in the US. We’re just one planet in a solar system, in a galaxy, in a tiny corner of the universe. We’re a small speck of dust on history. We can’t even fathom the possibilities out there. And that’s a beautiful thing.