This week I went stargazing with my daughter's astronomy class. It was a gorgeous night; it was cool and the air was crisp and clean. I sat back, away from the high school kids, listening and looking up into the night sky. It is amazing how just focusing my attention on the heavens above calms my spirit and sets my mind spinning in motion with questions and thoughts all at the same time.
But wait, there was a problem.
Where we live there is too much light pollution. It is not easy to see the constellations when over 3 million people light up my little corner of the world. On top of that, it was almost a full moon. According to the teacher, a full moon does not allow humans to see the stars in their best light. More moonlight pollution.
I actually saw the same stars, positioned a little differently, from another viewpoint this summer while my family was vacationing in Sedona, Arizona. WOW! Much less light pollution; and it was a semi-cloudy night that blocked the bright light of the half moon. Spectacular. The instructor of this stargazing session brought a large home-made telescope that we looked through. It was high-powered enough for me to see exploding nebula, the rings of Saturn, the red eye and stripes on Jupiter, and the craters on the moon. It really was amazing looking at the universe as I know it in a way that I had never done before.
As for my daughter, astronomy is her favorite class! She is thrilled to learn about the stars and space and the meaning of life. Really! I had to laugh at her when she asked the teacher, "what is that?" while pointing to a very large ball of light on the horizon. He replied, "an airplane." She argued with him for a while and finally gave in when the light blinked by over our heads!
So this week my Texas Shamrock was a diamond in the sky. Very inspirational.
Shine on!
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