Tag Archives: stars

Winter on the way, apparently

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It makes sense to get up early. It helps to get a start on the day, to have some time before dashing off to the rat race or the daily grind or a fun adventure. The past couple of weeks I have been sick–nasty cold that won’t quit–so I have not been getting up early every day, but today I was in charge of the dogs, so I got up early to get them off to their daily routine.

The routine is to give them some hearty attention, pour out some kibble for their breakfast, and while they suck that down gear up for whatever the weather might be. In the summer it is light and it is warm, but these days it is neither. The temperature was 26 degrees this morning and, along with my insulated and hooded jacket, I pulled on a reflector vest and a headlamp. Plus a warm hat and gloves. No shorts and T-shirt and Crocs today.

It was dark, but there were some stars out. Venus and Jupiter hung out up there, glowing their glow. Skunks are around, although I admit I have never seen one here. I can smell them sometimes, however, so that headlamp comes in handy to sweep the roadside for those cute but worrisome mammals. There were none again today. Animals come through at night. The dogs can smell whatever they are. Maybe they are other dogs. Maybe they are coyotes, or bobcat. There have been bear around. These domestic creatures spend a lot of time sniffing. They say it tires them out to read through scent.

It feels like November–cold, bare trees, frost. It isn’t winter yet, but soon enough those gloves and that jacket will be habit. And the early morning light will be a distant idea. We still have another month of days getting shorter. The light will come later and later until the solstice. Later today there were snow flurries. Fall might still be here but it seems to have taken a nap. Winter has its elbows out.

I will rise early tomorrow to do it again. It will be our bi-weekly trash and recycling pickup day. While the pups chow down I will wheel out the bins to end of the driveway, then collect the breakfast eaters and out we will go. I do like seeing the stars and the red of the morning horizon, and hearing distant coyotes. The dogs will take their time, and at the end of all the sniffing we will head back inside, to brew some coffee and get ready for the day ahead.

Pics From Space and a Cool Beetle

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New images were just released from the Hubble telescope, the first since the spring, when some repairs were made.  You can read a New York Times article here to learn more.  Here is one of the images:

Abell 370 Galaxy Cluster

Abell 370 Galaxy Cluster

Look up into the night sky (if you live in a place that isn’t so flooded with light that you can’t see the night sky) and you can see more stars than you can count.  On a clear night, even here so close to so many lights, I can see the Milky Way stretching from horizon to horizon.  I get, well, starstruck sometimes.  But this photo isn’t of stars, it is of galaxies.  There are too many galaxies to count.  And each one of them contains countless stars.  And eac star is too big to truly comprehend.  It can make one dizzy.

Jupiter is just visible as I write this, rising in the east.  It has been hanging around our skies for many nights lately.  If I could see over the hill to the west I might have seen Saturn or even Mercury just after the sun set.  Dang hill.

The world itself, this planet Earth of ours, is too vast to grasp.  I can’t really fathom 6 1/2 billion people, or the depth of the ocean, or the dryness of the Gobi Desert, or camels.  And look at that picture.  How many worlds are there just within its frame?  How can there not be life out there somewhere? The odds are with us on that one.  It seems almost impossible that there wouldn’t be life beyond Earth.

I saw a beetle today I had never seen before–yellow and black and green with stripes.  Check it out:

Cool Beetle

Cool Beetle

Isn’t that amazing enough?  And the milkweed on which it sits–isn’t there discovery in the shape and color and structure of those leaves?  Countless immense galaxies and tiny new beetles to be gazed upon.  I’ve got more than enough wonder for many lifetimes.

Stars, Sunrise, Headlamp

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I rose early yesterday morning to run. This time of year it can be hard to do that. My wife had to leave by 7:00, which meant I had to get up, change quietly in the dark, stretch, run, and then be back in time to be in charge of the children before she split. Problem is, the sun doesn’t rise until about 7:30 these days.

It was, as you might guess, dark when I got up. I planned ahead, as I tend to do when I want to run early, by laying things out the night before. Changing and stretching and donning the reflector vest wasn’t too much of a chore. It was about 29 degrees outside, so I added gloves and a hat to my outfit.

It was dark but I had my headlamp. It is an LED headlamp and I have had it for a year or so. The thing is a winner. It is bright, easy to turn on and off with gloves and the batteries last forever. In fact, despite hundreds of hours of use, the batteries were the original ones. That, it turned out, was a mistake.

The stars were at their brightest. It was just before the sky got light but after many artificial lights had been turned off. Plus, the moon was down. So the stars stretched across the sky, the constellations chasing each other in their endless evening game. I was, although I have seen this many times, stunned. I do not see the night sky enough. Some people almost never see it. It makes me feel small in the scope of the universe, yet it also makes me feel a part of that universe. It isn’t a bad way to start the day.

As I ran in the dark, the sky gradually grew brighter. I ran without a light most of the time. In fact, what blinded me most to seeing my way was light. There are two street lamps on my route and both of them make it difficult to see, since they ruin my night vision and create a black hole on the far side of their glow. i wish they were not there. I can imagine why they were installed, as they are both next to barns. I don’t know why we need to burn electricity for them all night these days, however. It seems like that isn’t necessary. I sure wouldn’t want to be trying to get to sleep in one of the houses beneath them.

It was early enough that I actually passed no cars. That is rare. Typically I turn on my light so cars can see me better. I turned it on at a couple of key points to make sure that anyone out with an unleashed dog might see me, but not for cars. I also turned it on when I passed the street lamps. It did not, however, help me much.

The light produced by my headlamp was pretty much doodly squat. Twice I thought it was off and discovered it was on when I put my hand up to the bulb. The batteries, AAA, a year old and well-used, were at their end. That is pretty amazing if you ask me. Heck, even if you don’t ask me it is pretty amazing. Imagine if we switched our home light bulbs to LED bulbs. Forget those twisty fluorescent jobbers. LEDs would last even longer and use even less energy. One of these days they will be cheap enough.

As I got close to home the glow in the east was gathering. It was still dark but not as dark. The sunrise was not far off. I have not been running early lately. I finally am ready, physically, to get back to it. It isn’t easy. This is, after all, the darkest time of the year. But I will do it. If I want to run enough, I don’t have another time that will work.

Tomorrow I will go out early, but not as early as yesterday. I may just see the sunrise, and the early glow on the brown fields. On the other hand, I might just get rained on. Either way, I will get in some miles and feel good about it. And it will be a safer run now that I have a new set of batteries in my headlamp.

Seeing Stars

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How many of us get out and simply watch the stars?  Do we stop to look up at night?  Can we be awed enough by the vastness and glory of the universe?  I don’t think so.

The problem around here is this:  in the summer the stars come out late and in the winter it is cold.  Even now, the air temperature drops pretty quickly when the sun goes down.  By the time the stars are at their brightest it is dang chilly.  In the summer the sun might go down after 9:00 pm.  Who remembers to look up by then?

When I wake up at night I look out the window.  Lately I can see Orion rising in the east.  This means winter is just about here.  The hunter comes out for hunting season.  I do not often go out to simply look up however.  I used to do just that but I find it harder to be motivated to take the time now.  When I do take the time I feel the same awe I always have.

I am thinking of getting a telescope.  That would motivate me to look up at night.  When I have used telescopes in the past I have seen the moons of Jupiter and the surface of Mars and the brightness of the Milky Way.  It was amazing and I can’t imagine much has changed.

I can’t see as much here in this house as I could before we moved here.  There are lots of parking lots whose owners feel a need to be able to see the empty asphalt 24 hours a day.  And there are many people who feel the need to light the porch or driveway in case the raccoons or the skunks need to see where they are going. We even have a huge street lamp that lights our road for seemingly no reason, burning all night.  All those lights fade out the stars and the show is less grand.

Tonight the clouds have moved in and Orion walks across the sky above them.  He will be there tomorrow.  Perhaps I will get a chance to greet him then.  Change has been something I have heard lots about this campaign season and I should not be left out.  Maybe one change I can make is to simply get out and see the stars.  Unlike elected officials, they will never disappoint.

Mercury in the Morning

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I rose early this morning.  I had to get out of the house to meet a group of students.  We are taking a trip down to the Rutland area to visit some colleges.  I had to get up in the dark.  This morning, that worked out well.

For the next few days, Mercury rises on the eastern horizon just before sunrise.  At 6:30 I could see it glowing just above the pale horizon.  It was the only celestial body I could see, with the exception of one star, just above it.  By 6:45 the sky was too bright for me to see it.  It is a fleeting planet, like the god after which it is named.

I have not seen Mercury much in my life, although I have tried to see it many times.  Seeing Mercury is one of those things to pursue throughout a lifetime, so I know I will have many chances to see it again.  I have thought for a long time of investing in a telescope, one powerful enough to the see the moons of Saturn.  One of these days I will splurge on that.

Perhaps tomorrow I will rise early enough again to spy the other red planet.  If I am lucky the clouds will have drifted off.  If I do not see it again, I will have a few days left to do so, and I am sure I will see other small wonders in any case.  That is the deal with rising early–there is always something wonderful to see.