Tag Archives: telescope

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.

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.