Things that Fall

[gurdonark]

My wife awoke early this morning and went outside to hunt for Leonid meteorites. She didn't see any. When I lived in the Los Angeles area, I spent a fair bit of one holiday season driving between San Diego and inland Los Angeles. If I chanced to pass Disneyland at night, I often saw the plumes and bursts of fireworks exploding. I love that shower of incandescence. At Southern Arkansas University, the physics department had a planetarium made of paper milk cartons. The stars projected on that home-made screen seemed just as real as the ones in large planetarium with elaborate Geiss projectors from Germany. I love to see the stars move and evolve across the field of the sky, and to see the planets stand out for me, as if they were particularly special people. I sometimes take binoculars and scan the sky--here a star cluster, there the nebular M42, and there are 3 moons of Jupiter.

When I read my friends' list, I feel as thought I am watching a sky show. I see journals twinkle nobly. I see
the dense nebulae, which I can barely see, much less understand. I see some planets very close up, as if they were planted in my particular solar system, as if they were kindred to me. Other journals are charming distant galaxies. Once in a while, someone strikes me as a red dwarf. Another person might seem like a twin star, and the journal seems to change as the stars change position.

Sometimes a journal will go super-nova, and blaze incredible colors, which I can detect with my feeble sensors across the universe. A few journals pulse like pulsars. Many journals just stand there shining in mid-air, a source of constant interest. Once in a while, a journal will just wink out, and the friends' list name will have that curious line through it. Now and again, a star will disappear from view, but will still be placed in its firmament in the universe; I just lose the ability to see it.

I did not see any leonids last night. But I see meteors everyday. I see the dust and the bursts of light. My binoculars are low-powered French things I got on ebay.
But it sure is fun to use them to see the sky.

Comments

teenage spaceship

[nacowafer.livejournal.com]

...people thought my windows / were stars...

Sorry, I've still got (Smog) on the brain. But I like this metaphor. Astronomy still scares me, but scary can be beautiful.

Re: teenage spaceship

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Scary can be beautiful, but astronomy just makes me look up and say wow....

[gregwest98.livejournal.com]

I saw some Leonids. My son and I got up and sat in the back yard for awhile as the dogs sniffed around us curiously, wondering what we were doing. We saw half a dozen or so - some of which left trails in the sky for a second or two. One only has to wait.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

That is so cool. I did not even try, although my wife did. You know, though, on almost any night if one waits long enough with stillness, one will see either a meterorite, a satellite, or some other cool thing.

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

You're absolutely right. There are shooting stars happening ALL the time. We just can't see them. When Jon and I were in the British Virgin Islands on a remote island--the night sky was so incredibly BLACK from lack of civilization, that we could see dozens of shooting stars at any moment. It was truly amazing! It's out there-- we've just fogged so much of it over with air pollution, and ambient earth lights.

We are all made of stars

[kelquestor.livejournal.com]

How do you do it? You must be the greatest conversationalist, you always pick the best topics! The infinite starry sky: I can't stop gazing up and out in awe and wonder. And tonight, there will be a full moon. Oh natural splendour still gloriously beyond our full ken!

I like the metaphor too, Robert, and not just because I am flattered by stellar comparison : )

I know I have to stop enthusing about Jeanette Winterson, but from recollection, 'GUT Symmetries' waxes lyrical quite early on about the properties of humans, 'stardust that we are'...

Oh, and there's a schmaltzy song that almost everyone about our age (?) must think of some time; remember 'Somewhere Out There'? 'And even though I know how very far apart we are/it helps to think we might be sleeping under the same bright star.' *cough*

Twinkle twinkle little star,
how I wonder what you are.
Lighting up the cybersky,
gurdonark glimmers on high.
Twinkle twinkle little star,
what a beautiful light you are.
: P

Re: We are all made of stars

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Well, I feel positively stellar now. This seems to be my sci fi month; perhaps next month will be more down to earth for me.

[the-outsider.livejournal.com]

I tend to think of my LJ as a black hole.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

That's a good one, as would be "random anti-matter"