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Sky gazing
When I think back on it, ever since I was little, I can remember always being drawn to unlikely and far away things. I remember spending summer nights peering through my father’s heavy binoculars. In the city, most often I could barely see a few stars twinkling on nights with clear skies. But when summer vacation rolled around and we escaped to the mountains, there the pitch-dark skies gifted us nights bursting with the Perseids, comets and the occasional far-flung planet.
I remember especially well leaving behind my summer espadrilles to lace up heavy boots, throw on warmer clothes, and head out to the fields and meadows in search of a good place to scan the skies and decipher constellations. Back then, I always thought that the first start I saw was Sagittarius because my father had told me that the brightest star was Kaus Australis, since it is a binary star. At that age I was also unable to link starts together in search of a pattern. The Big Dipper? Ursa Major? Despite having an active imagination and embroidering abstract drawings in art class, that exceeded my abilities.
As I grew older, aided by a book and my passion for astrology, I started to decipher the Aries constellations, including the warm glint of RZ Arietis, and to search for satellites such as Hydra with an amateur telescope. Nowadays I may have lost my childhood innocence, but I am still fascinated by the words “planet,” “comet,” and “galaxy,” and I long for those days when I would lace up my boots, stretch out on a summer jacket, and watch the Perseids wash across the sky.
I can’t imagine a better summer plan: gazing up at the sky to watch the shining echo of a comet that passed by far earlier than any of us were born, and which will someday return long after.
