Have you ever looked at the night sky? I mean REALLY looked at it. It is staggeringly beautiful and mind-blowing at the same time. There are officially 88 modern constellations according to the IAU (International Astronomical Union) but the view is so much more than patterns and billions upon billions of twinkling lights.
Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences as cultures as far back as the Babylonians and Maya recorded observations of the night sky (and put their findings to practical use in most cases). In fact, almost every civilisation there has ever been has looked to the heavens and tried to understand the universe or simply marvelled at the beauty of it.
As a scientist by nature, the way the stars and planets interact and the "celestial dance" they perform across our night sky is fascinating, but today I want to get away from the mechanics and look at the aesthetics and the "feel" of the sky. Because it is contains a beauty and serenity that is all too often overlooked.
The night sky is slow - I don't mean that literally as we travel through it at something approaching 30km per second. But things seem to happen slowly. Yes the stars will move over time, but the movement as you look at them is essentially undiscernable. And the light from some of these stars has taken so long to get here that the star is long gone. Everything about gazing at the night sky is an exercise in patience and relaxation.
We in the built-up areas of the Western world don't get to see the sky in all its glory due to light pollution but it is truly magical sight. On a cloudless night and with the right location you can stare for hours at the majestic beauty of the cosmos and still only see a fraction of a fraction of what there is to see. You can go back every night for a lifetime and see something new each time.
That is another aspect of staring at the sky that I find so appealing, the sense of scale. Some have great difficulty in understanding their place in the universe but I take great comfort in being (as Gargravarr in the Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy put it so succinctly) "An invisible dot on an invisible dot, infinitely small".
There is something, for me, so relaxing and soothing about the night sky. It is hard to convey in words but it is a kind of enjoyment in the infiniteness of it. The knowledge that the universe is so vast and old puts our short, small journey through it into perspective. As I said before, some don't like to think of life as essentially a blip on the radar of existence but personally I take great comfort from the sense proportion it gives me.
It is a difficult time for the world at the moment. There seems to be so much wrong, so much to fix, so much to lament :-( But every time I look up into that sky I still retain that sense of wonder, that understanding that everything is possible and that sense of serenity that comes when you realise that all your struggles can be forgotten in the grand scheme of things. It doesn't make problems go away but, for me, staring up at the night sky helps me to remember that problems and stresses are only as important as I decide to make them and there is so much more to life than that.
So next time you get a chance, pick a spot in the sky, stare at it and remember the first time you ever looked in wonder at the universe out there. Remember that time when the sky was a place of beauty and amazement. If you are anything like me then you might be amazed at how much better your own little universe feels afterwards. Especially in these trying times.
Stay safe. Show love.
Till tomorrow, Tom
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