So yesterday I said I was tired. I got into work this morning and still felt exhausted. So I planned to go to bed early tonight. Well, as you can see from the posting time, that didn’t quite happen.
While walking home last night I saw that the moon was quite bright, nearly full. I couldn’t see any stars because a haze had apparently settled over everything. So at work today I commented on that to Wayne, who is an astronomy buff. He was looking for a night to use his telescope. He checked the weather report and saw that it would be clear tonight. Do I want to go and look at stars and planets this evening?
How can I say no to that?
So, after the improv class (I need to stop thinking so much) I drove off to Wayne’s and looked through his telescope. There really isn’t that much to see. Most stars when seen through a telescope are just brighter pinpoints of light. Often you will see that they are actually two stars orbited each other, but that just makes two pinpoints of light.
The orion nebula was very faint, but I could see it. Saturn was amazing. I could see the shadows of the mountains on the moon. There weren’t many of those because the moon is practically full.
The things that struck me the most was the lack of color. In all the photographs of stellar objects, they are a rainbow of colors. But when seen through a telescope, it is all white or black. Wayne says that is because the low light receptors in our eyes can’t see color.
Still, well worth the trip. Now I really have to go to sleep.