The Stars At Night

Comes January, cold weather and clear skies under high pressure systems. I drag a chair out of the garage, sit in the driveway and search out familiar constellations. At my age I must sit down if I want to look straight up or use binoculars.

It’s early evening and Orion the Mighty Hunter shines at his brightest, a gorgeous winter constellation. Tonight I’m looking elsewhere for those best seen in Autumn. Sure enough I find Cassiopeia, the Broken-Back Chair according to my grandmother Baird. Between Cassiopeia and the Square of Pegasus I find that faint star which is the Andromeda Galaxy.

Ancients knew it wasn’t a real star but a nebulous object. Only in the last century did astronomers become aware that Andromeda was another spiral galaxy, like our own Milky Way. Mom liked the term “Island Universe.” Better and bigger telescopes tell us so much more about Andromeda. Among other things – it’s bigger than the Milky Way and it’s headed our way.

What would it be like, to sit in this chair and see the Andromeda Galaxy about the size of the full moon? Will some old man have that pleasure, off in the future? Not likely – it will take Andromeda a few billion years to get here. Where will humanity be?

The earth will eventually become inhabitable, even without our efforts to speed its demise. Will humanity die with it? Or does Kim Stanley Robinson, in his Mars trilogy, have a better vision? Will mankind manage to terraform and then colonize Mars? Then the satellites of the big planets? And then, off to nearby stars? Will we spread like an epidemic throughout the Milky Way? Then, perhaps, some old man will gaze across at Andromeda and say, “Let’s go there.”

Dac Crossley
January 16, 2016

“A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject.” – Seneca.

“The stars at night, are big and bright.” – Perry Como.

Comments

[Augie]

Dac, how my heart smiles when I hear about the constellations. I love the night sky, thank you for reminding us of the vastness of the universe and our world of freedom

[Shirley J White]

I haven't really seen the stars in many years! Can't Seem to get far enough away from the city lights!