Look, Up in the Sky!

     I recently bought a pair of Orion Ultra-View 10x50 binoculars to do a little stargazing. I mean, when the stars are as clear as they are here and when you can see more with the naked eye than you ever dreamed possible, binoculars are the next step. I was spurred on by the comet Lovejoy, which i had a very small window of opportunity to see. I found it, with its faint green smudge in the sky, to right of Orion in the Southern sky, below the Pleiades. But, that was just the beginning. Within a week, I had seen so much more that I was kicking myself for not doing this sooner.

http://www.universetoday.com/106995/subaru-telescope-captures-the-fine-details-of-comet-lovejoys-tail/

     I love the stars. I love all things space. Hubble images, space shuttles, Star Wars and Star Trek. I'm all in. Except I have never been much of a star gazer. I wanted to be, but I just didn't do it. I had a telescope when I was a kid, but I grew bored quickly and then it was forgotten in a closet. Its really a shame, since now i realize that you can see the Galilean Moons and the Rings of Saturn with just a pair of binoculars. You can see the Andromeda Galaxy, the Orion Nebula, Mars, Venus, Mercury...all in much more striking detail than I ever thought was possible without a telescope with a high magnification. The awe it inspires is...awe inspiring! The more I look, the more I want to see.

http://www.mikesastrophotos.com/tag/nebula/

     I am obsessed with the moons of Jupiter. When I first look at Jupiter a few weeks ago, on a crystal clear night here in Southern Germany, I thought the little bright dots next to it were stars. It was only after a few minutes that I realized they were some combination of Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. How I didn't know I could almost see them with the naked eye shows how distracted I have been with other things in my life. I have spent my life fascinated with the Solar System, space exploration, the images Hubble send back to Earth..all of it. But I never really took the time to look up myself. Call me lazy, blame it on light pollution or my obsession with television, but the very things I was awed by I never bothered to go outside and look at on my own.

http://cs.astronomy.com/asy/m/planets/453251.aspx

      I think so many of us are distracted in the same ways. We are all caught up in the machine that has us up at dawn for coffee, in the car to the office by 8am, back in time for soccer practice at 5:30pm, all the while nose-deep in our smart phones watching cats attack balls of yarn or answering Facebook messages with "smh" or "lmfao". We wander through life, focused on careers and values and our beliefs, failing to take into account the very things that make our reality so beautiful. Instead of gazing at the stars and wondering what's up there, how it got there and what will happen next, we are fixated on our laptops and Facebook memes and whether or not the Patriots are world-class cheaters (which everyone knows they are).

     Stop looking down at that glow device in your hand. Look up! Turn the TV off and take your kids outside. Take some binoculars. If you're addicted to your smartphone, put it to good use and download the Skyview app. Go to the park or wherever the light doesn't block the heavens. The Universe is more than buying things and saving for retirement. There are wonders conjure wild fantasies and humbling thoughts that put life into perspective. Next time it's clear at night, go outside. What do you see? As I found out, more than I thought possible.