Return of Memoryfest - Day 21/31

[bironic]

We went stargazing tonight at a small observatory about 60 miles east of here, almost at the end of the north fork of Long Island. After a nice 90-minute lecture on naked-eye astronomy from a local university professor, we went out into the bitter, windy cold so one of the employees could point out the easier constellations and show us some

Comments

[synn]

How ironic! I just watched a show about space.
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alright, so the two are not really anything alike. At least it was a highly entertaining show, so I am less sorry that I've never had the chance to see saturn -- even a wavering version through a telescope -- because now I know that there are Ice volcanos made of nitrogen.

Were you able to find casseopea? taurus? orion? There will be a test next time we're out on a clear night : )

[bironic]

Of course they are alike. Stars are in space. What was the program about, Jupiter's moons?

Never seen Saturn? Absolutely tragic. You should come over some night and we'll break out the telescope and show you stuff. There's a workshop on Feb. 3 that we're/he's going to that'll help us learn its ins and outs, and then we should be able to really use it. There's going to be a conjunction around then involving Aldebaran and I think Mercury.

:) Yes, no and yes. Orion and I have instant recognition. Learnt a trick last night for finding Taurus, Gemini and Canis Major off Orion that I want to test out.

[nightdog_barks]

The first time I ever saw the Milky Way was in New Braunfels, Texas. My boyfriend (whom I later married, and am still married to, over twenty years later) were camping just outside of the town.

We were together, lying in a sleeping bag on the ground, and I looked up and saw a waterfall of stars spilling across the sky.

I'd never seen anything like it before, and it brought home to me not only the vastness of the universe but the ineffable constancy of presence within it.

Did that make any sense? I doubt it. But it's why these days I wear a small gold Celtic knot always around my neck -- never ending, always beginning.

It's the least I can do.

[thewlisian_afer]

I think it makes sense, and I think it's lovely. :)

[elynittria]

There's a very complicated Scottish country dance that's based on the particular type of Celtic knot found in the Luckenbooth brooch. I always enjoyed that dance: it was like enacting a finite, spatial representation of infinity.

[thewlisian_afer]

When I was in third grade a boy of Iraqi descent (years later I learned that his father was actually born in Iraq and came here when he was a teenager) named Darius moved to my school district and joined my class. He had glasses with unattractive frames that were never quite straight, his parents dressed him like Steve Urkel, he walked like Urkel and he was just generally Very Strange. My two best friends and I did our very best at first to help him fit in more, but he was completely unreceptive of help from girls. This annoyed us more than a little, so we decided to let his weirdness run rampant

[crazypalefreak]

My stargazing story:

On my recent trip to Australia, I spent one night camping out in the Lamington National Forest just west of the Gold Coast. Our little group were walking across a paddock towards a lodge where we would watch a guy play the digeridoo. I looked up at the very clear sky and noticed a sort of wispiness I'd never seen before. I suddenly realised it was the Milky Way. I shouted 'Holy shit! It's the Milky-fucking-way!' and everyone laughed at me.

[kabal42]

Not quite related either, but still. And a happy one today! :-D

I was, I think, one of the very few people at my very tiny library (where I lived age 11-18) who ever read sci-fi or fantasy. And I read all they had and more than once *G* One time, the elderly librarian there, who knew and remembered everyone (town only had 2000 inhabitants) asked me if I'd read a book they just got and tell him if it was any good and a bit of an outline so he knew who he should recommend it for. I was 12 and very proud of that. He did this once or twice more and I've always loved him for that kindness.