Flossie and I returned earlier this week from a restful and renewing four weeks away in which most of our time was spent in the desert home of friends in Borrego Springs, California, a “dark sky community” in which the night-time lighting is kept to a minimum. The emotional highlight of my time there was related to the night sky, which I attended to in a way I haven’t before, even though I’ve been to the area many times before.
And, now, what I’m going to describe will certainly be the most elemental of observations to anyone interested in the night sky – and I apologize in advance to all professional and amateur astronomers, as well as to any half-way observant persons of the night sky – but here goes:
Since my childhood and youth in rural Lynden, Washington, I’ve always been able to locate the Big Dipper in the northern night sky. And sometimes, though never with any great assurance, I’ve located what I took to be the Little Dipper. Also, I had heard that the North Star is part of the Little Dipper and that two of the four stars that form the cup of the Big Dipper point to the North Star. And, I had heard that the North Star was also the Pole Star. Well, finally, in my 70th year, I experienced what this was actually about.
Around 5pm in that part of the country, the sky would begin to darken. As it did, over the Santa Rosa mountains to the north of Borrego Springs, the Big Dipper would begin to appear: first, only the two stars at the front of the cup; then, as the hours went by, the whole of the Big Dipper. At the same time, to the left of the Big Dipper from my perspective, the Little Dipper also began to be visible, with the North Star, which is at the end of the handle, being the most visible.
And here’s what moved me then: As the hours of the night went by – and I would check often during my time there – 10pm, 12am, 2am, 4am, 5:30am – not each night at those times, but whenever I might awaken on a given night – and I would witness the bowl of the heavens wheeling clockwise around the Pole Star. The Big Dipper would come up and around, then disappear into daylight on the other side of the Pole Star. So, too, the stars of the Little Dipper would rotate around the North Star, with it remaining stationary.
It was the wheeling of the “dome of heaven” with the North Star as the pivot point that somehow got to me – the most elementary of astronomical knowledge and awareness, something our forbears would take for granted. Perhaps, it was that very elemental aspect that touched me: To witness the North Star as an anchor point, providing a place of orientation. To connect with ancestors guided by the North Star on night sea journeys. To enjoy the ride on our earth as it spun in its orbit around our star under the expanse of stars. I understood why one might want to be an astronomer … or a shepherd.
Bruce Bode
Growing up in downtown San Francisco, I never “saw” the night sky.
Then when I was thirteen, I went to a church Choir Camp at Lake Tahoe.
There I first viewed the firmament in all it’s astounding clarity.
Additionally, swimming in a pristine Lake Tahoe I could see the rocks, magnified by the water, 1644 feet below me on the bottom of the lake.
It was an awe filled week, one which I rarely think about. Thank you for your written piece which prompted my memory.
Beautiful share. Thank you
My grandfather, living in northern Minnesota, built telescopes, grinding the lenses in his workshop in the barn, showed me Jupiter with 4 of its moons, our moon , and told me about some of the constellations. Mel grew up on a north Idaho farm and loved studying the heavens.
Yes, yes, and it is even more so when you have even a small telescope and look at the wanderers (the planets). Even in the smallest scopes the bands and moons of Jupiter jump out, and the rings of Saturn amaze the uninitiated. With higher powers novae and galaxies come into view, and with hubble the universe reveals its origins as one looks billions of years back in time. Dark Matter, Black holes, and Supermassive black holes all dance in circles around us. I will be taking my childhood 2.5″ refractor to Nepal this year and begin to give our kids a sense of the awe and wonder and mystery that surrounds us.
Wow! Amazing! Today’s date, 2-2, and your Blog! Wow to the Max! I will summarize at a later time…T’will be worth a read for you!
We’re going there next week. Thanks so much to alerting us to this beautiful sky watching.
I love this, Bruce. I’ve always been enchanted by the night sky…my mother tells me I used to wake her up in the middle of the night when I was 3 demanding to be taken outside to look at the moon and the sky. She told me once I was so excited I ran yelling down the driveway “the moon! the moon! the moon!”, fell and bloodied my knee, and jumped right up, oblivious, yelling “the moon! the moon! the moon!” I love that you are enchanted, too.
I was transported by your description of the movement of the stars. The big and little dippers are the limit of my star knowledge also. One of my ‘bucket list’ wishes is to see the Milky Way again. Thank you for sharing your story of discovery and wonder.
So special we are upon the star…our star of the north stabilizes our planet and shines Amazing Grace for all to be!
Dear Bruce & QUUF,
Since the Gordon clan are all now living on the Big Island of Hawaii, we have been exposed to the amazing skill of our ancient and modern Hawaiian sea explorers who use the night sky to navigate their massive canoes across thousands of miles of ocean! Like the famous Hokulea canoe from Hawaii that recently traversed the entire globe in 2015-17! And, like you, it gave us a new appreciation of the wonders of our star-filled sky at night!
Aloha and Mahalo nui loa (thank you very much) for sharing your new-found appreciation for the wonders of our universe! We are all in the “same boat”, or should I say “canoe”, floating in a universe of stars?!!
Dear Bruce & QUUF,
Since the Gordon clan are all now living on the Big Island of Hawaii, we have been exposed to the amazing skill of our ancient and modern Hawaiian sea explorers who use the night skill to navigate their large canoes across thousands of miles of ocean! Like the famous Hokulea canoe from Hawaii that recently traversed the globe in 2015-17! And, like you, it gave us a new appreciation of the wonders of our star-filled sky at night!
Aloha and Mahalo nui loa (thank you very much) for sharing your new-found appreciation for the wonders of our universe! We are all in the “same boat”, or should I say “canoe”, floating in a universe of stars?!!
Hello Rev. Bode; thanks for your kind note and sharing your thoughts, much appreciated! I’m a new guy on the scene; having attended last Tue. Orientation meeting I fell even more in live with the UU Ideals and spiritual goals. I plan to start attending the 9:15 service This Sunday! Look forward to more kind and accepting fellowship ;-). brother Tim
Hi, Bruce..I love your blog! If you are not already a fan of Neil de Grasse tyason, I urge you to google his pages. he is an astrophysicist with a wicked sense of humor and who waxes poetic and passionate about our skies and the universe.
Wow!