This column was supposed to be about my experience going to Open Nights at the Kirkwood Observatory, but when I saw clouds and lightning Wednesday night, I opted out. I don’t have time to potentially get struck by lightning; I have finals to finish.
But I’ll try again at some point, because I’ve loved stargazing ever since 2016 when my family took a trip out in the western United States. We drove into the dark at Bryce Canyon National Park for a ranger-led stargazing session and the memory is still enchanting.
The night skies at Bryce Canyon are some of the darkest in the country, and that night the viewing was phenomenal. It was the first time I ever saw the constellation Scorpius.
I think that’s also where I learned about Cygnus, the swan constellation also known as the Northern Cross. Cygnus’s brightest star is Deneb, which is one of the three points making up the Summer Triangle.
The Summer Triangle isn’t technically a constellation but a star formation. Still, it’s an easily identifiable pattern in the night sky, and I love looking up and being able to give a name to what I see.
Stargazing is wonderful, and I mean that in the sense that it is wonder-full. I know that if I can find Cygnus and the sky is clear enough, I can see the Milky Way, that bright haze of our galaxy. That’s mind-blowing when I stop to think about it.
There’s also something that I find so comforting about stargazing. Knowing, even if just a little bit, how to navigate the galaxy helps me orient myself on Earth. If I can find the Big Dipper, I can trace a line from the end of its ladle to Polaris, the North Star. Sometimes I even remember how to estimate my latitude from the angle between the North Star and the horizon.
This analog knowledge matters to me because it’s so easy to live a cloistered life as a college student. I drive around town in a climate-controlled car and spend much of my day inside a building, staring at a computer screen. My apartment is bug-free (thankfully), and I buy my produce from Kroger instead of picking it off a plant myself. There’s a disconnect between me and the natural world.
Amid all of this, going outside reminds me that there’s a whole planet out there. People have been living on — and not insulated from — this Earth for ages. There’s so much about our world that I don’t know, but spending time looking at the night sky broadens my horizons a little bit each time.
Looking at light that has travelled trillions of miles makes me aware of how small I am in the universe. Some people might find that discomfiting, but to me, it’s soothing. I get so wrapped up in all the things going on in my life that it’s a mental breather to remember there’s a whole lot more to reality than just what I experience.
Looking at the stars, or even the depth of a blue sky on a clear day, gives me perspective. Stargazing, funnily enough, helps keep me grounded.
