A place where we practice random acts of insight and humor.
Published on September 29, 2006 By OckhamsRazor In Astronomy
In Napoli, Italy, garbage is burned. And aside from the smoke that puts into the air, it is common for sand to blow up into the air from Africa, travel over here, and rain dirt on to our cars. Suffice it to say that the atmosphere is less than spectacular here. They say that just living in Napoli is like smoking a half pack of cigarettes a day.

Last week we had a lot of rain, and I look forward to that because it serves to clear the air.

I have this little porch like place that's out of a side door in my living area. I go out there to smoke, usually, (a half pack isn't enough for me), and while sitting and smoking I contemplate various things. I was blessed with a sight the day after the week of rain finally stopped - the clearest most beautiful sky you can imagine. I even called my wife out to look...I go out there every early morning while it's still dark, but on this day, I could see three times as many stars.

I've posted this article where it belongs - in astronomy, but I hope that those of you who take the night sky for granted - as something that's just there that you never think about - will take a few moments tonight (weather permitting) and go outside and turn your gaze upwards.

In the midst of all the things we all think are so important, the night sky is easy to ignore, because it reminds us, in objective visible terms, just how petty are our problems, and how small we really are.

Go tonight and look and think about it. Forget your theologian and political debates. Forget the latest thing you've argued about here on Joeuser. Forget the dramas you're engaged in whether in your regular life or here in the Blogosphere, and look up. The Verse is beautiful. Look at it.

Everywhere, stars.

Comments
on Sep 29, 2006
I've slept on the ground in the middle of no where rural Texas in my life and to awaken at three-four A.M. and see the stars in their clarity miles from any light pollution is a wonderful thing. The night sky, like the empty horizon of the ocean always humbles me and brings me a kind of peace.

Thanks for posting this, a very nice article indeed.
on Sep 29, 2006

I use to live in Lakeside Ca.  It is considered dessert.  And that was before SD starting poluting the sky!  Yes, at night, you could see stars and stars!  I once watched the Pleides (sp) meteor shower and thought it was a bunch of space ships coming to earth (I was 12 at the time and never heard of the 2 meteor showers).

Where I live now is too cloudy to see it (and too near a big city).  But I know what you are talking about.  I miss those nights.

on Sep 29, 2006
They say that just living in Napoli is like smoking a half pack of cigarettes a day.


That sounds grotty.

I sometimes go sit up on the hill in the field with the ponies and jsut look up at the night sky - it is quite beautiful
on Sep 29, 2006

I am going to take this advice and go out tonite and star gaze with my honey bunny.. thanx for the heads up.

 

MM

on Sep 29, 2006
wish i could, but the NYC's ambient light obscures just about everything. When I was at school in upstate NY, though, we used to get great views of meteor showers, and aurora borealis a couple of times.
on Sep 29, 2006
and aurora borealis a couple of times.


Never seen that. But hope to!
on Sep 30, 2006
Write more, there are quite a few of us here that miss you.


I am very flattered by that thought.

You probably know that I'm always here, but that it takes quite a lot for me to actually post something. Those stars that night pushed me over the edge

I wish I could be more prolific sometimes, but I'm just not a prolific kind of guy.

Hope you're doing well, Whip. I'm always listening even if I don't say much.
on Oct 14, 2006
Ock

Yes, I enjoy star gazing. Soon my favorite constellation, Orion, will be visible in the south. The auroras we get here are spectacular......what a light show. Would have liked to observe Halley's Comet in 1986, but was in the wrong hemisphere and I will be long gone the next time it comes around. My Grandfather was fortunate enough to have seen it, but for some reason, he did not find it all that compelling. He had no idea that what he witnessed is seen only every 76 years and only in some parts of the globe. Get yourself a telescope and you'll be in for a real treat.

Happy gazing.

Orionsbelt 77