It's Sunday morning and I overnighted at my Mom's farm. I'm a town dweller, and my only real opportunity to catch the magnificence of the night sky is at the farm. I told my Mom that when I'm at my home, I can see the stars, but when I am at her home, I can see the galaxy.
This Lent Season has me on a journey through all the influences and voices that have inspired and educated me in the last few years of my deconversion. Those voices have brought some sense to the strange experiences I had no words for. I will continue to share those influences and even discover new voices as I journey through Lent. Today, I want to share the strongest voice, the greatest influence in my journey away from the mythology of my past. It's the stars (and the occasional planet that I can't identify in the vast cosmic ocean of the galaxy).
I don't know all their names, I am somewhat familiar with a few of the groupings of stars that show themselves in my Northern Hemisphere home. Today, I want to learn some names.
One of the more common groupings, is the Big Dipper. I have seen these stars off and on for the last fifty five years of my life. I never knew their names until this morning.
Alkaid, Mizar, Alioth, Megrez, Phecda, Dubhe and Merak all make up the asterism "The Big Dipper". My ignorance of cosmology had me thinking that the Big Dipper was a constellation, but it is actually called an asterism. The constellation is Ursa Major which includes the Big Dipper. Don't get me started on how confusing that was for me. But I will leave it up to a cosmologist to explain that one.
The seven names of the stars of the Big Dipper are of Arabic origin. I find that fascinating. The cosmos has no political boundaries. I like that.
Another factoid that amazes me is just how far away the stars are from my vantage point on earth. The data suggests that they are about 80 light years away. That means the light shining off those stars takes 80 years to get to me. I am seeing light that existed and started it's journey towards me decades before I was born. Wow!
Let's do some math and see how that looks in actual distance. So one light year is about 6 trillion miles. So those stars are 480,000,000,000,000 (480 quadrillion) miles from me. Now that is for my American neighbours. Let's make that number a bit bigger by translating it into kilometres - 768 quadrillion km. Compare that to the circumference of the earth which is 40,075 km. That is equivalent 19,164,067,373 trips around the equator of the earth to reach the stars of the Big Dipper.
I just shared that bit of information with my mother and told her that it's very humbling to understand how insignificant humans are when we look at the massiveness of the cosmos. We are not the centre of the universe. She had a smile on her face. She understands that we live in a very big universe. I am grateful for that. Religion has narrowed a lot of people's view down to the ground they walk on. I am thankful that my mom can see past her world to the magnificence of the cosmos beyond.
I tried to capture with my Iphone 14 some of the magnificence I saw this morning around 6:00 am Alberta time. They were okay images, but didn't do the real thing justice. I would recommend anyone to find a dark place away from city lights and experience the beauty that the night sky has to offer. It just might humble you, too.
