Sunday, October 30, 2016

Catch A Falling Star, Fighter



Falling star? Who, the exotic Djinn, Huma? No, real stars, the ones they have in space. I say this because a church person invited me to the Meyers Observatory for a "star party." In case you don't know, a star party is an event at which astronomers get together and look at the stars, through their telescopes.

Well, the Meyers Observatory has a good 'scope, and I kid you not. Strange, eh? Who knew that there was a serious observatory outside of the bucolic Texan hamlet of Clifton? Not me, that's for sure, but there it is.




You park up on top of Observatory Hill, or whatever it's called, and breathe in the smell of sage, mesquite and cedar. For me that's the smell of Texas and I love it, then you notice that there's an enormous telescope.

Inside the telescopic fortress are keen astronomers, people who devote their lives to the stars, Magi with Servers. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, the den-of-geek. But you know what, their enthusiasm has a point, the heavens themselves, and you can see these through the Observatory 'scope.




Two of the Telescope's servants rigged up an eye-piece, applied themselves to a dimly redlit laptop and got to work. "What do you want to see?" their leader called out to the dark room of the Observatory's tower, "M13, M27?"




The scope moved on its preset drive to point at the right location in the sky, like a gun on a great battleship. Then there it was, a nebula, hanging in front of you in the eye-piece, 1400 light years away, along with the bright, diamond stars. It was like being transported to space itself.

Then, all too soon, it was time to snap back to local time and space and head back to the Compound.

Thanks, CH, for a great evening.

Ad Astra,

LSP


17 comments:

  1. Closest thing to heaven yet.

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  2. That looks like one heck of a cool party.

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  3. Lucky you, LSP. Sounds wonderful! I'm jealous.

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  4. A super-nerd party, for sure. I'll bet there were no lampshades on anybody's head as this party raged. Maybe at the party's zenith, Dr. Ian Schmeggeley-Smythe may have spilled his spinach smoothie.

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  5. What a beautiful description of the smell of Texas. That and gunshot.

    Looks like a totally cool party. LSP mixes with stars, no less.

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  6. I like how it is camouflaged to look like a barn and silo. Pretty neat!
    Glad you got to look on some of the unusual glory that God created.

    Have a blessed week!

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  7. You know what, LL, it really was.

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  8. A first for me, Adrienne. Quite a thing.

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  9. Fredd, I had to leave before thing's got wild and nebula spiraled out of control like a dark star crashing.

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  10. Linda, I hadn't thought of that. Well spotted...

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  11. One of those things you can really annoy militant atheists with is pointing out that the 'Big Bang Theory' was first advanced by the Astrophysicist Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaitre. A Jesuit Priest.

    After his 1935 Princeton lecture Einstein is said to have stood up and applauded, stating: "This is the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation to which I have ever listened."

    Needless to say, other less generous contemporaneous secular colleagues, dismissed his Scientific discoveries because of his Faith. The irony is so much of modern Astrophysics is informed by his work that remains under acknowledged.

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  12. I'm jealous, too. We don't have any really good battleship turret scopes up around here. Too much light pollution from Denver. Glad you had a good time!

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  13. That, Anonymous, is a very good point. People forget this.

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  14. I've never been in the turret of one of those things, Grunt. Very neat, especially when the dome revolves and the 'scope zeroes in in the redlit darkness. Big fun.

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  15. How awesome that you got to do this.
    Here we have the Hat Creek Radio Observatory: https://www.sri.com/research-development/specialized-facilities/hat-creek-radio-observatory
    an amazing place to visit...

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