Posted by Davin Flateau on 20 Mar 2006 at 5:51 pm.
Filed under Astronomy.
In between dodging trucks in the morning highway traffic, and somewhere between a left turn signal and a stop sign, I was briefly thrown out of my car, transported to the clear, cold dark sky of the Utah night. On NPR’s Morning Edition today, author Craig Childs shared with listeners the lost beauty of camping under the expansive, luminous night sky our planet shares with us.
Overhead, the huge frame of Orion swings around the north star, dragging all the other constellations along with it in an outrageous show… I’m left sitting on a dark earth, floating among the stars. This is why I do not withdraw into a tent in the winter. Some people say such an expanse of sky makes them feel small and insignificant. I feel just the opposite. Like a giant, limitless, like I could lift this stick and touch any one of the stars… There’s a whole Universe out here passing by. And tonight, I feel like I could stand up from these shackles of cold, and step out across the stars, striding like a God through this beautiful night.
