DESERT STARGAZING

 DESERT STARGAZING

Tulip was wandering around the grounds of a high-end gated residential community in Palm Desert, California, when she came across a strategically placed red ballooned lawn sign announcing a Monday night stargazing event. It would be hosted by the local branch of the Astronomical Society of the Desert, featuring the expertise and expensive equipment of three learned astronomers.

That evening, after a lovely dinner of Chinese food leftovers, she walked over to the viewing site with her host friend, arriving early as usual. An Elton John tune was playing from the guettoblaster: Benny and The Jets. 

The volunteer greeters and program coordinator had just finished setting up. They gave each person a sticker with a planetary image, a star shaped chocolate, and matching cookie. They directed them to walk up the hill to the large green space on the country golf course, to secure a spot for ideal sightings, help themselves to free coffee, hot chocolate, hot cider, cookies and chips, and engage with the astronomers who had already set up a very large and powerful binocular and two very large telescopes, next to a box filled with high magnification lenses. (100-350X)

At this point Tulip pinches herself to be sure this is not a dream. She is sitting on the greens of a swank private golf course, in the desert. She’s in the company of actual passionate astronomers who have come to share their knowledge and pride in the profession with a bunch of neophytes with various degrees of little to no astronomy knowledge. It was surreal.

All three astronomers calmly and proudly gave everyone an explanation of what was about to happen. They told the group of curious guests about how they set up their instruments and how observers should stand to look into the lens without touching the devices.

The sightings started with the most obvious — the quarter moon. Through the lens of the high powered binoculars, the inside of the crescent looked like a bunch of frizzy strands of hair unnoticeable by the human eye alone. Next the telescope was set up to view Jupiter and its three moons, or three of its moons, one of which is known to be actively and regularly volcanic.  After a short break for questions and explanations, the third telescope was ready to show us the constellation called Orion. The astronomer used a laser beam to direct eyes to its location in the darkened sky, identifying each of its stars, before giving each guest a chance to view that spot of the earth’s galaxy through various heavily magnified telescopic lenses. The experience was incredible, intriguing and quite simply — awesome.  The passionate astronomers know a great deal about earth’s galaxy but they, too, admit there is still so much more to discover and understand.

At this point, Tulip stepped back from the cluster of thirty enlightened stargazers. In the pitch dark, she found her way to the Adirondack chair holding her snacks, folding chair and towel, sat back with her head looking up at the heavens, realizing there is still so much to learn about the world, and about life for that matter. In the background she could hear the sounds of “Ground control to Major Tom” coming from the depths of her imagination. 

As the desert temperature dropped to 55F, it felt like a good time to pack up to go home to reflect. This wonderful evening made Tulip discover that there really is a lot of mystery and wonder in all aspects of life: the world and the universe; the forests; the trees; the oceans, lakes and rivers; and humanity —still so much to discover and understand. It’s up to each person to open up their curious minds and realize there is more relevance to life, people and things than what meets the eye.