San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Two celestial events occurring this month
Pondering the concept of infinity hurts my head.
For many, the subject first came up while allowing their mind to drift into the vast universe from some remote location where a brilliant, starry sky triggered a boundless imagination.
Philosophers, clergymen and mathematicians have weighed in endlessly on the subject.
The idea of an endless universe is both an intellectual or scientific challenge for some. For others it’s an affair of the heart.
Fortunately, we live in an area where we can seek dark skies that will allow the intellect or the heart to drift into infinite reaches of the universe and all that it might mean.
Just a few miles east of our coastal urban centers, places like Julian and Borrego Springs are free of light pollution, offering a place where people can discover the beauty and wonder of a clear, dark, night sky.
It’s not that way in many parts of the world and I wonder what we have lost as a result?
Many urban areas of the world are so filled with lighting that there is essentially no real nighttime darkness. There are children, and adults for that matter, who have never seen the summer Milky Way or the momentary flash of a meteor.
I recently asked a friend visiting from Germany what he was most interested in seeing here.
The answer surprised me when he said he had never seen the Milky Way or a dark, night sky filled with stars. I sent him to Anzaborrego, and he was so enthralled that he made three trips out there to marvel at the wondrous night sky from a blanket beside the road. He was touched by the experience.
There are two celestial events this month that can be enhanced if viewed from a dark sky location. It could also be an opportunity to explore infinity.
Tonight until dawn Monday the sky will hopefully be ablaze from the fiery bursts of the Geminid meteor shower as tiny specks of space dust ignite when entering our atmosphere.
Hopes are especially high for a spectacular event this year because there will be no competition from moonlight.
This is one of the better meteor showers of the year, with as many as 150 an hour visible when viewing conditions are ideal.
There is no effort to watching a meteor shower, other than dressing warmly, finding a dark location and kicking back in a comfortable chair.
It’s an ideal time to gaze into the distant heavens and begin to explore the physical universe before you. It may also lead to exploration of the spiritual or intellectual universe within.
I’m a strong advocate for introducing children to the wonders of the universe. Their curious minds benefit so much from the questions they inevitably ask.
There are many things to ponder.
How does the heart and mind deal with knowing that the light from the softly glowing Orion Nebula is 1,344 light years away? That means the light we are seeing is arriving here now after traveling at 186,000 miles per second for more than a millennium. Is that infinity?
On a dark summer night, the star clouds of the Milky Way are mesmerizing, but consider the fact that they are 100,000 light years away. If my math is correct, a light year is about 6 trillion miles. So that means the Milky Way is 100,000 times more than that distance. I can’t write a number that big. Is that infinity?
I don’t have the answers, but it does humble me when put into perspective and compared to our life’s time horizon.
The second astronomical event this month will be a rare conjunction between the planets Saturn and Jupiter. Both planets are now visible in the southwestern night sky after sunset but getting closer to each other every evening as they dance through the cosmos.
Just after sunset on Dec. 21, the planets will be about 0.1 degree apart, so close as to appear as a single, extremely bright star on the low horizon after sunset. Some are calling this the Christmas Star or Star of Bethlehem.
While it’s common for the two planets to travel together this time of the year, they have not been visibly this close since the year 1226.
Perhaps the Christmas Star is a sign of hope that 2021 will be a much better year than 2020.