Fifty Words, History, Nature, Uncategorized

Seeing Stars

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Today marks the anniversary in 1609 of Galileo demonstrating his telescope to the Venetian Senate.  Imagine what they must have experienced looking through it. I wonder how they wrapped their minds around what they saw and what they thought they knew about the universe? I hope he demonstrated it at night so they could really see the stars.

What are your favorite Heavenly objects? Have you ever seen stars?

33 thoughts on “Seeing Stars”

  1. This morning I watched with the naked eye the International Space Station. It moved from the southwest to the north in about four minutes time.

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  2. Sometime when I was in Jr. High, I got up one morning and reached out to turn on the light switch on the wall by the door as I walked into the hallway. At that time my mother had clear, thin, plastic wall protectors around the light switches so dirty fingers wouldn’t soil the paint around the switch covers. I rammed the wall protector right underneath my thumb nail. I was only half awake, stumbled into the bathroom, saw my hand covered in blood, semi fainted, collapsed , and hit my head on the tub. I saw stars and heard loud whistles that I thought was the 8:00 am siren that was set off every morning in Luverne. It was only 7:00 at the time. I lost my thumbnail eventually.

    I always ask people during psychological evals if they ever have been knocked out or concussed. They invariably say no, until I ask if they ever saw stars, and then they say yes. This is particularly true of guys who have been in bar fights or who are played football in high school or college. They never consider that as part of head trauma.

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  3. Rise and Look Up, Baboons,

    I have never been very focused on the skies. I never got the hang of identifying various planets and stars. No one around me seemed to look up much either.

    I wish I would have learned to garden/plant by moon phases. My maternal grandfather used to plant this way and that man, as disagreeable as he was, could grow anything. I learned a lot about gardening from my mother’s parents, especially organic methods which I just thought was how everyone gardened. Of course I was missing the unending supply of animal manure that they had right there on the farm. I have to go purchase it in bags! They would absolutely be in disbelief at that. I used to go fetch a pail of manure for grandma so she could put it in the bottom of a pot of flowers As fertilizer. But I missed the moon phase part. Of course, Grandpa did not talk much, so I suppose he did not think to tell anyone about that.

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  4. Gotta go with the Aurora Borealis (if that phenomenon qualifies as a heavenly body). If not, then Sophia Loren in her acting days. If that’s not good enough, then I think Saturn is pretty cool with its rings. Comets are nifty too if you can see them well enough. Our moon is good too because it’s so close and man has been there and stories have been written about it (mainly sci-fi) or have “moon” titles (songs too–Moon River, etc.) I think we can all imagine being a pioneer and living on the moon in a biosphere-type colony.

    Chris in O-town

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  5. i’m an orion guy
    always have been
    how can you beat orion?

    saw garrisson keillor at the state fair a couple years ago
    paul newman in a bar in brainerd
    casey jones in a perkins
    kevin garnet at a vikings game

    they all look like plain folks when they’re out there in the world . i guess they are.

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  6. Morning-
    I step out every night and look at the sky.
    Right now, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars are out there every night. Jupiter and Saturn are the bright ones to the south. Mars is the red one off to the East.
    Pretty soon Orion, my friend, my buddy, Orion will be coming up in the East. If I stay up late enough I should be able to see him soon.

    I’ve always been interested in the sky. Maybe it goes back to the Apollo moon Missions when I was an impressionable 5 yr old. And then the Space Shuttles. I had models of the Saturn V rockets and did 4H demonstrations on them. Posters on the walls of my room of the shuttle.
    (Just read an article in ‘Air and Space’ magazine about the escape system devised for the Shuttles after the Challenger tragedy. It’s a fascinating article. One guy called it “Busywork while dying”. Man, what a thought!
    Read it here: https://www.airspacemag.com/airspacemag/escape-speeding-shuttle-180975606/ )

    I took astronomy in high school. I already knew the teacher as he went to our church. And he was really fun. He also ran the planetarium and that was always such a cool experience.

    I’ve always had my head in the clouds.

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    1. What a very good, simple idea: “I step out every night and look at the sky.” Hmmm…

      I have never seen stars from being knocked out. Heck, I don’t think I’ve ever been knocked out.

      It has to be the moon for me, esp. since we’ve been doing our sunset/moonrise outings.

      Moonrise/Sunset


      Last month we joined another group of friends at the Wagon Bridge on Latsch Island for Full Moonrise.

      Favorite constellations are Cassiopeia, and the Teapot, which should be visible about now… I would love to see, but never have, a full blown Aurora.

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      1. I’m fairly sure I saw stars in the sense of a concussion. The first time I kissed a girl I lacked technique and confidence, so I went for it quickly. We conked teeth hard enough I was dazed and thought I’d seen stars.

        Sorry, Gretchen. I got better with practice.

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  12. I’ve mentioned the only stars I knew personally, neither of whom were stars at the time. Nick Nolte was a tall, charismatic kid when we were neighbors. He would have been about ten at the time. Peter Coyote was a painfully self-absorbed Artistic Young Man when we met as undergrad students. He scared me until I got to know him. We exchanged email notes a few years ago. Peter has embraced Zen Buddhism, and on him it looks good.

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  13. Every winter the local fire department would flood a small field to create a skating rink. Most of the time, open skating was the rule. There were specific times that boys could play “hockey” (their version, not the official kind). Arthur, a big kid from my elementary school class, and a few of his buddies decided to play some hockey during the open skating hours. He managed to body check me and I hit the ice hard. Not sure if I actually blacked out, but all I could see was stars for about ten seconds.

    I have spent my entire life in MN but have yet to see an Aurora Borealis – maybe a little bit of one once. Sure would love to witness one.

    The only encounter with a “star” that I can think of is once being behind Frank Viola at a local gift shop counter. I didn’t say anything to him but his World Series ring was impressive. Oh….almost forgot, I ran into Ann Reed and her wife at Narita Airport in Tokyo a few years back. They were on their way to Bhutan and I was on my way to Vietnam. Fun encounter!

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    1. K-Two, aurora displays are commonly seen in northern regions. In Grand Marais, for example, there is a green glow along the northern horizon most nights in winter. We saw several spectacular auroras from our cabin (which was as far north as Duluth in an area where the night sky was highly visible).

      If you want to see an aurora display I think there are now internet sites that predict evenings when you are likely to get lucky, especially if you are north of the Twin Cities and have night air free of light pollution.

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    2. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a really good aurora display. More often we get just the edges and you can tell something looks different over there but it almost looks like clouds maybe….? Wiggly clouds.

      I remember one night coming home and I had the camera with me and there was a really amazing display that night. I stood the camera on the hood of the car and got a few pictures.

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  14. My dad loved the stars in the sky and space and I inherited some of that from him. I’m a Pluto fan; I do understand the science behind demoting Pluto but it didn’t make me happy anyway. I love it’s heart shaped ice field.

    Working in the bookstore I met quite a few celebrities. I think I’ve probably spoken about Leo Buscaglia and Robert Schuller before. They were my favorites. But I’ve met quite a few others including Gary Larson, Garrison Keillor, and Rosalynn Carter. I also saw Robert Mitchum once at a restaurant in Maui but he was eating so I didn’t bother him.

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