The Clear Sky Blues

(Plain Text Version)

A Perfect Night Can Be Troublesome

The sky is clear and black, and the Moon is out of sight.  I am far away from the city lights.  It is a warm night without mosquitoes.  The telescope has been working well.  Best of all, I don’t have to get up for work tomorrow.  It is a perfect night to go out and enjoy the sky.

However, I am already enjoying the skies.  I am looking at my new book of Hubble images.  Plus, I am a bit tired.  And, it can be a big deal to set up the scope.  It is so hard to hold it with one hand and open the door with the other hand.  And I’ll probably run into problems.

A little voice is scolding me: This is your chance to go out and observe.  It may be a long time before you have another one.  How about a little effort!  What would Herschel say about this?  Is this the way Galileo worked?  What about the Arabian and Chinese astronomers of long ago?  Would they be staying inside?

OK, so what if I am lazy?  I don’t have to go out, just because it is clear, dark, warm, Moon-free and mosquito-free.

But the memory of this lost opportunity will haunt me in February, March, and April.  Worst of all, I will have to keep an awkward silence the next time we are complaining about the cloudy skies.

In short, I am in turmoil because this is a perfect night.  If it were cloudy, cold, Moonlit, or mosquito infested, I wouldn’t feel so bad. 

I have an idea.  I have a compromise.  I need to take the trash out anyway.  I’ll just look at the sky for a couple of minutes.  I’ll be able to say it was a great night to look at the stars, and that I took advantage of the opportunity.  (Maybe I will find that it is cloudy after all.)

So out I go.  Wow…the Milky Way is thick tonight…Polaris beckons from the north…My right eye catches the Seven Sisters.  Capella is rising in the northeast.  Arcturus is fading in the west.  I turn to the south, and Jupiter almost hurts my eyes.   

I dump the trash and go for the scope.  I will get there before the clouds get a chance.