Today is April 1st and besides being April Fools it is also the start of the A-Z blogging challenge.
Over the next 30 days (Sundays excepted) I will be offering a daily post based on a different letter of the alphabet from A to Z.
Today is the letter “A” and I have chosen to start with one of my lifelong passions… Astronomy.
Perhaps to some degree my choice is influenced by the fact that not only am I am enjoying the new version of Cosmos but I also recently obtained a DVD set of the original series.
However I think I might well have chosen the topic even if those two events were not on my mind.
I can remember as a child when my family would visit a campsite in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The area was only lightly developed and was pretty close to what today would be called a Dark Sky location (indeed local astronomy buffs still head up to the region now).
From that location the sky was so filled with stars and light that it took my breath away. My sister and I shared a large tent while my parents slept in the camper. While my family slept I would often slip outside of the tent and sit on a deck staring up at the skies, imagining what mysteries were out there.
At the ripe old age of eight I was convinced I would be an astronomer when I grew up and there is still part of me that regrets I was not able to have the discipline to stick to that goal. But even as an armchair astronomer I retain the wonder of the universe.
I marvel at the fact that every time we look at the sky we are looking into the past, whether it be a second with the moon or centuries with some of the stars or over 2 million years with distant yet visible galaxies.
I find it amazing that when we see the sunrise we aren’t actually seeing the sun, but a reflection of it from under the horizon (sunrise actually happens about 2 minutes after you see the sun)
When I see a new image from the Hubble observatory I still can’t wait to share with people on Facebook.
And I couldn’t resist sharing a few with you today (all of them of course property of NASA)
Enjoy