The greatest roller coaster in the cosmos
The joy that comes from being connected to the stars and galaxy
Happy last day of Pride Month to all,
I went to Huntsville’s Pride parade yesterday, and it was just wonderful. The beautiful colors, smiling faces, dancing people, and outpouring of love and acceptance represent the world I want to live in all the time.
I’ve been thinking about what my next essay will be about. I continue to have doubts that this newsletter idea is even a worthwhile pursuit.
But I keep feeling a nudge, that sharing what I care about is somehow important.
Like, even with my dental hygienist the other day! After hearing “what I do,” she had so much to share. She said she grew up in Alaska and has a deep love for the night sky and a respect for nature. Her friends in Alabama have told her they never really looked at the stars until they met her. Wow! And yet, I think, so common in today’s world.
Growing up in a suburb of Atlanta, I also didn’t develop a regular sense of which stars were overhead. I didn’t even look through a telescope until college. If I didn’t pursue an astronomy degree, would I even have that? I think a lot of people don’t ever get to look through a telescope and see the craters on the Moon, Saturn’s rings, Jupiter’s moons. But, even if people don’t get to do that, I believe having a connection with the night sky is important. I’m worried even that is disappearing.
I believe that being able to see the night sky should be a basic human right, a basic right for all Earthlings.
Back when I was a professor, I had the chance to teach a short “Overview of Astronomy” course at the local women’s prison. I thought about adapting my college astronomy course, where one of the first things I teach is how to find the North Star. But, I couldn’t even teach that. The women in my course were not allowed to go outside at night. Ever. They could be in prison for years, maybe decades, and not be allowed to see the stars!?!
Surely this should be something our society will not stand for in how we treat fellow humans. But we do stand for it. I don’t think we even realize it.
In fact, we aren’t just accepting this for people who are incarcerated; we are doing it to ourselves. With all of the light pollution around the world and very little awareness or concern for what this does to the night sky, we are putting ourselves in a kind of prison. And by “ourselves,” I mean all Earthlings.
We are cutting ourselves off from a sacred experience that all of our ancestors and Earthen creatures have had since the dawn of our planet.
It can feel overwhelming. I’m not sure we’ll stop ourselves, or even slow down. So, what’s the point of even writing this? I’m honestly not totally sure.
I just feel the need to say it. And I feel the need to rescope to my personal experiences as an Earthling. And to appreciate the joy I have felt from my connection to the night sky. And to share it.
So, here is a truth:
I LOVE the Milky Way.
Here is a Milky Way scale model that I painted to help teach students.
I developed an intimate connection to the Milky Way during my time working at the Green Bank Observatory. Not only could I regularly see the Milky Way at night from my observatory house, I spent a lot of time down at the 40-Foot Telescope helping educational groups study the Milky Way with radio waves.
Part of my job was to break up the groups into small teams and assign them times to go down to the telescope on their own and collect data of the Milky Way.
Timing was everything, since the telescope can only move along the North-South direction. For East-West coordinates, you just had to wait for Earth to turn you in that direction. And, star time (or sidereal time) is different from solar time, so the timing of objects to pass over the telescope would change throughout the year as Earth revolved around the Sun. If I wanted a group of students to study the center of the Milky Way, I may need to send them down to the telescope at noon or midnight or some other time.
There were times when I knew so well where the Milky Way was, as I walked to lunch at the observatory, I could “see” it in my imagination. I knew my cardinal directions, and I could see the Sun. I knew where the North star was even if I couldn’t see it, and I knew where the band of the Milky Way was.
Even more than that, I knew which direction we were moving within it, based on students’ radio scans being Doppler shifted. Lower frequencies mean we are moving farther away from that part of the galaxy; higher frequencies mean we are moving closer to that part of the galaxy. Since I also know which direction Earth is rotating and moving around the Sun (clockwise as viewed from above the North pole), I could put it all together as I walked around the observatory, seeing the sun and the horizon and knowing my position.
I could feel it in my body. The superposition of three motions (rotation of Earth, revolution of Earth around the Sun, and motion of our solar system through the Milky Way).
And suddenly I felt like I was on the greatest roller coaster in the cosmos!
My stomach leapt, a smile spread across my face, and I felt the need to hold tight to this Earth.
We are all on this roller coaster, this Earthen ride together.
My wish is that we all get to experience some kind of connection and joy like this for the cosmos. Sending you all love and light. Pride. Connection. May we hold on tight to this Earth and to each other.
Kathryn