Celestial Breezes

By John Reed

There are clear nights when the telescope  is  too  heavy  to  push outside, or it is simply too late and the work day starts too early the next morning.  On these nights I still like to venture out, especially if the moon isn't up.  Especially then.  I live in a rural area, so my skies  are  reasonably  dark.  My neighbors have several bright outside lights, so I usually walk down the road, my dog leading the way.

I remember a night not long ago when I left the house wearing a light jacket.  Sheba, my keeshound, was panting and grinning a dog's grin.  She knew what we were doing before we left the yard.  She had participated in these nocturnal outings before.  Of course she didn't really pay much attention to the stars, but rather to the small citizens of the woods.  She was soon bounding off, leaving me alone with the night.

As I walked, I soon left our small cluster of dwellings behind.  Houses have been built only on the first part of our road.  It then stretches on, vacant, to a dead end in the ouachita woods.  A perfect walking path.

As the light faded behind I looked up to check out the sky.  Orion stood guard at the zenith, its member stars each a winter jewel.  These stars stood out in contrast as the winter milky way is a faint thing, almost lost in modern light polluted skies.

In winter we may be closest to the sun, but we are farthest from the galactic center.  Our vantage point is outward toward the intergalactic depths.  The few stars that do fill our winter sky are interlopers which sprinkle the celestial neighborhood.

The  stars  of  Orion  have interesting   names:   Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Saiph, Rigel,  Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.  They are arabic names   meaning   several things including some of the hunter's body parts.  The sword hilt holds M-42, almost visible to the naked eye.  The Orion Nebula is a stellar nursery which seems to not quite belong in this cold setting.

My gaze shifted further to the south.  Sirius, the dog star, danced above the tree tops, its white color flickered into other rainbow tints.  The wind began to blow from the north.  The trees hissed a natural chorus while the stars vibrated more and more to this music.  I felt a chill and headed back.

In the east Jupiter climbed the sky, outshining Regulus in Leo.  I watched this only planet in a lonely winter  sky  and  thought  about astronomy without a telescope.  The eye  should  never  be  taken  for granted.  The breeze carried the sound of Sheba's barking as she chased wild things in the woods.  I felt a chill that seemed to come from the top of the world.

However  my  shivering  was because of breezes from regions much, much further away.  The home fires beckoned.