With blocked horizons to my south and west, an incoming cloud bank from the south west, a limited viewing time slot, a rare clear night for three hours and the light pollution from my neighbour's kitchen light which is left on all night, I was feeling highly pressured the other night!
I'd spent much of the day, as for most potential night observation sessions, glued to my phone - checking photopills, google maps, clear skies, sky safari plus, astrobin and the met office weather forecast. Where to go? What to see and image? What had others done on Astrobin? Plans, more plans, rewritten plans. Most times I enjoy this process but when there have been very few nights thus far this year where skies have been relatively clear, this first one for weeks - well it was causing me stress. FOMO type stress!
As it was, the forecasts began to worsen and so I gave up planning a trip somewhere. Another crushing disappointment! But, lo and behold, the skies above my house began to clear around 9pm; a direct defiance of the weather forecast apps. Would it clear? Was there a chance that I could just.........
..... set up and sneak out into the garden for a short three hour astrophotography session based on whatever I could see in the skies above my garden? Wow.....opportunistic! All that planning about to be chucked out the window! I felt quite 'devilish and rebellious' I must say! No packing the car, gathering appropriate clothing and packing flask and snacks. Just everything set up by 10pm waiting for darkness to fall. Stress free - literally moving equipment from study to garden. Simple! Wonderful!
I think I have become 'captivated by technology'. A slave to it and too geeky by far. And that's saying something as I have always been geeky! In the last year I have set up autoguiding on my basic rig, got to grips with the ASIair app and then more recently become obsessed with getting my donated EQM-35-Pro to work with all my 'gear'. And let's not get started on my obsession with mastering every post editing astrophotography programme there is!
Has this desire to get it all working and the pressure to make the best of every limited observation opportunity made me lose sight of something more important? Have I lost sight of the joy, awe and wonder at just pausing, stopping and staring at the night sky above me? For no other reason than to just appreciate its sheer beauty and immensity?
The privilege of being able to just walk out and set up in your back garden at a moments notice should not be underestimated nor under appreciated. By 11.30pm I had started my imaging session of NGC 7000 above me in the NE sky. For two and a half hours after, I just sat on my new bench below my kitchen window and stared at the sky above whilst my 'technology' went about its little workflow plan.
At first I tried to trace out the constellations above me but I soon gave up. Why? Because I had forgotten them. Now I never was good at remembering them in the first place but actually I couldn't name one. And I am sure a couple of years ago I could. So what has happened? So obsessed with getting it all working, getting it all framed correctly, getting the guiding so precise...... did I lose sight of the point of being out there in the first place? To learn new things and to appreciate the cosmos above me?
I have been privileged to have walked under the extraordinary skies of the Serengeti, the Namibian deserts, and the river estuaries of The Gambia. I've wandered the salt flats of Death Valley under the stars; clambered across the red rocks of Capitol Reef National Park and viewed the stars from the high alps and Kilimanjaro. I can remember that intense feeling of complete awe and wonder; of feeling both infinitely small and inconsequential and yet, simultaneously feeling so unique - the only one of ME - in the entire universe. (Unless of course there are actually parallel dimensions, in which case...... )
I gave up tracing constellations and focused on some star hopping instead where I made better progress. Almach to Mirach to Andromeda. Bingo. Deneb to Sadr to Crescent nebula. Result. Down to the Western Veil Nebula. Getting better! And then, I realised something immense. I was missing the point of being out there. Star hopping was utilitarian. I knew it because it was an ends to a means - finding a DSO to image.
I breathed in, slowed my breathing, kept staring up at the sky above and relaxed. A zen moment of mind clearance and slowly my mind started to wander. The bump of a snail falling off the ivy onto the decking. The scurrying of tiny feet across the top of the cushion box - Caligula, our resident rat was on nocturnal prowl. The grunting and snuffles of Hermione our hedgehog as it discovered slugs in the pea patch. The hoot of Ollie our woodland tawny owl; the rustling of ivy outside the kitchen door in the gentle warm night breeze.
Above me twinkling Vega and despite living in a bortle 5 area, the moon hadn't risen and so an hour in my eyes had become accustomed to the dark; the night sky above began to take on the appearance of a black velvet table cloth over which some uncouth diner had spilt some salt - scattered grains bright against the fabric.
Tranquility descended. No more expectations and pressure to keep checking the histogram. No jumping up to see that the cabling wasn't snagging. No trying to star hop. No feeling the need to 'absolutely learn and master' the constellation positions. Just me looking up from my comfy bench, sat on my comfy cushion, appreciating the awe and majesty of the vast cosmos above me.
And questions...... of course I had questions...... my brain can't stop asking questions.... it never rests....
...... does space actually end?
...... are there really multiple universes?
...... are we really the only ones out here?
...... is there really a theory of everything?
...... NGC 7000 existed 2500 light years ago and I'm imaging it now - but....is it still there? Has it actually dispersed?
And of course most importantly ..... is transwarp travel actually theoretically possible? And if so, when?
I really enjoyed not dashing out to the coast or up onto Dartmoor for a change! Garden astrophotography. What a revelation!
No comments:
Post a Comment