Starlight Starbright

The next day after a long evening of singing class at AVC we stopped at El Pollo Loco (they should have those in Washington) and then headed home… to bed… or so I thought. When we all got out of the car the sky was spectacular. On a spur of the moment idea Rosalie and I gathered star maps, binoculars, and a flashlight. Pillows and sleeping bags were thrown in the back of the Pink Phantom (Nissan pickup truck) and we drove down to the aqueduct at 12:30 at night. We set up our ‘beds’ and lay in the pickup bed and watched the stars for an hour or so until we fell asleep.

The Milky Way arched over our heads, showing the dome of the sky. The big dipper lay to the north and because the sky was so clear and dark I was finally able to find the little dipper, the North Star, and the entire Draco constellation. Sadly, the light pollution from Palmdale and Lancaster obscured Bootes, but Cassiopeia was clear and bright. Right above me was Cygnus and Lyra, and to the east was what (after some debate) we decided was Pegasus. To the south was a very bright star which we discovered through the binoculars was Jupiter, and we were even able to see 4 of its moons! But the most beautiful things of all were the shooting stars. Total I saw 10 of them, which more than made up for the meteor shower a few months ago, when I saw no meteors.

Now I know most people I know have great epiphanies and such while looking at the stars, but the only thing I thought of was that God knows all those stars by name, and that line from Matthew West, “I love you more than sun and the stars that I taught how to shine, you are mine, and you shine for me too.” It was an amazing thought though, because I have never seen the stars so clearly with the naked eye, and through the binoculars I could see twice as many. That’s a lot of names… I wonder what God calls them all?