Fully sick and totally random

Had the most amazing experience tonight.

We booked in for the Family Astronomy Night at the local university and saw a presentation on black holes, which was mostly incomprehensible, but nonetheless interesting.  (My notes from the lecture are even more interesting as they were written in the dark with a none too sharp pencil!  We heard about "spaghettification", which has to be the second best word I have learned this week after pandiculation.

Then, then! we got to look at the night sky through two of the telescopes.  Despite a lot of pollution in the air from fires - it was smoke so presumably it came from a fire somewhere?? the view was spectacular.

ALPHA CENTAURI

We saw Alpha Centauri through the first telescope.  It was hard to stand still enough to see a constant clear image, but the double star could be seen.  It was incredible to see with such clarity what the naked eye misses.  The chappie with the telescope assured us that there were actually three stars there, but I'll have to take his word for it.

BUTTERFLY NEBULA?

I think this was the second thing we viewed through the larger of the two telescopes, but I'm not sure.  It could have been a butterfly I suppose, but the thing that spun me out was this: looking at the sky with the naked eye, about 15 stars/objects were visible.  Look at the same place through the telescope however and thousands of stars instantly sprang into view.  It was (literally) breathtaking.

Then, the piece de resistance, and the one thing we booked in to see:

JUPITER

Oh.  My.  Goodness.

I was expecting to see a white blob in the sky.

I saw a planet, not white but slightly beige with darker brown stripes running through it.  I saw three of the 49-odd moons, the Galilean moons to be precise.  There are four Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Calisto, but I don't know which three we saw tonight. 

Mind blowing, indescribable wonder is the only way I can think of to describe what we saw tonight.  it was nothing short of incredible and worth every cent of the $35 it cost for a family ticket.

I want to go back and look again.

I want to say along with the Psalmist

The heavens declare the glory of God;
   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

 Day after day they pour forth speech; 
  night after night they display knowledge.

 There is no speech or language
   where their voice is not heard.

 Their voice goes out into all the earth,
   their words to the ends of the world.

Psalm 19:1-4

The whole earth is full of His glory indeed.