The White Rose

After a long day of not doing as much as I should, I logged off social media, shut off the screen, closed the door to the (home) office, and crept out the back door into the inky black.

First, I put a telescope on the porch to cool. They’re like beer or revenge, best served…well, you know. (Actually, they’re like water, best consumed at room temperature, or ambient, in this case.)

Eyes adjusting to the dark, recognizing the stump to avoid, and then a course set, I trudged across the quiet hayfield to go visit the folks and grab a cup of tea. The fall constellations wheeled high overhead: Perseus brandishing the head of Medusa, Cassiopeia vain on her starry throne, and Cygnus flying west for the winter, fond memories of summer night star parties.

A ghost, or a cold sink, haunted a dip in the field, and then back up to the warmth, finally gaining the lights of the folks’, and a warm cup.

On the way back, a deer–I hope–saw me, galloping away with an alarming thud in the dark. Pegasus the winged horse watched down from above.

I’ve been all wound up, wasting days by watching the race, glued to X and the news. It was good to clomp through the dewy hayfield and look at real things, dim as they were.

Arriving back, I flipped through some charts, and pointed the scope towards the northern sky. NGC 7789, “the white rose cluster” floated into view. A gorgeous pile of stars, a knot of TV static in a screen already busy with it, or gems strewn across the heavens, this cluster was first noticed by Caroline Herschel in 1783.

The light, 6000 years old, started out when we were inventing pottery wheels, and millennia before the pyramids were built.

Note to self: keep looking up.

Speaking of pyramids, I’m about to don a cartoonish Pharaoh hat and spin some records at a senior (citizen) picnic.

D-D-D-Jay Tut at your service.

Rock like an Egyptian, man.

–Josh

By Hewholooks - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5216981