In Opposition
A note from somewhere between here and there.
I was looking at Jupiter.
More amazed than anything else that I could see a thing that far away. A thing with volume in the sky. Known so intimately from afar, like a celebrity or a photo of a departed ancestor. All these stars were just strangers, but here, this ball of gas hanging above me was a thing I felt I knew. Lifted up and off the black depth, perceived as though my hand could pass behind it.
I could see its moons lined up like an ellipsis.
My heart thumped in a moment of recognition that spanned the unbroken line between us. To know it was to feel its pull upon my blood, just as it pulls the vast mantel of Io, plucked like a stretched harmonic from the grip of Europa; resonant and throbbing in Galileo's looping quartet. And I, a mere mortal, straining to look upon Ganymede or Calisto, shivering in the cold on the dark side of the Earth.
I was looking up and feeling as though I was somewhere. More than just a coordinate on a spinning sphere, I was now a point on the astral plane between our sun and this immense god rising in opposition like a terrifying behemoth. I was part of the sky, moving within it and found suddenly amongst these friends and strangers;
Jupiter was looking at me.
I LOVE this, David! A few summers back now, it was a clear and beautiful night and something in me said go out and use your telescope to look at the planets, my kids would love it. My boys were mildly impressed. I was blown away!! It is something to see pictures of Saturn with its taken by who knows who. It was QUITE something else to be able to see it with my own eyes (aided by a telescope) and to see the rings and realize holy moly, that is a real thing in this world, I'm looking right at it! I was completely smitten. I downloaded a star tracking app and looked at it endlessly. I got the boys in the car and took them into the mountains late on a moonless summer night so we could see the Milky Way. Again, though they were likely excited to go on a middle of the night adventure, being the night owls they are, and even though it wasn't as lovely as pictures I have seen, it connected with me in a profound way.
Thank you for sharing this and bringing that nugget to my mind!! I still have the tracker on my phone and every once in a while, I'll notice the planets in the sky and I can usually guess which is which and I say, "I see you!" It is still so exciting to me. XO
Mesmerising. I read this with a Brian Cox voice over.