Nature! Open the door, step outside, and you’re in it, except that just what you’re in will depend on where you live. And that will determine what you see—that is, during the daytime. When the shades of night fall, if one can escape the bright city lights, it suddenly doesn’t matter whether the countryside is desolate or lush, humdrum or impressive. Upon gazing upward on a crisp, clear night one cannot but realize that words are inadequate to describe the grandeur of the stars, constellations, moon, and planets in the heavens above us.
But what do you see? And what do you hear? Do you have just a hazy, impressionistic idea of what is really up there or do you have a positive, distinct appreciation of the heavenly bodies? Do they speak to you in a language you can understand? Do you enjoy astronomy for the delight it really is, even if you don’t have a telescope or binoculars?
Star Friends
There is certainly a benefit to making friends with the stars and planets. They will always be there, wherever you are, and there is more to astronomy than just learning facts about this or that star or planet. They have their lessons for us as well, talking to us even though “there is no speech nor language.”
The stars, for instance, teach us the constancy and upholding power of their Creator. On a clear, moonless night, there are about 2,000 stars visible to the naked eye, all keeping their places, whether the North Star, the Big Dipper pointing to it, or the Southern Cross for those “down under.” By simple obedience to the laws of the universe, they maintain their appointed positions, shedding their light to gladden worlds without number.
As the earth rotates beneath these stars, they appear to curve through the sky in circles, completing their paths each 24 hours (really 23 hours and 56 minutes). This becomes obvious when one faces north. The North Star stays stationary, and should you watch for several hours you would see all the rest of the stars and constellations rotate in circles around it. As you take note of stars more and more directly overhead (and thus farther and farther southward), you find that they make bigger and bigger circles, until these circles start dipping below the northern terrain and start rising and setting like the sun.
As you continue to lift your gaze farther aloft, you find that the stars you are looking at rise and set farther and farther south on the horizon, until you get to those on the celestial equator which passes directly over our earth’s equator. By now, you had better either turn around, or have a very supple neck, because these stars pass to the south of those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere, though they rise due east and set due west.
All the stars will always rise, pass over, and set in exactly the same place, but will rise and set at different times depending on the season of the year. Accordingly, we look for Orion during wintertime, because during that time of year it rises and is up in the sky during the night. Orion is still there during the summer, but it rises and sets with the sun, and therefore cannot be seen above the brightness of a summer day.
Our Creator must have been trying to tell us something about Himself when He said, “Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing.” Isaiah 40:26
Planet Friends
Wandering among the stationary* stars, we find the five visible planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, as well as the Sun. Though these by no means stay in the same place, they do teach us about keeping appointments because that is what they do. The appointment book in this case is the almanac, which tells you (not them) when and where to look for each one. If you know this, you can keep your end of the appointment by being there to look for each planet as it appears. As the planets and the sun move through the heavens, wandering among the stars, they all follow one common line called the ecliptic. If you go out at the same time on successive nights, you can note their movement along this line. Mercury and Venus remain close to the sun, traveling with it over the course of the year. Depending on their relative positions, they will always be seen just before sunrise or just after sunset, as morning or evening stars. On the other hand, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn travel in their own way and at their own rate and may happen to be visible at any time during the night. The fact that they are all along one line is also very helpful in finding these heavenly bodies that do not twinkle as the stars do. …
Why not make friends with the stars and planets? Watch them. Listen to them. By the way, April should be a nice time to see the planets in the morning. During the last week of the month get up early and step out into a spring dawn. If you have a low enough eastern horizon, you will see Venus, the morning star, just above it. Then as you follow the line of the ecliptic which slants sharply to your right, if the sky is still dark enough, you may be able to see Mercury, then Mars, and lastly Saturn overhead, all these planets keeping their appointments. Will you keep yours? Mark your calendar, step outside and look up. Why have only anacquaintance, with the heavens. Stop to listen, and continue to make friends in the sky.
What though in solemn silence all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid their radiant orbs be found?
In reason’s ear they all rejoice
And utter forth a glorious voice,
Forever singing as they shine,
The Hand That Made Us Is Divine — Joseph Addison, 1712
*Although we say stars are stationary, they really do move slowly both in relation to each other and to our view on earth as a whole.
From The Journal of Health and Healing, Vol. 15, No. 3, Mark Chuljian, CTL, HEW, 28, 29