Welcome! Tonight we are going to have some fun, you see I love looking at the night sky! I love seeing this amazing universe that God has created with all its suns, planets, solar systems, moons, asteroids, meteors & galaxies…
I thought we would have a hot cuppa under the stars together while making some new discoveries…I have hot chocolate & coffee for you if you aren’t into tea…
In my love of the night sky, over the years I have seen the most amazing celestial events; a Blood Moon, several solar & lunar eclipses, the most awe inspiring & spectacular Leonid Meteor shower, that’s still vivid in my mind to this day.
As well as, several incidences of meteorites suddenly flashing across the night sky, turning night into day while living on the farm, shared in Home sweet home.
This year when I celebrated the milestone that I shared in Ages & stages… my husband Steve (who also shares my love of the Cosmos) & I had planned to travel out to the far north west. To an Astronomical Observatory to experience the night sky, through powerful telescopes on the eve of my milestone, away from light pollution.
But alas my body did not cooperate with these plans & we didn’t get there. However, I decided that if I couldn’t get out to the Observatory telescope, then why not have it come to me!
No, the multimillion dollar Research Observatory didn’t come to me exactly….but I had been blessed with a gift to fund the order of a hobby Telescope! I was so excited about this as I have been fascinated with the Cosmos since Grade 5!
I awaited the arrival of this purchase with that feeling of innocence & whimsy of childhood. When it finally arrived, we put it together per instructions & looked at the weather forecast for that night…heavy cloud cover! No star gazing that night…
The next night, again we looked at the weather forecast…Cloudy! You wouldn’t believe it but this continued for the next fortnight! Great patience was needed!
Finally our patience was rewarded with the forecast we had been awaiting…clear night skies! We excitedly got everything ready anticipating nightfall. We drove down to the waterfront where we thought the expanse of dark water would give the least light pollution & a clear view to the night sky.
As we set up the telescope…we could see plenty of stars sparkling overhead just with our natural eyes, then we looked into the eyepiece of the Reflective telescope, made the necessary adjustments with the Focus Knob to refine the focus & lense magnification…all of a sudden…
The night sky came alive, it was full of stars & galaxies we could not see with our natural eyes!
The colors emanating from the stars were spectacular, there were so many stars it was breathtakingly beautiful, we even got to see the red planet closest to us, Mars!
It was a dream come true…
Since that night we have viewed the full Moon needing a lens filter, as the reflection of our Sun upon the moon was blinding. We saw such amazing detail & located the Sea of Rains (Mare Imbruim) upon the moon scape.
Interestingly, I have also learnt, after some rather frustrating attempts on the night to find the full moon which was clearly visible in the sky to our natural eye. That in order to focus upon a celestial body with high magnification we need to use the attached Finderscope on the telescope.
This is to align the scope precisely in the right direction of the celestial body. This enables us to focus on the object before refining magnification, otherwise all that is seen through the eyepiece is total darkness!
This has me pondering…
…We fix our focus upon what is seen, but our focus should be on what is unseen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18
We need to be mindful of where & in what we have placed our focus upon dear friend…we can get so distracted by our busy lives that are full of temporal things…That we loose sight of the unseen that is there waiting for us to experience.
An unwise choice in focus will only result in frustrating our heart’s view.
We then lose sight of the sparkling bright light of God’s constant love for us that we desire to experience.
But seeing through His Son, Jesus, we can find His direction for a refined magnification & experience of eternity.
Until next time,
Jennifer
You’re most welcome to join me in The Reading Nook
Or in Prayer
© 2019, Jennifer M. Ross, teawithjennifer.blog All Rights Reserved. Photo on Pexels.com
Tea With Jennifer 
Beautiful post and photos, Jennifer. Thank you for linking up.
Thank you Michelle 😊
How beautiful. There is just something about things in the natural that draws us to God isn’t there?
Absolutely Lauren & brings a calm to our spirit’s 😊
You sound like my husband. He loves astronomy and has a couple of telescopes. We’ve enjoyed using them especially when there has been some event in the night sky. He has a lot of microscopes as well, and the same is true with them–there’s a whole world of unseen things that only become clear with the right lens.
I’m reminded of the scene in 2 Kings 6 when the king of Syria sent an army against Elisha, and Elisha’s servant was afraid and wondered what to do. Elisha said, “He said, ‘Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.’ So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (verses 16-17). God’s unseen care is around us all the time.
Oh I love that reminder,. Thank you Barbara! 🤗
Jennifer,
I, too, am fascinated by the starry galaxies. What awesome photographs. I still remember lying on the lounge chair on the forward deck of a cruise ship at night. I was enveloped by a canopy of stars. I remember lying there, transfixed, for a long time just pondering the greatness of God.
Blessings,
Bev xx
My hubby has new telescopes with greater magnification, which highlight galaxies we couldn’t see with our unaided eyes before. There are so many stars out there its amazing! We indeed have a great Creator God Bev! Lovely having you drop by today 😀
This is so beautiful, and your photographs are stunning! Blessings x
Thank you Anastasia! They are really stunning aren’t they! Though I’m not that brilliant at night photography, my photos of the night sky unfortunately didn’t turn out but my friends at Pexels.com – which I credited, came to my rescue! 😀
Breathtaking. I thought of God telling Abraham to number the stars…and he believed in God.
That would be so difficult to do when I look into our telescopes they are too numerous to count. I think that was the lesson for Abraham… Don’t you think?
Lovely to have you drop by for a cuppa Debbie 😀
Jennifer that first image is stunning. There is so much to see in the night sky and so much richness.
Thank you Mary, the night sky is fascinating, isn’t it…how amazing is God’s creation!
What a wonderful way to celebrate God’s creation! A telescope to watch the cosmos is so exciting! One time, we visited my son and daughter-in-law when they lived in Chile. They took us to a remote semi-desert town. The stars we saw there were just breathtaking! Your verse from 2 Corinthians is perfect for this post!
Thank you Laurie, seeing stars from different places on the planet is amazing. Especially without light pollution…Such as the desert. Our outback gives a majestical view too…
What fabulous photos! I’m so glad you were able to get your telescope. And I love the lesson you teach us about aligning our ‘eyepiece.’
Thank you Anita 😀
Jennifer, hi! your pictures capture some of the magnificence of God’s creation.
glorious indeed …
His creation is indeed awe inspiring & glorious Linda! Glad you enjoyed our time under the stars… 😀