Tea under the stars…

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

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