Landmark Birthday Celebration Delivers A Most Memorable Night

A Birthday Gift For Di That Delivered The Promise Of New Worlds

 

It’s easy to be mesmerized by an entire galaxy in the one view, suspended in space, timeless and infinitely distant. How do we begin to meaningfully process and comprehend the relative enormity of everything about it? Every number used to describe every aspect of it: its size, numbers of stars it contains, time taken for its light to reach us (travelling at 300,000 kms/second) are beyond our scale of reasonable recognition. We sigh and behold it in silent contemplation, in awe and wonder … then move on to view another deep space object which moves us once again.

It was a special birthday event for Di and a weekend of adventure included our astronomy tour staying overnight by the ocean. It “exceeded expectations”. Di, Bruce, Nick and Jeff spent a marvellous time having a dip in the ocean before enjoying a delicious bbq accompanied by some local Gippsland wines. In the evening the skies cleared for a magical journey across the heavens. None of our guests had looked through a telescope before so the array of superb objects presented to them for viewing was a complete surprise. The search for “meaning” that follows refreshes the soul.

We finished the night’s observing with views of the Sombrero Galaxy in the constellation of Virgo. It is a splendid sight. It’s like we are looking at an entire universe in just this one view. It’s humbling and stirring and afterwards you simply can’t think the same way about our tiny place in this gigantic mysterious world, ever again.