Telescope Reviews: With two eyes

With two eyes

I don't know if you experience this feeling, too.
I lean out of the window of my window. The night is cold
and full of stars. I feel so incredibly tired and heavy, I
feel like not being able to move. I know this will be the
only night without clouds for a longer time, and my last
observation is months ago, so I simply know I will be out
there. But I don't know how to get there.

There is an explanation for this, as I have been very busy
for the last 2 1/2 months. I worked so long for the moving,
so now, when there is space for feelings, they all come
together and immobilize myself. I feel unable to move. And
very very sad.

At 23:30, when I finally get out of the car, only some
hundred meters from my new home, at a darker place, the
night is beautiful, but windy, with strong wind peaks. The
sky is rather bright. I had hoped for a better situation. I
am near the top of a hill, no houses to be seen, between
fields, on an intersection of two very small roads, one
without surface, just earth.

In a few minutes the binocular is ready on the tripod. I
did not feel able to carry the telescope and all the cases.
A German radio plays Jazz: Miles Davis. With his strong
willed and melancholic character he is exactly the right
one right now. A good sign.

After having observed for years exclusively with
telescopes, I wonder what I will see. The very first sight
is a moving light, which then goes out. A meteor. Well, I
am truly amazed: An impressing welcome!

I move to the Moon. She shows only a small part of her
peaceful face. I admire a huge "crater" - only later I
will discover that this is Mare Crisium, The Sea of Crisis.
Kind of fitting, I guess.

Then a quick look at Jupiter, clearly recognizable and with
three of his moons: Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. Io is
probably too near Jupiter too be seen.

Saturn is an elongated something, and I get remembered of
the fantastic views of the last winter. Greetings, Saturn,
you beauty!

Somehow I have a real hard job to focus both of my eyes on
one object. I try to open or close the binocular, but
tonight it seems I will not succeed. So I watch two
globular clusters M13 in Hercules, they seem big, even at
only 16x, very pleasant. Then I see two satellites crossing
synchroniously the sky, hmm! Then I observe a double double
star. It is o1 and o2 Cygni, only an optical double star,
but since they are four , this gets even more beautiful.
Both o1s are deep orange, very beautiful, and the o2s
slightly blue. Watching closer I discover two teasy small
nearby stars, they are true companions of the o1s, and
their colour seem of a deeper blue as the o2s.

I didn't remember that watching the sky with binos was so
much fun!

After a break in the car due to the really awfully cold
wind I have readjust the focus of the binocular. I realize
I have been able to relax - and my eyes , too. Now I
mostly see only one picture, which is not bad either. In
the radio somebody plays a piano like a horse. Playing
myself with direct and averted vision I see about 8 stars
in M29. I love the Milky Way! All these drawings, signs,
paintings - the very best art-museum!

Now around gamma Cygni there is a huge starry snail-shell!
I had never realized this! I am absolutely fascinated! And
even the piano-horse starts to show some clumsy feelings.

Astronomy is the Art of Breathing.
So I stand, freezing,
but watching and breathing quietly,
and watching and breathing quietly
and watching and breathing quietly,
not feeling the cold anymore,
moving my big eyes in the sky,
fascinated by these tiny wonderful lights.

All of a sudden an arrow of stars appears, but then
transforms itself into a huge fish, kind of a prehistoric
fish, but then changes into a joyful dolfin!

I move, discover a being between a jellyfish and a polyp,
and as it starts to feel observed by me, it transforms
itself into a Medusa, but with dozens of starry eyes, and
they are all watching me watching them. I am like under a
spell, admiring all this. I am not easily afraid, but
slowly this gets too much...

I move - and discover a shovel. A shovel? Oh, yes, made
of stars, and I remember my digging for gold in the rivers
this spring.

Seeking for NGC6940 is an occasion to see even more
pictures. As the sky is not really dark because of several
villages around, I have chosen Cygnus as one of the darkest
corners. But dark it is not, and 41cyg is just to be
guessed with the naked eyes. Now the radio plays this
wonderful Solveigh's Song from Grieg's Peer Gynt, I have to
listen in the car, dry two tears, and I am finally there:
Open cluster NGC6940, only a nebulous patch with some
brighter stars first, but playing the usual game we
astronomers play, changing between averted and direct
vision, I start to feel the joy when the nebula transforms
itself for very short moments into many many stars. I like
this game: "Be patient, be quiet - and then we will show
ourselves..."

Albireo is green-blue and deep yellow, but, strange enough,
only at the very beginning. After I don't see the fainter
star as green anymore, but slightly bluish. I can try as
many times as I want to.

I don't know why I land there, but there it is: Globular
cluster M56. Wow! Beautiful! I see some grainy structure in it -
or is this the famous "averted imagination"? Which would
not matter at all...

M71 is weak, and I feel very very cold. Move to planetary
nebula M27. What an interesting "cloud" - seen already so
many times, but still so interesting. I put one nebula
filter into the right side of the bino and use the bino as
a little double telescope: One side without filter, one
side with, observing with my better eye. With filter M27
looks kind of fringed (I hope this is the right word!) on
two sides. At the same time it looks more three-dimensional.

I move to the Veil Nebula, but I can't see anything there.
So I try the California Nebula, and recognize a very faint
part of it. This sky here is really too bright for so faint
objects.

I take the nebula filter away and try another time M27. It
seems this is the best view, with two eyes. Or both eyes
with the nebula filters - I don't try, it is too cold.

Now I am nearly frozen, my hands are hardly able to write
anything, my knees are aching of cold. I read 6¡C, but the
wind makes it much much colder.

I simply have to see a galaxy. I move to Virgo, and find
one. I look around but this one seems the only one here. I
have a close look. I don't know why galaxies always make me
feel happy! The galaxy is slightly elongated. There are two
stars nearby - or were they in the foreground of the
galaxy? I don't remember. Must have been M49, I am not sure.

Often in my Thank-you-ceremonies I give a little sacrifice,
and this time, exactly as I start to do so and open the
little bottle with something-smelling-so-good in it - a
lightning! All of a sudden, around me! A little silent
lightning.

Thanking Them-who-live-here, I see them. They are all male,
have the colour of the earth, and I understand they will
help the plants to grow. What a peaceful place to be.

It is 1:40. I pack, drive home, climb to my apartment,
brush my teeth, and only five minutes later I lay down to
sleep. My two lovely cats play one of their favorite games,
which is called "We are the Cat-Cavalry, listen!" and hunt
each other. On a wooden floor they really sound like
something!

This was yesterday. And today I feel happy, like born again.
And, maybe, despite the weather forecast - Will the sky
be open tonight? - Say yes!

Amalia

(...writing this at home, driving in the next moment to
town to the internet café to send this to CloudyNights -
so I will not be able to answer fast, as I still have no
internet connection here. I apologize!)

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