Misty Moonwatch

A group of people gathered at the Botanic Garden yesterday evening for a Moonwatch. This year is the International Year of Astronomy, (so I've just discovered!), and this was an associated activity.

It had been a glorious sunny day with clear blue skies. However, as telescopes were being set up a mist drifted in and obscured the heavens ...

The intention had been to look at the moon through the telescopes. This was not to be! By the close of the evening the mist was so thick we could hardly see beyond the glasshouses. How glad we were that the cafe had specially opened to serve hot chocolate, tea and coffee!

And another treat was in store ...

Peter Edwards from the Physics Department of the University of Durham gave a marvellously inspiring talk about astronomy and the universe.

His presentation included a simulated journey through real space, past stars, nebulae and galaxies. I found it awe-inspiring to learn that if you took every grain of sand from every beach and every desert on Earth, you would have an idea of how many stars there are in the universe!

Contemplating all this later, I thought how it could have made my life and everyone or everything I know and care about seem insignificant. Not so - it had the opposite effect ... The awesome beauty and vastness of the universe magnified for me the infinite value of all those things on earth we hold dear. The ordinary-extraordinariness of love and life.