Category Archives: Stars

Coachella Valley, Desert, Photography, Self-Isolation, Sky, Stars

A Million Stars

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These two lines from Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby (Counting Crows) keep ringing in my head, in these days of self isolation…

"We drove out to the desert just to lie down beneath this bowl of stars [...]
Well, you can see a million miles tonight,
but you can't get very far."
Coachella Valley, Desert, Photography, Poetry, Self-Isolation, Sky, Stars, Writing

Wonder

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The International Space Station zooms above Mars and Jupiter (and Saturn in the palm tree) in the Milky Way in the southern sky before sunrise

I can’t help but wonder
About life beyond this coronavirus
One thing I know for sure
Below Scorpion and Sagittarius
Saturn, Jupiter and Mars will still align

Some day, soon, just another headline
Promising, joyful, mysterious
Proclaiming “We found a cure!”
Will we choose then to be oblivious or curious?
I can’t help but wonder

Coachella Valley, Desert, Moon, Photography, Self-Isolation, Stars

Be Curious

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We are bombarded with information about all that is happening to us and around us. Trying to separate truth and facts from fiction and bullshit can be a rather daunting and overwhelming task. It is normal to seek to understand and keep up with the events that unfold at the speed of sound; a lifetime zoomed by in the past ten days, it seems.

Read, listen, watch, and connect with others. Talk about things, ask questions. Knowing and understanding will help us deal with the fear and anxiety that are normal in times such as these, and make better decisions.

Go ahead, be curious.

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Jupiter and Mars in the Milky Way
Saturn, Jupiter, the Moon and Mars
Moon, Photography, Self-Isolation, Sky, Stars, Writing

Be Kind

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These are difficult times for all of mankind, at the local scale and the global scale, and all points in between. By our collective actions, we are defining a new “normal.” Life will go on, eventually. We will continue to be the human race… Let’s make it better.

The dark clouds will clear, eventually
And when they do, you will see
That the brightest moments
Were those when we all learned…
To be kind.

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Adventure, Autumn, Nature, Photography, Sky, Stars, Sun, Sunrise, Trains, Travel, Writing

Sunrise on the Rails

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Train Trip (92 of 404)(This is the last post in a series about a recent train trip across the Canadian prairies. The first in the series is here.)

Sleep eluded me throughout the night. Despite the gentle rocking of the train and the rhythmic lullaby sung by its wheels on the rail (ticatoc-ticatoc—ticatoc-ticatoc), I dozed off for what seemed only minutes at a time. All is quiet in our coach car, and all is dark out, save for the millions of stars dotting the inky black sky. I grab my camera and make my way back to the dome-car, careful not to wake my fellow passengers along the way, curious to see.

 

All alone up there, I marvel at the spectacle on display, just for me, I think. Venus dominates the eastern horizon, almost directly behind the train. And then, something happens: a faint glow lightens the darkness, a glow that would continue into daylight. An oncoming freighter reflects this light, like glowing embers, a dim orangey hue zooming by. Two young Chinese women join me, camera in hand, to capture some of this ephemeral beauty.

The land around us slowly emerges from the darkness, revealing lakes, tractors, buildings. The brightening morning luminescence slowly reveals roofs and fingers of smoke trailing skyward from their chimneys. The scene is magical, whimsical, surreal. Not a word is said.

 

High above us, an airplane races eastward, like an arrow to its target, leaving the twin laces of its contrail to stretch across the sky, lit in orange light. Those passengers, up at 41,000 feet, have probably witnessed the sun rise above the horizon already, unless they are asleep. Meanwhile, colours change subtly, lightening the dark: amber, bronze, copper, orange, yellow, melting into cobalt, indigo, violet, blue, gray, and green.

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The long train contorts itself through a switch, like a snake weaving through short grass. I can see the last car for the first time! In the sky, what seemed to take forever quickly comes to its natural conclusion. The sun breaks the horizon; its light floods the eastern sky and paints the western countryside. One minute, the sky is a bright yellow, the next a familiar azure blue. Beautiful. The Canadian rolls on down the track towards Edmonton, my final destination on this journey.

Train Trip (135 of 404)