The poignant story of sharing the night time sky gained our writing contest – and a Celestron telescope.
A vibrant Perseid meteor streaks very similar to the one referenced within the story. Credit score: Nacho Rascón (Flickr)
All through Astronomy Journal’s 50-year historical past now we have coated the gamut of space tales from cosmology to observing. Nonetheless, we don’t at all times get to listen to about our readers’ personal experiences with astronomy aside from a couple of small associated to different tales listed in our letters part.
To have fun the journal’s half century birthday this previous August, we teamed up with the telescope producer Celestron, making a contest urging these with eyes to the sky to jot down about their most memorable viewing experiences.
Over 170 letters got here in answering the decision and we had been overjoyed by the response. Individuals wrote about seeing Saturn for the primary time, unexpectedly sharing their telescopes with strangers, and catching greater than few unexplainable nighttime objects.
There have been so many nice letters despatched in, however we may choose just one winner: Vicki Wilson of Clinton, New York. Congratulations and thanks all to those that participated.
She obtained a Celestron StarSense Explorer 8-inch Smartphone App-Enabled Dobsonian Telescope, price $799.95.
Beneath is the successful essay:
The identical sky
My nonetheless new-ish husband and I sat on our automotive in a quiet nation cemetery on an August night time within the early 2000s watching the Perseids. I knew that my father could be sitting on his deck at his home in one other city an hour away watching, too, so we known as him.
“Hey Dad,” I stated when he answered. “You watching?”
“Yup,” he stated.
I suppose an ageing cemetery isn’t a preferred place to hold on a summer time night time, but it surely was the very best place to see the Perseids and we had it to ourselves. We stayed for an hour with my dad on the telephone, watching the meteors draw within the sky like a celestial Etch-A-Sketch. Every so often, one could be brighter or longer or appear larger and one in every of us would say “Whoa!” and I’d say, “Did you see that, Dad?” into the telephone and he would reply, “Sure, I did.”
We had work the subsequent morning, so the stargazing needed to finish. However already within the automotive journey house once I stated goodbye to my father, I knew that night time was particular. The sky had solidly related the brand new life I used to be creating with my husband to my previous and to the individuals who had created me.
We misplaced my dad in 2017. I hope that, just like the Perseids that night time, he and I are nonetheless now in some way seeing all the identical wonders: his grandson’s 800-meter run in monitor and the dual fawns on our garden and the candy corn I grew. Sitting alone deck at night time, I ask the celebs, “Did you see that, Dad?” I think about his voice answering, “Sure, I did.”
