Starry, Starry Night

Last October we renovated our bunkhouse. At the time I aspired to downsize so that someday I could live in a small space with less to worry about. Then a friend recommended that we post the bunkhouse on Airbnb. Forty-five minutes later we were up and running. It’s been a great experience. We’ve met bikers, hikers, birders, and travelers. We’ve hosted a painter, a filmmaker, a lawyer, and two astrophotographers from Canada who took these gorgeous photos.

I’ve always had my feet planted firmly on the ground. No skydiving, paragliding, or deep sea diving for me. I prefer the sensation of cool ground and damp grass between my toes and am confident navigating river rocks and trails to get where I’m going. Give me a day pack and a water bottle and, like a Golden Retriever, I’ll follow you just about anywhere.

With most of my interests connected to nature here on earth, I’ve rarely caught myself contemplating the night sky. Aside from noticing the moon cycles each month while waiting for my dogs to pee before we all go to bed, I am not one to star gaze. And like most things that have to do with my 1970’s public school education, I believe my lack of interest is directly tied to my junior high years where the sciences were taught by rote using outdated textbooks and grainy filmstrips.

I am ashamed to admit that I didn’t ask questions while the men set up their equipment outside the bunkhouse. I didn’t even ask to look through their cameras to capture the images in real time. I was too busy just trying to keep our daily lives afloat. There were trees to water, animals to attend to, and meals to prepare. By the time the sun went down, I was too tired to look to the heavens.

After their first night of taking photos, Frank Roberts (gentleman in the blue t-shirt) shared the photo with our water tank in the background. Several days into their stay, Leslie Webb (gentleman in the white t-shirt) had taken the rest of the photos you see here. I was dumbfounded to learn these celestial marvels hover above the ranch while we sleep- a dome of glorious colors, shapes, masses, and gasses. I look up now at night when I take the dogs out and feel connected to the universe. After all, like the soil, plants and animals, it’s nature in all its grandeur. The stars are no longer a million miles away, rather they appear much closer as though they could be plucked from the sky.

Vincent van Gogh painted “The Starry Night” in 1889, a year before he died. The painting depicts the view Van Gogh had out the window from the Saint-Paul asylum in southern France where he committed himself after cutting off his ear. In 1970 singer/songwriter Don McLean wrote the song “Vincent” on a paper bag before a public school performance. He had just learned of Van Gogh’s troubled soul while reading a biography on the painter. Maybe if someone had shown me the painting of “Starry Night” or Georgia O’Keeffe’s, “Ladder to the Moon” as a kid, I would have fallen in love with the night sky in the way children learn best- through stories and by instilling a sense of wonderment.

I am grateful to Leslie and Frank for their photos and the time they took to teach me something about the universe of which each and everyone of us belongs. It is never too late to learn.

Night sky photos beginning at the top of the page:

M8 Lagoon Nebula; Trifid Nebula; our water tower; Milky Way; M17 Omega; Cat’s Paw