#WingedWordsWindsday: 06/08/2022 -- Some Astronomical Reflections

 WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY

Compiled by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Vol. 1, No. 32: June 8, 2022

 

 

A Celebration of the Summer Sky

 

“Astronomy: The World’s Oldest Science and My First Hobby”

By Rob Chappell, M.A.

Adapted & Condensed from Cursus Honorum IX: 1 (August 2008) and from the Illinois Administrative Professionals Newsletter (July 2014)

                My first (and still favorite) hobby is astronomy, the systematic study of the stars and other celestial objects. Widely regarded as the world’s oldest science, it began in prehistoric times when early humans first looked up into the sky and wondered: “Why does the Sun rise in the east and set in the west each day?” “Why does the Moon change its shape every night in a monthly cycle?” “Why do the stars dance across the night sky in such regular patterns throughout the year?”

                Discovering the basic principles of astronomy helped our remote ancestors to develop an understanding of the calendar, which in turn led to the agricultural revolution after the last Ice Age. This interlinkage of astronomy, calendaring, and agriculture contributed to the invention of writing so that people could record important events that occurred during the passage of time. Some of the earliest examples of writing include records of astronomical events and their significance (for example, planetary motions and lunar festivals).

                Astronomy (one of the Seven Liberal Arts) underwent a major revolution with the invention of the telescope in the early 17th century CE and its use by the Italian physicist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) to study the skies. With the magnifying power of the telescope, Galileo was able to discover sunspots, the phases of Venus, mountains and craters on the Moon, the four major satellites of Jupiter, and stars too dim to be seen with the naked eye. Galileo’s astronomical discoveries turned the medieval worldview upside down and inside out, paving the way for other scientific revolutions in the physical and biological sciences later on.

                Along with (and based on) observational studies of celestial objects, astronomy has sought to answer some of the profoundest questions that we have asked ourselves. How did the Universe begin, and how will it end? Does life exist beyond our world? What is humankind’s place in the cosmos? All these ideas – and many more – are studied by professional astronomers, with the enthusiastic support of amateur astronomers who make observations in their backyards with binoculars or small telescopes.

                As far back as I can remember, I’ve been enamored with the night sky, and I started to have an early interest in observing the Moon during my preschool days. With binoculars, I was able to explore the night sky in greater detail, and I learned to watch for the visible planets and spot the brightest stars as they trekked across the sky from one season to the next. Starting in third grade, I began to read “grown-up” books about astronomy and spaceflight, and during my middle school years, I took astronomy classes at the St. Louis Science Center on Saturday mornings. I was also an enthusiastic charter member of the astronomy club at my high school. Sharing my hobby with others through taking classes and attending “star parties” with the astronomy club introduced me to a wider circle of friends and whetted my appetite for more knowledge and insights about humankind’s place in the cosmos, thus broadening the perspective from which I exercised leadership in other clubs and activities, both at school and beyond.

                My first hobby is still with me today. Even though I never became a professional astronomer or a NASA astronaut, my interest in the Universe has never waned. I enjoy visiting the Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland College and reading articles on all the latest discoveries about our amazing cosmos. Astronomy has indeed expanded my horizons, provided fertile ground for nourishing my imagination, and introduced me to myths and legends from around the world about the stars and planets, thus providing a doorway for me to discover the similarities and appreciate the differences among various cultures.

                The exploration of outer space over the past several decades has brought astronomy into the mainstream of public awareness. As crewed and automated spacecraft continue to push back the frontiers of human knowledge, answers to age-old questions give birth to completely new questions about the nature of the Universe. To begin your own journey of exploration, be sure to visit the following websites.

 

Resources for Further Exploration

·         https://astro.illinois.edu = Department of Astronomy at the University of Illinois

·         https://www.theoi.com/Text/AratusPhaenomena.html = The Phaenomena by Aratus is a versified introduction to astronomy from the 3^rd century BCE.

·         https://www.parkland.edu/Audience/Community-Business/Parkland-Presents/Planetarium = Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland College

 

Orphic Hymn #6: “To the Stars”

Translated by Thomas Taylor (1758-1835)

Editor’s Note: The Orphic poets (a guild of ancient Greek philosopher-bards named after their legendary founder, Orpheus) celebrated the wonders of the natural world and their lofty ideals in poetic chants, which were preserved in written form after centuries of oral transmission as the Orphic Hymns. In the poetic forms of their mythopoeic age, the Orphic bards personified the forces of Nature, the celestial orbs, and abstract ideals in order to explain how and why the natural world and the human social order function in the ways that they do.

 

With holy voice I call the stars on high,

Pure sacred lights and genii of the sky.

Celestial stars, the progeny of Night,

In whirling circles beaming far your light,

Refulgent rays around the heavens ye throw,

Eternal fires, the source of all below.

With flames significant of Fate ye shine,

And aptly rule for men a path divine.

In seven bright zones ye run with wandering flames,

And heaven and earth compose your lucid frames:

With course unwearied, pure and fiery bright

Forever shining through the veil of Night.

Hail twinkling, joyful, ever wakeful fires!

Propitious shine on all my just desires;

These sacred rites regard with conscious rays,

And end our works devoted to your praise.

 

The northern summer constellation Lyra (pictured above) represents the lyre or Orpheus. (Image Credit: Urania’s Mirror by Sydney Hall [1825] – Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

“The Stars Are Mansions Built by Nature’s Hand”

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

 

The stars are mansions built by Nature’s hand,

And, haply, there the spirits of the blest

Dwell, clothed in radiance, their immortal vest;

Huge Ocean shows, within his yellow strand,

A habitation marvelously planned,

For life to occupy in love and rest;

All that we see – is dome, or vault, or nest,

Or fortress, reared at Nature’s sage command.

Glad thought for every season! but the Spring

Gave it while cares were weighing on my heart,

’Mid song of birds, and insects murmuring;

And while the youthful year’s prolific art –

Of bud, leaf, blade, and flower – was fashioning

Abodes where self-disturbance hath no part.

 

“Song of the Stars”

By William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)

 

When the radiant morn of creation broke,

And the world in the smile of God awoke,

And the empty realms of darkness and death

Were moved through their depths by his mighty breath,

And orbs of beauty and spheres of flame

From the void abyss by myriads came, —

In the joy of youth as they darted away,

Through the widening wastes of space to play,

Their silver voices in chorus rung,

And this was the song the bright ones sung.

 

“Away, away, through the wide, wide sky, —

The fair blue fields that before us lie, —

Each sun, with the worlds that round him roll,

Each planet, poised on her turning pole;

With her isles of green, and her clouds of white,

And her waters that lie like fluid light.

 

“For the source of glory uncovers his face,

And the brightness overflows unbounded space;

And we drink, as we go, the luminous tides

In our ruddy air and our blooming sides:

Lo, yonder the living splendors play;

Away, on our joyous path, away!

 

“Look, look, through our glittering ranks afar,

In the infinite azure, star after star,

How they brighten and bloom as they swiftly pass!

How the verdure runs o’er each rolling mass!

And the path of the gentle winds is seen,

Where the small waves dance, and the young woods lean.

 

“And see, where the brighter day-beams pour,

How the rainbows hang in the sunny shower;

And the morn and eve, with their pomp of hues,

Shift o’er the bright planets and shed their dews;

And ‘twixt them both, over the teeming ground,

With her shadowy cone the night goes round!

 

“Away, away! in our blossoming bowers,

In the soft air wrapping these spheres of ours,

In the seas and fountains that shine with morn,

See, Love is brooding, and Life is born,

And breathing myriads are breaking from night,

To rejoice like us, in motion and light.

 

“Glide on in your beauty, ye youthful spheres,

To weave the dance that measures the years;

Glide on, in the glory and gladness sent,

To the farthest wall of the firmament, —

The boundless visible smile of Him,

To the veil of whose brow your lamps are dim.”

 

“When Stars Are in the Quiet Skies”

By Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton (1831-1891)

Editor’s Note: This poem is dedicated, with lifelong gratitude, to Vidandi, my first peer mentor at the University of Illinois. My anam cara (soul friend) now dwells among the stars. May perpetual light shine upon her.

 

When stars are in the quiet skies,

Then most I pine for thee;

Bend on me then thy tender eyes,

As stars look on the sea.

For thoughts, like waves that glide by night,

Are stillest when they shine;

Mine earthly love lies hushed in light

Beneath the heaven of thine.

 

There is an hour when angels keep

Familiar watch over men,

When coarser souls are wrapped in sleep;

Sweet spirit, meet me then!

There is an hour when holy dreams

Through slumber fairest glide,

And in that mystic hour it seems

Thou shouldst be by my side.

 

My thoughts of thee too sacred are

For daylight’s common beam;

I can but know thee as my star,

My angel and my dream!

When stars are in the quiet skies,

Then most I pine for thee;

Bend on me then thy tender eyes,

As stars look on the sea.

 

In this picture, we see Vidandi walking down the street in her favorite pink jacket and using a white cane for mobility. Although she lost her physical sight during childhood, the eyes of her heart were always wide open. (Digital image processed by the Editor.)

 

“The Heart of Night”

By Bliss Carman (1861-1929)

 

When all the stars are sown

Across the night-blue space,

With the immense unknown,

In silence face to face.

 

We stand in speechless awe

While Beauty marches by,

And wonder at the Law

Which wears such majesty.

 

How small a thing is man

In all that world-sown vast,

That he should hope or plan

Or dream his dream could last!

 

O doubter of the light,

Confused by fear and wrong,

Lean on the heart of night

And let love make thee strong!

 

The Good that is the True

Is clothed with Beauty still.

Lo, in their tent of blue,

The stars above the hill!

 

“Stars”

By Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

 

Alone in the night on a dark hill

With pines around me spicy and still,

 

And a heaven full of stars over my head,

White and topaz and misty red;

 

Myriads with beating hearts of fire

That aeons cannot vex or tire;

 

Up the dome of heaven like a great hill,

I watch them marching stately and still,

 

And I know that I am honored to be

Witness of so much majesty.

 

“Out of the mists which surround the remote past, a Universe of stars has appeared. And here we are on the Earth, this planet of ours, while all around and above us, Nature is staging a grand play of events, inviting our interest in the wonderful Universe in which we live.”

à Robert H. Baker (1883-1964), Third Director of the University of Illinois Observatory (1923-1951): When the Stars Come Out (1934)

 

The University of Illinois Astronomical Observatory, constructed in 1896 just north of the Morrow Plots, is seen here in an anonymous photograph from 1905. (Source: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.)