Chronicles of Cammy My Fool's Journey and Travelogue

Imagine, 1000 years ago in July, you are sitting very still with your family on a very hot night with the sliver of the moon to keep you company and the milky-way crowning the heavens. The temperature finally drops enough that you can manage sleep, and so you say a whispered “good night” and bed down with thoughts of the next day’s hunt your last memory. You expect to wake up to a normal day. But when you do wake up, you see not one, but two suns in the sky, and the new sun is getting brighter and brighter. As it climbs the heavens, it burns beside our sun and stays there for many, many days until, one day, it goes. You document the event on your rock walls and make stories to what was happening. Why were there two suns and then only one again? Little did you know you witnessed the death of a star whose only remains is what we call today the Crab Nebula.

Last night, with Alex of Redrock Astronomy (www.moab-astronomy.com) as our guide, Mr. Al and I traveled our galaxy and beyond witnessing and learning about the birth and deaths of stars, only to return home to realize each of us really is made of stardust. Each of us is a part of the Great Story that goes on and on an on. We belong here as a part of the universe.

There were eight other travelers with us. We met at dusk in a parking lot near the Colorado River and caravanned to a viewing site on the way to Dead Horse Point. From there, as we waited for the sky to darken, we took in the view of a tiny sliver of a moon and a vast horizon. The temperature dropped quickly, but we soon forgot the chill as we saw more and more of the night sky, taking turns at the telescope.

Alex is amazing, not just because of his knowledge of the heavens, but his knowledge of the area and of petroglyphs. He is also a river and trail guide. In fact, he was the first person to travel alone by raft or kayak the whole of the Green/Colorado River system and its tributaries. We would have loved to have hired him to take us out to some of these petroglyph sites and teach us what the rock art is saying. Another time. For now, I will be looking at the sky much differently than I had before.

Did you know that Jupiter and Saturn are wanna be suns? They just didn’t have that extra oomph our Sun has to ignite themselves.

Bryn

https://www.alchemyranchstudios.com/

Sent from my iPad