Life Of Travel

The other night I went ot the Kielder Observatory, about 90 minutes out of Newcastle. It is the only ‘dark sky’ observatory in Europe which is open to the public. (I think by ‘dark sky’ they mean that there is no other light interference around eg car headlights, street lamps, houses etc.) Now looking at the sky on a freezing cold night might not seem like fun to alot of people, and I am no Astronomy enthusiast, but this was beyond my expectations and there where a few things that really stuck in my mind. I think I’m just going to start from the start. This may have the potential to be quite a long post *since the experience is quite fresh in my mind, but Ill try to cut out the crap.

We set off from Newcastle about 1815, and as is the norm of late it was already well into the night and not much more than 2 or 3 degrees C. After some rough navigation we finally made it to the observatory. The little hire car we were in couldnt make it all the way since it had been snowing (the first proper day of snow I’ve seen in England this season) and the road to the observatory was quite slippy. After about half an hour to forty mins of **helping people avoid having their cars slipping into ditches we set off by foot the rest of the way.

The walk was amazing. I went ahead with just one other and although the moon was not high enough to see yet, the stars lit the snow covered road like a luminous path. The cool fresh air and the crunch of the snow under my feet is something I have never experienced before. A definate plus for the English winter.

Once at the observatory, the first thing we did was look at Jupiter through the telescope. The astrologer in charge of the observatory said afterwards that you can look at the planets in magazines and online, but you’ll never forget the first time you see it for yourself, and I reckon he’s right. I could clearly see the rings and four moons around it, and there was a small blemish in one of the rings which I was later told was a storm which is 3.5 times the size of earth.

Jupiter

Next we all got a cup of tea and had a bit of a lecture, which was actually quite interesting. A few interesting points which stood out to me:

• Put a single grain of sand on your finger tip and hold it out at arms length. Hold it up to the sky and look at the amount of sky it blocks out. There’s probably about 250 million galaxies in that area (number not accurate cause my memory is shit but it was alot)
• If you take the aerial out of you tv, and look at all the fuzz, some of that is dark matter (if you dont know what dark matter is, google it. Actually, you still wont know what it is, because no-one does, but they know its there, and they think they’ll suss it out soon)
• Theres about 150 billion solar systems in a galaxy, and about 250 billion galaxies in the solar system, and the solar system is constantly expanding! We are one planet in one solar system called the milky way. Don’t get it? Lets just say the universe is incredibly massive!
• Quantum theory – Nothing is definate, but many things are just very, very probable. This is my favourite because it means that if anything strange happens, you can just refer to quantum theory. It a bit like sciences answer to miracles. Can’t explain it? ‘Its a miracle’, says the preacher.. ‘no, its quantum theory’ replies the astrologist! Haha. Ive probably mis-interpreted it a bit but I like it anyway.

One of my favourite parts of the night was when we actually went outside and looked at the sky. He showed us a bunch of constelations and stuff, we could clearly see the Milky Way (actually, the night sky was amazing, it was clear like it is in the desert, apparently we where very lucky that night, he referred to it as astro-porn). He pointed out a galaxy which is going to crash into ours in a few billion years, and we also got to view it through the telescope.. amazing. Best thing I learnt though was finding north using the North Star, I like practical stuff.

Using the North Star to Find North

So all in all a very interesting night, and definately an experience I’ll remember, however, to me, it doesnt really mean anything. I mean, so the universe is a massive place and theres all that stuff out there and the big bang theory and all that jazz, but does it really matter? How does it affect my life. I tell you how, it doesnt. In fact, unless your going to be an astronomer, it affects hardly anyone. Don’t get me wrong, Im glad someone thinks it matters so we get to know these things, but in reality, the only valuable thing I see in astrology, is navigation, but then again, Im a practical survivalist.

Some Other Universe We Saw Through the Telescope

*I’ve found that sometimes its better to wait a while before writing about stuff as opposed to doing it straight after the experience, because that way your memory filters things and you only remember the bits that really stand out.. the flip side is that memory isnt really that accurate and embellishments and descrepincies often creep in. This also serves quite well as an alibi to any criminal activity that slips into my posts. So if you’re anyone looking to get me into trouble and using my writing as evidence, I just made that stuff up for entertainment value

**I was very surprised how poorly the general English public cope with driving in slippy conditions. Surely they experience it every year. The other day the path I ride to work on was icy. I didnt think of this and when I went to turn my bike slipped from underneath me and I stacked it hard core! I think I probably slid about 10m or so on the path (good thing I know to break fall, and I was wearing a few layers which protected me, and a helmet, something I see alot of people not doing in England, plus Im pretty tough anyway, although my arm does still hurt a bit ). Anyway, the point is that I doubt Ill slip again. This was after my first day of riding in these conditions. Surely with a probable average of 20+ years of driving experiece these guys can figure it out!