Jupiter Rising

 

'Winter is on it's way'
-  arty rendition of the eastern sky over our hedge. The bright planet
Jupiter can be seen centre-right  above the hedge, with the
open star cluster the 'Seven Sisters' just above and to it's right.

'The Plough' asterism
as seen with a painter's eye,
from St Michael's Church graveyard in autumn.

'C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)'
- the last naked eye glimpse from Lowestoft on 18-10-2024

The night sky is a beautiful place to let your mind wander. Celestially, much stays the same in the short context of a single human life. Every now and  then and in the words of Wilkins Micawber - " something will turn up". 

In the night sky, this might be a sudden bright flash of light, witness to the demise of a grain of dust, a pebble or a rock that ventured too close to the Earth and burnt up in our atmosphere as a meteor. It might be the glow from a passing comet, illuminated by the Sun. A cometary visitor to our skies for a few days a few weeks or months but eventually destined to fade as it sails off into the dark cosmos. The planets of the solar system 'wander' across the sky following elliptical orbits around the Sun and move against the backdrop of apparently fixed stars. 

Even the stars, with distances from our planet so great that they are measured in the years it takes for their light to reach us,  move and change. Starlight from some of these remote suns may grow brighter and then fade, either because of the star's intrinsic variability or, after running out of hydrogen to fuse, brighten temporarily in a cataclysmic supernova.  The Universe is truly a dynamic entity but the vast distances and timescales involved render it apparently static within life-span limited perception of us poor mortals. 

Even passing jets and man built satellites can provide a beautiful ballet in the night sky and engage our imagination of their destination and purpose.

All in all, - 'Distance lends enchantment' and this is never more true than when stargazing!