Starry nights

Next weekend, we have something called the "Starry Nights Festival" here in Yucca Valley. The community center hosts lectures on astronomy, and the local astronomy club sets up their telescopes for free stargazing at night. Believe me, these aren't the kind of telescopes you find at Wal-mart or a garage sale. Some of these local hobbyists have really sophisticated equipment.

Starry Nights is a fun and unique event, made possible by our clear desert skies and strict "Night Sky" lighting ordinances. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law will be coming down to visit next weekend, and we're looking forward to checking out some of the stars together.

To get a sense of the enormous size of our universe, I would highly recommend the video posted here. Natalie and I first saw this several years ago on the Privileged Planet DVD, and still talk about it from time to time. It's truly amazing - the best depiction I've ever seen of our universe. And it's great to see this short video finally posted online. Blogger Jeff Gray draws an encouraging spiritual application from the video as well.

HT: Tim Challies
Photo credit: xamad