The Light of the Moon and Stars

Day 5 Light of the Moon and the Stars my response to LKLudwig's daily photo prompt for The Light of Winter

After I took this photo (2/09) I realized it looks like an image of an eye. As I view the universe, as I look out into the great darkness of the universe - the universe is looking back at me.



Carl Sagan is one of my favorite authors because he spoke in a language that made it easy for me to understand the enormity and expansiveness of the universe. One of my favorite quotes of his - "There are more stars in this universe than there are grains of sand on every beach on earth" that's mind boggling - almost beyond comprehension. One of the wonderful experiences of looking into the night sky is to understand there is much we do not understand and much we do. As humans we continue to strive to expand our horizons even as we take 2 steps forward and then 1 backwards. Consider that in ancient Greece there were men of great curiosity and wisdom such as Aristarchus (around 275 BCE) who postulated that the earth was a revolving sphere in orbit around the sun. Not a novel notion to us in modern times but know that this knowledge in the centuries that followed was suppressed and people burned at the stake for believing such ideas. When I view our moon I am reminded of the many influences it has here on earth - from tides
to the developement of the calendar, to storytelling and myth creation. To the developement of new products by NASA to facilitate our landing on the moon.


~~~~~