As it turns out, this year we are experiencing some unusual alignments in our night skies. The bright spots catching my eyes are most likely Jupiter and Venus. At various times this month, Mars, Mercury and Saturn will also all be visible. As NPR eloquently states, if this happens 200 years ago it would surely be interpreted as an astral warning of foreboding things to come.
Yesterday (March 19) was Sun-Earth Day 2012, a NASA and ESA-originated series of educational and celebratory events around the world to raise awareness and appreciation for the way the sun effects life here on earth. Today is the Vernal Equinox, during which our days and nights are closest to being equal lengths (but not exactly) and from here on out our days will be getting longer until the peak of summer.
But these are annual events - for 2012 we will also be experiencing the Transit of Venus. On June 5, we will experience a rare celestial alignment that will not occur again until 2117 - Venus will be visible to us when she moves across the sun during the early morning hours. NASA has a great post on their website about the historical significance of this event with regards to human understanding of the cosmos. From the Babylonians to Galileo to Capt. James Cook, this astronomical occurrence has landmarked many great scientific revelations.
But historical relevance and scientific curiosity aside, what amuses me most about this event is that on some inner level, I knew those two planets were new happenings in the night sky. Even though I couldn't identify the North Star to save my life, either of the dippers, nor do I have any understand of how the celestial bodies change across the seasons and the year. But some animal part of my brain knew something new was happening and kept forcing my eye to it. This reminds me of our innate and often disregarded connection to the natural world around us. I remember being a child and realizing that I could predict the rain by the way the tree leaves turned silver just before a storm (reaching their underbellies up for water, I was told) or smell the barometric pressure drop before a snow storm. Since getting older and being more educated in photography, I now overtly notice the changes in light that occur different times of year and in different places in the world - the light in Den Haag in January is quite a bit different than the light in Kentucky in August. Its nice to be reminded the world keeps turning around us and beautiful things keep happening, even when we're buried in worries and work, and that on some level nestled way deep down in our primate brains, we are still attuned to it.
