Swimming in a Pool of Light
Cultivating inner calm in times of chaos…..
Can’t Fight Gravity
Perfect stillness. That was my experience as I laid under a clear sky with stars, planets, galaxies, and nebula sparkling overhead. The air was still. The woods were still. Not a crackle in the leaves from animals on their night journeys. I was still. At peace. Calm from my core.
A little over a year ago I started using a Seestar telescope, which is an amazing gadget that takes images of deep space objects without complicated setups with regular telescopes and cameras. And the images turn out fine for what I want. It was easy learning to use it with the help of YouTube and a little study. What wasn’t easy was learning how to be still and patient as the telescope gathered photons. And I was shocked at my discomfort.
I’ve photographed the night sky for decades, but in the last year took my passion for nocturnal sky adventures to a deeper level. At first, a five minute image was a stretch as I wanted to explore more and see more and jump to the next target. But then, as I learned to sink into myself deeper, I became fascinated with the details that an hour-long image revealed. Or gasp, an even longer exposure.
My skills for landscape astrophotography have expanded as well. I started programming my camera remote and setting it up with a lens warmer (to prevent dewy fogging) and power bank and let my Nikon capture star trails as the Earth rotates. As the camera and little telescope do their thing, I’ve learned to be still.
By relaxing and observing the night sky, I’ve seen amazing meteors that I would have missed had I been staring at my screen, looking for the next target to image. But more than that, I’ve seen a calmer side of myself that I really, really like.
Earth rotates making the stars and planets appear to move and what I’ve learned to do is let this magnificent planet carry me without trying to force myself to go faster or fight against gravity. As if. Who else out there on this spinning blue sphere has tried to defeat gravity by operating at break-neck speed with your mind? When we do that, we live in a constant fight with space and time. And I think we all know what will win.
Last night I celebrated the stars, planets, galaxies, nebula, and the surrender to stillness…to gravity…I’ve found within myself. And it felt really good.
Music of the Spheres
I walked up the rocky hill in blackness. Only a dimmed light pointed at my feet kept me on the path. In the distance I could hear the Atlantic Ocean pounding the cliffs. Rabbits skittered out of the way and cows appeared from the inky night, barely illuminated by the muted light. I was alone, but not really.
The trail was wet and slippery as I neared the arch in the rock wall. I paused to request permission to enter the 5000 year old stone fort and felt no resistance to my being there. I turned off the faint light, walked through the threshold, and felt myself enter a different dimension, one ruled by elemental beings.
The inner circle whispered a welcome, so I walked through the lush grass and found a place to lay down in the center. The only human-created light was a buoy offshore that warned of the cliffs. Dark sky magic weaved me into its spell. But it wasn’t just the stars and planets overhead that awed me, it was everything: Earth Mother anchoring me, wild wind, waves pounding the cliff, and fire of the stars.
As I rested on my back, I felt the reverberation of the ocean through the ground as it shook the bluff. It was as if every blade of grass was vibrating the story of the sea as it embraced the shore of Inis Mor, Ireland. Sky and Earth spiraled through me as I opened to the beauty.
Old metal fence pipes, with holes drilled into them, became flutes for the wind as they stood as sentinels just outside the fort. We are like those ‘flutes,’ available to be instruments of love and light if we simply open and avail ourselves to light, to love, to the Music of the Spheres.
I think Pythagoras had it right when he said the movements of the celestial bodies create a divine, inaudible harmony. The only thing I disagree with is the inaudible part. For times like this morning, when I was reclined under the late night/pre-dawn sky here in the Smoky Mountains, I hear that harmony as it arises within me as a reflection from the heavens.
Remember the Light
When you gaze into the clear night sky, the perception is there is darkness and only pinpoints of light. But when you take photographs of the night sky, a fundamental truth is revealed: It’s mostly light. So much light!
I regularly set up my tripod and camera and program my remote to continuously fire 10 to 20 second shots until my battery runs out, I’m too cold to continue, or clouds arrive. By doing this with the correct exposure, I capture the rotation of the Earth. It appears as star trails…and planet trails…when I stack those images in Photoshop. Streams of light are the reality!
Even though life can seem really dark, when we look closely those pinpoints of light, glowing in so many hearts, they become like fireworks of love all over the planet.
When I stand under the firmament and gaze into the heavens, my life is changed for the better. Every. Single. Time.
Don’t think that because it looks dark, all is lost. Light is growing and continues to grow as we open our hearts and allow our lights to shine.
Great Night to Be Alive
As I laid on Earth, looking at the vast sky filled with stars, I realized it was the first time in my star gazing outings over the past year that I wasn’t monitoring equipment. I was taking in the beauty without distractions. Literally…breathing in the starlight, exhaling into Earth. Breathing in the sparkling meteors, exhaling gratitude into Earth. I was grateful my equipment was safely stowed so I could be present with life.
It was also the first night I had used only one piece of equipment. Usually, I have the SeeStar telescope imaging some galaxy or star cluster, my camera taking star trail images, and my iPhone on a little tripod taking images. All of this while ‘enjoying’ the beauty. And I absolutely love creating images…that’s my joy. But last night, I was trying a new piece of equipment I bought many months ago but hadn’t had an opportunity to use due to heavy cloud cover for so many months and then I’d forgotten how to assemble it and didn’t want to bother.
But I bothered last night and I’m in awe of what adding a star tracker can do to increase exposure time for astrophotography. And let me just say this: I love to play with camera gear…under starlight, underwater, with waterfalls, forests, wildlife. I simply love to play. With cameras. And light. And shapes. And sparkly shiny beings light years away. But sometimes it’s magical to remember why I am so passionate about photography and just be bathed in the beauty I’m trying to capture and share.
Three of us gathered for the Leonid meteor shower, for fast-moving meteors and fireballs, debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Our viewing location is generally a madhouse of car lights but last night, we had it almost to ourselves. Peaceful, calm, cold and one fireball that was so amazing I yelled, Bravo!!, after its sparkling self evaporated above our heads. There were others…one incredibly fast faint one, other smaller ones, and one I didn’t see with my eyes but my camera captured it!
Even though there were clouds for a few hours, they added to the beauty of the images. I saw the clouds clearing, but it was getting colder and even with my cocoon of warm clothes, I knew my limit was approaching. As soon as I began disassembling the imaging equipment, the clouds finally gave way. I think their hanging around was my cue to put it all away and lay on Earth for grounding and communion with our planet and to open myself to the beauty of the firmament without distractions…except for the tingle moving up my spine from the cat call…which I swear was a mountain lion’s chirping call. We all heard it so it wasn’t my imagination. (It IS possible at the 5720 foot ‘remote’ location on the parkway…there have been paw print casts made from biologists years ago nearby…and it was not a bobcat).
As I was driving home, down the Blue Ridge Parkway, and then winding down Soco Road toward Cherokee, I thought…This was a great night to be alive! Stars, meteors, mountains…mountain lion? Just WOW!