Sunday, August 7, 2016

Looking at Saturn: the Macro versus the Micro Focus

Looking at Saturn: the Macro versus the Micro Focus

On my wife’s birthday last night, we sat by a pool with a very talented host who is both a great cook, and an amateur astronomer. So when the sky got darker later in the evening, he pulled out his handy telescope and searched the summer sky. The kids were playing in the water and mesmerized by their HD hand-held mobile devices; each holding ironically enough computer power to rival any Apollo moon-mission of the 60s or 70s. It made me think of the “micro” self-centered focus of youth; versus the “macro” focus provided by a small little lens through which a squinting eye could see millions of miles away.


Saturn is twice as far away from the sun as is Jupiter and smaller in size, therefore it appears as a reduced image and less bright in the telescope but surrounded by barely visible moons. Just seeing “rings” gives such a jolt of excitement peering that far out into the solar system, and at the same time, Jupiter had two moons clearly hanging out closely to the big red planet. Amazing to see.

The earth’s moon on the other hand, only 240,000 miles from where we stood, is so detailed you can almost see what our neighbors are doing up there on their gray beach, compared to the tiny jewel of Saturn at 880mil. miles out in the dark. We looked at both, and were struck by the splendor of the heavens.  The kids lined up for their view but were quickly more immersed in the tiny red spot of Pokémon than the majestic planets of our solar system.


Maybe it’s the magic of boys and girls together during summertime, the orbiting spheres in the night sky held not the same wonder as the celestial bodies reflected in the clear but murky waters of the dimly lit pool. The time it takes for the reflection of light from Saturn to travel back to earth is about 90 minutes travelling at light-speed. The size, scale, and distance is mind-boggling. If it took the spacecraft Pioneer 11, six and a half years to arrive at Saturn, then it would have consumed half of one of the young boy’s lifetimes in route. That may account for some of the youthful indifference.

But when we can zoom out to the macro perspective it sometimes helps us face our nearer battles. Turning from the navel to the night sky can widen the aperture of our mind; forcing us to crack open the space in our psyche which allows bigger thinking, even eternal contemplation. It was humbling to see so far down the street that it hurt my brain, strained my eyes, and shook my consciousness; comparing the small orbit of my life to that of Saturn, which revolves around the sun once every 29.4 Earth years. How many more trips will I take around our sun? It was fortunate to slow down the speed of life enough to enjoy the heavens and look at life a little closer to home. I'm grateful for every new morning, whatever it holds.

Happy birthday Carrie!

©Mark H. Pillsbury