Midnight is the best time to make the decision to get out of the house. At least, that seems to be how many of my more spontaneous adventures start.
I was hanging out in the living room of my Tennessee friends when Casey announced it was a good night for stargazing. He fiddled around the room, waiting for anyone to suggest to go outside with the recently mailed telescope he got a few days before. Katie glanced at me and asked if I was up for checking out their new telescope. That was an easy answer: of course!
Since taking Astronomy 103 at Western Carolina University, I’ve loved the idea of stargazing. I only participated in one viewing at WCU. We went to the Jackson County Airport to gaze at the stars with some powerful telescopes. I saw the Seven Sisters and a double star constellation where it almost seemed like the two stars were dancing with one another. It was one of the most fantastic things I experienced at WCU.
We packed the telescope in the car, grabbed some blankets and water, and then headed out for the night. It was only a little after midnight. What could go wrong?
We drove about thirty minutes out from the house, passing many potential places but not finding a perfect spot. Finally, we stopped at Norris Dam. There was quite a bit of light, but it was a surprisingly easy area to see stars. I won’t say it’s a top spot for all you fellow amateur gazers out there, but for a spontaneous trip, it was decent enough.
I could see The Big Dipper without the telescope, but with the telescope, I could see other stars…not sure what else to tell ya there; but it was pretty cool. We attempted to view a comet passing by, but it just kept eluding us.
While Casey began to find the reddish-looking star I pointed out, a truck passed by, then quickly drove backward and parked right behind us.
“Casey,” Katie said, staring at the ground away from the truck and inching closer to her car. “Handle it. Handle it, Casey. Casey!”
I wrapped myself in my blanket and pretended like I was fine as I also inched closer to the car.
A man got out of the truck, leaving his friend in the passenger seat. Casey approached him before he could get any closer to us.
“Hey, ya’ll al’rite?” The man had a very thick country accent.
“Yep, just came out to stargaze,” Casey said. He was very calm as he stood right in front of the guy, blocking the newcomer from us.
“Well, I’ll be; that’s real neat!”
“Oh yeah, we can see the stars and planets up close!” Casey said with an informative air, sprinkling just a bit of “duh” in his tone.
“Yee dawgy! I’d love to see that right there.” The guy honestly sounded a little drunk to me. Turned out he was a state trooper and wanted to check on us. He spoke to Casey for a while, and I honestly couldn’t tell you what went on in that conversation. This was a deep south language I haven’t come into contact with in a long while.
“Well, be careful! I’ll call my people and let them know you’re here so they won’t mess with ya. Or maybe they will𝄖HAHA!” He looked back at his friend in the truck to share the joke. “Ya’ll have a good night.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you for checking on us,” Casey said. He was very polite the whole time.
Katie kindly laughed at all the right moments.
I very nicely stayed as far from everyone as possible.
Katie asked if we should head out. She was cold, and after a meet like we just had, she was a little over the late-night adventure. Casey was disappointed and said the moon was about to rise above the trees. Katie’s totally whipped, so Casey got his way.
The moon wasn’t going to rise for another 15 minutes, and it was probably around 2 am. It slowly crept from between some trees, so Casey positioned the telescope to get a good view. They sounded ecstatic when they looked in it. I didn’t really expect much. I don’t know why, but I was fairly chill about the chance to see the moon through a telescope. I cannot believe I was so blasé about it! This was probably my favorite part of the night.
While you can easily look up pictures of the moon online, this feels different. I was overwhelmed as I stared at the moon through the branches of the trees. I could clearly see the impact of thousands of pieces of the universe covering the moon. I felt like I was staring at a celestial map of the stars.
Something that’s so far away suddenly felt like it was reachable. I didn’t want to look away. We spent a lot of time moving the telescope to follow the moon’s path, keeping up with its trajectory across the sky. Once it glided past the trees, we could look at it without any obstruction. (However, the branches in front of the moon gave me full-on werewolf vibes. So that was fun.)
Eventually, I grew sleepy and cold, so Katie turned on her car and let me chill out in there while they kept sky searching. I started to fall asleep when Casey pulled me out of the back seat to see they found Saturn! I felt like a kid as I looked into the telescope to see the rings of the far-off planet. It was like the size of an ant𝄖A tiny, baby planet that I could easily smush. So cute.
Soon, my exhaustion won out over my excitement, and around 3 am everyone packed up in the car. I curled my blanket tightly around me as I fell asleep on the drive home, dreaming of a galaxy far, far away.
