You're a right shower! Of meteors!

  Having looked forward to going to the Armagh Planetarium for ages, Dan, Soph and I journeyed down there in great anticipation. Pre-booking the tickets for the Astronaut show (the website having recommended such an action) we made it just in time to pick them up, and with only a few minutes left to hang around the ridiculously overpriced gift shop.

The show was a bit of a disappointment to be honest. I was hoping for a tour of the Solar System at least. Coupled with this, was the constant nurping of a group of wee kids every time the lights went down. When we subsequently went round the exhibits I can only describe them as 'okay'. Maybe that was because the Show was a let down and my perception of all that the Planetarium had to offer was tainted by that. I'm not sure.

However, there was one jaw dropping experience. As we pottered round things we came across the cases with the meteors in them. There was also a large item sitting out (as pictured). I rose up to my full height of ignorance and confidently announced to the kids that "this isn't real. It's only a cast of it". "This is real" announced the Planetarium employee, as she proceeded to bounce a ten pence piece of it and we all listened to the haunting 'ting' it made as she did it (this was caused by the hollow tubes of iron within it - apparently).

According to the blurb, this meteor, which  we all pawed, was approx. 4 billion years old. This bit of rock was older than the bit of Rock it was sitting on! A mind blowing thought, which was why, I suppose, I couldn't stop touching it. This meteor came from the debris of another planet and eventually wound its way through time and space to come crashing down on Earth, only to end up on a plywood plinth in Armagh! Poor sod!

As said before, astronomy and cosmology fascinate me beyond words. They are a constant source of wonder to me. But they also give me a sense of perspective, for through them I realise that the Universe does not revolve around this one planet nor does it revolve around me. But that I am conscious of this fact does make me feel special - humbled, yet special. If all things are truly in God (panentheism), and if God is interested in little 'ole me, then it is a comforting thought that the God of this MASSIVE Universe can find a place for a little fat man in it. Even one who is disappointed with his visit to the Planetarium.   

Feeling humbled

Last night was the first time since I'd impulse bought my cheap telescope that there was even a partial break in the clouds. So at midnight I hauled my wobbly plastic homage to Galileo to an even surface and set it up. 

Seeing only a handful of stars I did my best to point the telescope in the right direction. Because it was a cheap one, precision was out of the question, but EVENTUALLY I managed to locate something in the main lens. With my eyesight it was difficult to know if it was in focus or not but what I saw was mind blowing.

At first I thought it was a planet (aw bless!) but then I realised that everything I looked at couldn't be a planet, so it had to be a star. Having never viewed anything through a telescope I wasn't entirely sure what I should've been seeing. I saw a round object, sort of fuzzy, with more light around its edges than in the middle.

And then it struck me. I was looking at something like our Sun, only this was millions of light years away. The Earth, the Sun, and the other 8 planets were not the centre of the universe. There were others suns, and no doubt other planets, possible similar to the one I was standing on.

Suddenly the Universe seemed very large indeed. As Douglas Adams once said "You might think walking to the Chemists and back is a long way, but it's nothing compared to the expanses of Space" (it's from memory so apologies for its undoubted inaccuracies). There I was. Just a speck, on a speck, looking at another speck through a telescope, surrounded on every side by an infinitesimal number of specks. I can see now why existential angst is so popular! And yet I did not feel alone (any more than usual lol), nor did I feel insignificant or unimportant. In his collection of sermons entitled Shaking the Foundations, Paul Tillich said "Simply accept the fact that you are accepted". God accepts us for who we are because we are, and He is. No conditions, no pre-nups, no bargaining. We are accepted. That is Grace. Even in a big empty Universe we find meaning and acceptance.