Perspectives

A "perspective" is the way of thinking about or viewing something often influenced by one's experiences or beliefs. 

During my time with my cousin, we visited the Observatory. The building and the telescope are over 100 years old. The building is open to the public a few days during the month. The tours and information are provided by the University students; I assume they are taking Astrology. There are some factors to consider when you are looking at the sky. Of course, the obvious is how clear it is. We just came out of a very cold winter and that is also a factor since the roof is wide open. We were certainly lucky to hit a nice clear night.    

Going to the Observatory was popular the night we went with lots of families coming and going. The tour began by crawling the ancient stairs to the roof. It took two people and a ladder to get the roof open, and the telescope set. Once the guide had everything in place, we started to take turns looking at the small specks in the sky. The first up was Mars. I had it in my head the planets would look like they do on the Big Bang Theory and be huge. Well, it was not like that, shocker the telescope is 100 years old. Mars was just a little bright orange dot in the sky. The young man that was showing us said that he knew it was Mars because it was next to the moon. We then moved on to Jupiter, also shining bright according to the guy. Jupiter was very exciting; you could see it and 4 of the moons that surrounded it. I am sharing the picture that the guide took for me at the end of the telescope. It is nothing like it looked, but still fun to have a picture of Jupiter. Lastly, was the moon. It was only a half-moon; our wonderful guide set the telescope right on the edge of the bright and the dark. And there it was, grey dusty crevasses on an extremely bright surface. I mean extremely bright. My thought went to Neil Armstrong and what he must have thought stepping out onto the moon. "One small step for man and one big step for mankind" is etched in our minds. 

Jupiter with 4 moons

As we were waiting to go to the telescope, we were entertained by a 3ish year-old little girl. Her Dad would carry her to a poster of a planet, ask a question and she would say what planet it was. The child barely had command of the English language but would answer correctly. How would I know if she was right or wrong, I couldn't answer any of the dad's questions. I am only assuming she was correct by the dad's response. She had to think about "Saurn" as she called it. Good for her parents, not only did they teach their daughter the solar system, but they were bringing it to life for her.  

I have minimal recall of learning the solar system in school. I remember memorizing the planets for the science test and then promptly forgetting them. I guess my perspective on the solar system is that I like the look of the planets, but other than that, my knowledge is very limited. I felt that only scientists were the ones with a true understanding. The definition of the solar system is a complex and fascinating system that has been captivating for centuries. Every celestial body plays a unique role in the grand scheme of the universe. The bottom line for me is, I just take the sun, moon and stars for granted. They are out there and have been for billions of years. I do think the solar system is of profound interest to many scientists and I am pretty sure the little 3-year-old will be one of them someday. I will cherish the memory of looking in the ancient telescope and having a different perspective on the solar system than I ever did before.