Back to Observing the Created Heavens.
We held over 10 observing sessions in March and April 2023 in the Philippines with children and adults. We thoroughly enjoyed presenting the heavens to a church in Calatrava, Negros Occidental, where we were asked to speak on biblical creation. Most of the members had never used optics, but we brought a tiny C90 and a set of binoculars from the US so they could get an introduction to the night skies. We used an 80-mm refractor for most of our sessions at the Institute for Foundational Learning (IFL), Cabuyua, Laguna. One of those IFL evenings is shown to the right. A few nights before we left, however, we also did two sessions at IFL with an 8 inch Schmidt Cassagrain telescope. About 30 children and staff were able to observe the moon and a few bright stars with the larger scope.
A young lady came to us very excited one evening at IFL to tell us of a beautiful crescent moon with a “bright star” nearby. We had been so busy that we never heard about the occultation that was to occur early that evening. We ran to set up the 80-mm refractor so we could sketch the event and shared the scope with about 25 children and staff. See the sketch of the occultation event.
It got so busy on our return to the US at the end of March, however, that we had to suspend any observing until July. While most summer nights in Bear Creek, NC are cloudy, there have been a few evenings with good observing conditions. We picked one of those nights to observe and sketch the Ring Nebula on July 11 and M5 (a globular cluster) on July 16. We used a modest 102-mm (4-inch refractor), since our other scopes have not been unpacked. Both objects were observed with a low power eyepiece, but we changed over to astro-video tools in order to get a little better detail. The observing sheets are shown below.
So, it has been a delight to get back to observing the heavens at home, and more sessions are planned for our local church members as well as some people in the Bear Creek area. As I have explained to our visitors, the heavens are a genuine indicator of the attributes of God, namely His power and majesty. While our modest equipment, even with the help of astro-video, limits the detail we can observe, the opportunity to self-observe is always a hit for visitors, just like it is a hit for the children and adults in the Philippines.
The Bible has more than 50 references to the heavens, outside of their creation that is recorded in Genesis 1:14-19 (Day 4 of the creation week). The biblical world view of the heavens is one of those things we share and teach as we observe with others.
For more information on learning to observe the heavens from a biblical view, you can download a free electronic book (Astronomical Observing from a Biblical View, or AOBV) from <Downloadable Courses> on the top menu of this site. For more information on the biblical world view of creation, get the free cell phone application that is available on Android or Apple phones from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, respectively. You can read about these resources on this site. The applications have a common identifiable symbol that shows a white hand on a blue circular background. It is on most of the pages of this site.
As Psalm 19 tells us, the heavens declare the glory of God and show His handiwork.
