A Night to Remember
I had cleared the evening to observe the heavens, so I set up the 12.5 inch Dobsonian to go galaxy hunting. Many friends don’t have equipment or its during the day in their location, so we made a quick email announcement that we would be observing using an astro-video camera in place of an eyepiece on the telescope. We are able to take the signal output and display it for us but also send the signal via the internet to NightSkiesNetwork.com so it can be broadcasted. Often several friends or strangers join us as we observe, conduct a tutorial on how to record an observation on paper, and answer questions. They can hear us and use a chat box to relay questions or comments. So, we all learn together while we watch some of God’s created objects. The site is friendly and open to our speaking of God’s wonderful creation of the heavens, so we address questions and make comments about His creative work that was done about 6000 years ago.
The First Target
NGC 253 (The Sculptor Galaxy) was our first target. The instruction and sketch process took about 50 minutes as we watched the object and periodically showed the development of an observing sheet. This observing sheet has most of the elements we would tell teachers and students to include. As we often say, “Since God created the heavens to display His qualities and power (see Psalm 19:1-4), then it behooves us to make as good an observing sheet as we can in the time we observe.” This sheet is certainly not perfect, but its just about all I can get done while teaching, commenting, and sketching at the same time. Part of the sheet we ask people to include is an appropriate verse of the Bible. You can see mine in the sketch itself.
The Second Target
Quite a good group of people stayed with us during the broadcast, so I went to a second galaxy around the constellation Pegasus. NGC 7331 is beautiful spiral galaxy that is part of a cluster of “star cities.” My wife and I had sketched it a month before, but we wanted some others to have a chance to study it also. So we went through the same process of developing and observing sheet over the next 50 minutes. Here is the result:
The Point of It All
Unlike the story telling and conjectures about the self-directed gathering of celestial bodies over billions of years, we have a surer testimony from the Creator in Genesis 1. The Bible verse in this sketch is a reflection of the sentiment of His hand of creation: they were stretched out, and it is the same God that created us, beginning with Adam and Eve. Of course, things did not stay pristine as the first man and woman had a “better” idea about gaining wisdom and being like God but not necessarily with Him. It is commonly called the “Fall of Man.” We have remained, as has creation, in that sorry state since the beginning. But the heavens serve as a wonderful reminder that He is present, powerful, and detailed all at the same time. Not wishing anyone to perish, He beckons us toward Himself, patiently waiting for those who would choose to believe.
How Patient?
“God so loved the world” as He says in John 3:16 that He makes the call through the ages, including our own. The heavens remind us, the special planet Earth reminds us, our broken world full of sin reminds us, and words of the Bible remind us of Him, His patience, and our need for Him. He is not willing that any should perish in eternal terms. But the tug of wanting our own way is so strong. That is why it’s so hard. People would rather believe self-developing complexity in the universe, the notion that we are getting “better,” and all sorts of related things rather than turn to the Living God, Who made both heaven and earth. Can I suggest something to unbelievers? Why not see that that the complexity in the universe does not happen on its own, that it’s laws are part of the His grand creation but they don’t create anything by themselves, that history tells us clearly that we are not getting “better”, and we need to be related to our Creator to have real life. Nothing else will fill a life like a relationship with Him.
The beautiful heavens we observed on that November night are just a little reminder, like a sign in the sky, that He is beckoning us to Him.
If you even want to join one of our observing sessions, send us an email at cwm4him@embarqmail.com and tell us you want to join some of our sessions. We send and email to this group of people when we are planning to observe and broadcast. Sometimes there is not much notice, but we do the best we can to give some advance warning. We don’t use the “Remote Observing List” for any other purpose.
