Consider this: God created all things but He is eternal, so the creation of time and the universe is in a context we understand a tiny bit, but He is outside of it yet in it. We learn, observe, and live in a context of time. In his mercy, he can walk with us in it but is far (an understatement) beyond it. But he also uses time for us so we can learn of him in a progressive manner. And, we learn of his creation the same way–becoming more acquainted with the complexities, wonder, and beauty of what he has made. The heavens are no different: what we know of the heavens is changing over time. The prophets could see the Milky Way but did not know what it was except that it was filled with stars. It’s milky appearance was a site to behold–especially in the dark skies that were not encumbered with heavy light pollution. A few thousand years later the telescope was invented. We began to learn about optics and magnification. The universe “expanded”. Now we can see much further and the universe keeps expanding. The limits of his creation in the heavens remains undefined and unreachable but what we can see is beautiful and deeper than expected.
Here is one example: the Lagoon Nebula. In the days of the prophets, the appearance of the Milky Way in the southern skies was magnificent but the eyes were the only tools to see. The Lagoon would have been in one of those ‘thickest’ sections. As optics began to be developed, it became a distinct object — a stellar cloud. The sketch below was developed using a 12.5 inch Dobsonian telescope with a wide field eyepiece. This kind of view was not available to backyard astronomers until the last century. The circle shows the limits of the field of view; the inset diagram of the constellation Saggitarius shows where the object can be located. The view can be seen with a low power telescope for most lattitudes. It is the second brightest nebula in the night sky, and is notable because of the open cluster of stars on the left and the whitish cloud that is divided by a darkened area (like a lagoon).
