I woke up today discombobulated, and it continued through most of the morning. I came close to cancelling on Mariah and our Mauna Kea trip, thinking that sticking close to home would be in my best interest. As I was standing at the kitchen counter, waiting for my Eggo waffles to pop out of the toaster, I started glancing at a guest book from the condo my Housemate manages, and the first sentence I read was, "If you get the chance, definitely go to Mauna Kea." Well then, that takes care of that, I guess.
I rallied, and boy am I glad I did. Tonight is a New Moon, which makes the sky positively explode with stars. Mauna Kea is Hawaii's tallest point at about 13, 800 feet. If you count from below sea level to it's tip, it's the largest land mass in the entire world, even though only 13,800 are above sea level. It's one of the Big Island's four volcanoes, although this one hasn't erupted in over 4000 years, as opposed to Mauna Loa, which is active right now as we speak.
Mauna Kea houses the observatories, and from what Mariah and I could glean, the visitor's center hosts "Star Parties" on New Moon Nights, with telescopes set up and presentations on the constellations and such. We drove the two hours up there, arriving right before sunset. Since we weren't at the summit, the sunset wasn't really all that, but it didn't even matter--I've seen lottsa sunsets since I've been here. No, what was absolutely one of the coolest experiences I've ever, um, experienced was that night sky. Holy cats.
Through the telescopes, we not only saw various star clusters, but we also saw Saturn! It looked like a sticker or something, like you could pick it up and pinch it between your fingers. It was so clear, so perfect, with the ring around it and everything. I was absolutely amazed, and kept going back to take another peek. It would earn a top five spot on my "Coolest Stuff Ever" list, if I were one to keep such a list. Which I don't. Maybe I should.
The presenter had a extraordinarily strong laser pointer that he used to actually point out various constellations to us, and it really looked like his light was reaching all the way up there. We saw the Zodiac constellations, as well as about a dozen others. The Milky Way was right there, too, and we were even graced by a handful of shooting stars.
I felt like a six year old on Christmas morning; mesmerized and practically giddy. I was awestruck by the enormity of it all; by the sheer certainty that we are oh so small in the grand scheme of things. One of my beliefs about this world is that everything is interconnected, and tonight I really felt that. I felt connected, and somehow proud of being a part of this world. (Well, truth be told, I'm not always proud to be a part of this particular global society; we have our collective head so far up our ass as far as living a decent, humane life. But I do feel honored to have been given the chance to live out this specific life, at this specific time, in this specific location. I got a pretty good one, if I do say so myself.) It boggles my mind that someone could stand there and witness a sight like the one I saw tonight, and still insist there is no Higher Being out there. There simply *has* to be.
I think what else added to the magic of the night was the fact that it was FREEZING up there. I was wearing no less than the following: socks, hiking shoes, long underwear, jeans, short sleeved tshirt, long sleeved tshirt, NorthFace windbreaker, zip up hoodie, NorthFace fleece and a wool hat. And I could still feel the sting of the whipping wind. The cold made me hoot and holler, it made me grin and giggle. Winter, oh how I have missed thee so! We bought hot chocolate and I cannot even begin to explain how much I enjoyed each sip. Mariah had also brought a wonderful picnic dinner for us, and we ended up setting up our picnic in the back of my car due to the temperature. Which was 40 degrees, I kid you not. I even have photographic evidence:
We were cold.
But well fed.
Ha! They had bumper stickers that just said, "Beware of Invisible Cows. Mauna Kea Observatory." I bought my parents one.
The lights in the bathroom were red.
See that cloud? We drove through that on our way up the mountain! It was crazy. Crazy cool, that is.
These were the high-tech, bad-ass telescopes that brought the Universe right there to us. Fancy.Overall, a divine experience, and one I'm really pleased we took the time to do. I will not soon forget any of it. On the way home, we saw not one by TWO white owls flying through the sky. Majestic and unexpected. When I got home tonight I looked it up, and seeing an owl indicates upcoming wisdom, truth, magic and insight. Whee!
