Aroostook Skies:
The dimension of extension
The possibilities of carving out some personal space in outer space remain alive and well in Aroostook County. We cannot withdraw our commitment too hastily for fear of June bugs and black flies. June forever possesses unique sky charm.
The peculiar rhythms of late sunsets and eerily early twilights beckon our particular passions. “I am Summer” shouts the dry, dark blue skies. “I am Summer” exclaims the unexpected long, sweet shadows and sunbeams of 8 p.m. or later. “I am Summer” boasts the star peppered vault above us, full of mix-magnified pinpoint displays collectively called Gemini and Leo and Virgo, and Scorpius. “I am Summer” calls the lunar globe above, dependently dancing through the phases of spherical geometry and solar photons.
I challenge every pair of eyes to absorb the wonder of early Summer. Our willingness to impose new perceptions to the night offer some hardship but much high reward. Whether your own insights offer good or ill depends upon you, but only if local citizens and residents collectively invite the celestial into their personal terrestrial may we hope to create a sense of enlarged and extended consciousness to the routine of gravity’s lifestyle, County style. This enrichment may yet liberty our new horizons.
Therefore, with confidence in the light as we see the light, let us together bind up our native curiosity and calibrate our GPS to the definite shores of Caribou’s “Burger Boy” Saturday, June 23. From 8 p.m. onwards, I intend, weather permitting, to host a passionate telescopic window courtesy of the Francis Malcolm Institute and The Maine School of Science and Mathematics. Destination … Saturn! With the extended dimension of an armada of local telescopic power, led by “Goliath” the newly acquired and donated 20-inch Dobsonian behemoth, we will engage your own “WOW” factor pointing towards “The Lord of the Rings,” the gas giant globe of deep space within our solar system.
So, everyone, come scoop and Saturn at “Burger Boy”! If the weather will not cooperate in June, we will regroup later in the summer. Stay tuned and look up!
Larry Berz of Caribou is director of Easton’s Francis Malcolm Planetarium and astronomy instructor at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics.
