Written in the stars

Want to know the best part of my moon lab?

THE FACT THAT IT'S DONE!

I'm fairly happy with it, actually. Percent error was less than a tenth of a percent . . . so yeah. Go me. In the process, I also came across a new favorite website . . . Sky & Telescope Magazine has a website, and there's this awesome program on it called Interactive Sky Chart. You basically look at the night sky on it, and can track the progression of the stars and planets and Moon at your exact location on whatever date and time you choose ranging from the year 1600 to the year 2400. I looked up the exact position of the stars the minute I was born. Isn't that wild?! Essentially, this program means that we can look at the sky at any given point in our lives, far beyond our deaths, even. Our entire lives compiled into the movement of the stars.

I suppose you could argue that that's a morbid thought, or one that renders us insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but I really don't see it that way. Rather, I feel like being a part of the motion of something so much larger is just that--being a part of it. We are witness to something that has existed long before us, and will continue to exist way after we die. There's meaning in that.

Anyways, enough late-night abstraction. Definitely check out the website, though . . . you have to register with your email address, but it's free and totally worth any spamming that may follow.