20160428 (lost in space)

Andromeda, nearest galaxy, 780 kiloparsecs (2.537million light years) away. Start walking.

Despite age and learning I haven’t

Shaken the lure of astronomy since

I first set eye to eyepiece of one of

My brother’s homemade telescopes.

A rickety thing, a six-foot long 

Galvanized steel downspout 

Fitted with hand cut wooden

Plugs to which the major lens 

And focusing tube were fixed,

All balanced roughly on a tripod

Built in the basement. I clearly

Remember the shaky hinges and

The window chain that steadied 

The legs. Steadied here should

Be understood with tongue-in-

Cheek because it was terribly

Unstable. Objects flew through

The field until finally located,

Then wobbled about because 

None could hold the long tube

Delicately enough to see clearly.

Supposedly a one hundred power

Magnification, the basic kit was

Simply two lenses with plans

For making the rest on your

Own. So much for buying a

100 Power Telescope for $10

As advertised in the back pages 

Of Boys’ Life. Still I got to see

The craters on the moon, the four

Major moons of Jupiter (I think)

And the love affair was on. What

I couldn’t see through telescopes

I studied in older astronomy

Books borrowed from the Main

Branch of the Cleveland Public

Library which for some reason

I considered more authentically

Scientific than the books I could

Find at my local branch. The 

Pictures of the planets, fuzzy

Images from the ‘twenties and

‘Thirties, photographs made over

Twelve hour exposures of the 

Nebulae delivered for me a 

Sensation of being “out of 

The body,” of being within the 

Picture, myself somehow

In space among the stars.

It wasn’t anything religious

At all as others report of such

Transcendent experiences.

Rather while not uncomfortable

I sensed an icy cold of the void

And that time no longer mattered.

Of course my father chalked all

This up to reading too much 

Trashy romantic science fiction.

Could very well have been 

Though I can still get the same

Feeling as if I could dive deeply

Within the contemporary images

Derived from modern radio, X-ray,

Instruments, even the false-color

Reprints from the Hubble. People 

Growing up and living in the 

Light-polluted cities have no 

Idea what’s in store for them,

As for me, lying on my back

In a sleeping bag open to the

Night sky at Atwood Lake,

Camping with the family,

When for the first time I saw

With my unaided eye the stars

Spread from horizon to horizon.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016