After several months of living in the constant light of the big cities, are we finally back in our house in the small village of Antraigues in the south of France.
We definitely miss the pulse and all the funny times in the big cities, but at least have we regained the completely black night skies here. Far away from the bright lights of modern city life, the sky is totally clear. It lets thousands of stars show themselves, and we really appreciate that it is a rare gift to find a place without any light pollution. In the cities, you quickly forget what an incredible amount of worlds there exists above our heads, but here in the quiet Volane valley, surrounded by dark mountains, the sky is just amazing.
Last night stood we on a grass slope outside the village and saw all the familiar constellations rising - the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, and the square of Pegasus. When we stood there and looked up into infinity, came a really deep shift in our perspective.
The busy everyday life with all its worries suddenly feel so small against the vastness of space, and you realize how temporary everything is. Like the shooting stars crossing the sky, our lives just burn bright for a short moment and then are we gone. The longer we looked, the more stars came out from the darkness. Their light has traveled for so long to reach us, and since we literally were looking into the past, have some of the stars we looked at maybe stopped existing a long time ago.
As our eyes got heavy, did we begin to feel a connection with stargazers through history. Before electricity and cities, our ancestors looked up at these exact same stars and found comfort in being so small against the night sky. The small problems from the day seem completely blank after such a look up. What is our purpose under such a big sky anyway? Does anything we do really matter?
One thing we learned last night: The importance of Carpe Noctem - seize the night!
Looking at the stars, we really strained our eyes to find the faint little smudge of the Andromeda galaxy. It is more than two million light-years away, and the farthest object you can see with your naked eye. Or at least, it is the farthest object if your eyes are not getting too old!
We have often looked at this galaxy in our younger days, but even though we stared and stared into the sky, just over the stars Mirach and Mu in the Andromeda constellation, was it nowhere to be seen. Not even the tiniest speck!
Since an entire galaxy the size of our own Milky Way probably does not just disappear over night, had the only explanation to be the night blindness, which can develop when you get older.
We gave up finding it in the end, and it actually felt like something important was taken away from us. Let this be a good reminder for young people: Do go out on your next cloudless autumn night and look for the Andromeda galaxy while you are still able to see it.
Carpe Diem is a well-known expression, but seizing the night can just as important!
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