The real thing
November 14, 2011 (Monday)
I’ve seen many pictures of the planet Jupiter. I know what it looks like. But Sunday evening I actually saw it. Bob Moncrief brought his new telescope to church and after the worship service, set it up on the church lawn.
I’ve never seen anything like his new telescope. It positions itself by means of the GPS Satellites, and talks to the operator as it does so. Bob had a device that looked like a remote control and used it to tell the telescope what he wanted to see. He selected Jupiter and the telescope whirred and turned as it talked to him about what it was doing.
When all was ready, Bob invited us to look. And there, right before my eyes, was the planet Jupiter and several of its many moons. Although it looked just like the pictures I had seen, there was something new and exciting about the view. I realized I was actually looking at one of the planets in our solar system. Amazing.
What I was looking at is a planet 391 million miles away, and its diameter is 88,700 miles. The fact I find so moving is, I was looking at the real thing–not a photograph. Wow.