Night Sky

The evening sky has been spectacular the past few evenings. The weather has been clear this week, with little humidity to mar the night sky. The lights from the ski resort are off and even the moon doesn’t rise until late. When I am walking the dogs for the last time, all I see is the black, black sky filled with thousands of stars.

Robert Frost wrote the poem “Starsplitter” about the constellation Orion and his first view of it as it makes its appearance in the east in the fall. He said:

“You know Orion always comes up sideways.
Throwing a leg up over our fence of mountains,
And rising on his hands, he looks in on me.”

Well, now Orion, having crossed the starfield, is about to toss his leg over the western mountains and disappear for a while. Every night when I’m out I look to see if Orion is still in one piece or if tonight will be the night he starts his long disappearing act. So far he’s still there.