One of the predominant themes of my last year has most definitely been the sky, that humongous, all-encompassing, awe-inspiring sky that is so easy to ignore or take for granted in most places on earth, but in Africa and on the ocean provides for endless enjoyment and appreciation.
If you forgot about all the sunset shots from Africa, I'll remind you with my sunset set from the Pacific. It's nearly impossible not to photograph the sky some evenings. And, I think the #1 best sunset ever spot has been uprooted by one from this passage. Check it out.
The sun is our favorite and most important star, yes, but I do so love all the rest of them. See, you can't stare at the sun, or even the moon with too much interest for that long. I love a full moon, don't get me wrong, but give me a moonless, cloudless, starry night over a full moon anytime. The starry sky in Africa, particularly where I was in Namibia and the Okavango Delta in Botswana, was nothing short of incredible. The clarity and brightness there, in my opinion, is unparalleled.
Six months later though I find myself under the #2 spot in the best starry sky lineup, the middle of the Pacific ocean. And what makes it even more incredible is that for two whole hours in the middle of the night (Midnight to 2am), I'm awake. Usually I go up on the fly bridge with my ipod (yes, Marion, I'm *still* listening to Disintegration a lot), lay back and just gaze. I've lost track of the number of standard-issue shooting stars I've seen. By standard-issue I mean they're about the size of a pin prick, you see them for just a split second and they seem very far away. Last night though, holy moly, there was a shooting star that was about golf ball size with two super long and clear tails that seemed like it was *right there*! It was visible for so long that I caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye, then turned to see it whizz by for another maybe 2 seconds. And a few nights ago, I saw a full-on meteorite. Again, relatively speaking, it was around the size of a grapefruit. Little fiery bits were flying off it as it plummeted, presumably into the sea. Goodness gracious!
When there aren't these rather exciting astronomical events, there are still gazillions of stars. I guess at the constellations I'm looking at (damn, why don't I bring a star chart?), and seem to see my constellation (the Phoenix that I have tattooed on my back) everywhere I look. The Milky Way is eerie and fascinating, and I like to think that I could roughly navigate at night if I had to :-)
How does the saying go? "Count your lucky stars..."? I sure am; I'm one lucky girl.
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