The Milky Way!

Elizabeth..............those are amazing pictures of the Milky Way! I mean, OMG right? I saw them this morning, and then all day I was trying to think if I've ever actually seen the Milky Way "in person". I think maybe I did, after the earthquake, when Los Angeles was blacked out for three days, but I'm not 100% sure. I know we saw a lot of stars then, and there's a slim chance I saw it as a kid on one excursion or another, but if so I don't remember it.

Man, I was just mentioning in my recent blog about seeing Saturn, and how that blew my mind, but we really can't see much else here except the evening's visible planets. I see by your comments that you took your photos near Dodgeville, and I Googled the distance (40 to 50 miles away from you), so maybe you have a similar situation with light pollution. It's interesting too, because here, once you drive north of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, of which I am on the "north ridge" haha, you're in the Mojave desert, which like Dodgeville is not more than 50 miles away. Maybe I could see the night sky from there, I dunno.

Best of all would be to see it with you.  :):)

The other thing that struck me about your photos was that they show the rift in the middle of the Milky Way, where it looks like it's split in two. In my reading earlier this year, I learned about the rift and what it meant to the Sumerians, and right now - off the top of my head - I can't recall if the book was Sitchen's "When Time Began" or "Worlds In Collision" by Velikovsky, but I remember it was interpreted by the Sumerians as a passageway. Just imagine how, in ancient times, the study of the night sky was important enough to various cultures to have watchers stationed all night long, every night, for centuries. No wonder their astronomy became so advanced, even though they only had the naked eye to observe with.

If I were a Sumerian, that would be my dream job! 

In other atmospheric news, it was 112 degrees here today. But apparently that's chopped liver compared to Death Valley last Sunday, where the temperature reached 130, the hottest temp on Earth in 107 years.

I am glad you went stargazing, because you made my day today. There is no doubt that we will look at the sky together, one night in the not too distant future.

I love you, Elizabeth.   xoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)