The Winter Sky

Last night at midnight I stepped outside to see the sky. I’ve often done this in the summer, but wintertime skies are seldom clear where I live. The deck felt cool under my slippers but not icy as I walked to a place where the trees give way to the sky and looked up.

I visually lost my balance. The stars were foreign to my summer sky. The dipper hung overhead instead of northwest of my location. One lone sattelite passed overhead. New lines of stars, curls of unknown constellations and pulsing planets spread across the sky. It was as if I’d stepped into an alternative universe or someone had thrown all that was familiar into new locations.

The disorientation energized me. I wanted to stay out all night, take a photo or at least hold the image in memory forever. Now I’ll watch each clear winter night and hope to repeat the ah-h experience under the blanket of a before-unvisited sky.