A total solar eclipse provides another case of beauty trumping science. Relatively few have seen one, as such events occur just once every 360 years for any given place on Earth. Most people assume that they are merely another eclipse variety, in the same coolness pool as lunar eclipses or partial solar events, which unfold periodically and are interesting but certainly not life-altering. When an observer raves about her solar totality encounter, relating how animals go nuts and people weep and how it’s the most sacred, soul-touching event of her life, the listener assumes exaggeration is at play. In our ubiquitous camera era, not everyone gets that some things in life must be experienced in person.
But why should the Moon covering the Sun make anyone weep? Why should the rings of Saturn evoke gasps? What is it about these celestial spectacles that so deeply touches the spirit? There’s no logic to it.
This is not to belittle the intellectual side of space. Serious backyard astronomers enjoy the smudgy streaks of spring’s myriad galaxies. When casual visitors see the same thing, however, their reaction is a scientific fascination but rarely a visceral response.
But the problem is not faintness. Brilliant Mars, now at its best of the year, similarly fails to evoke awe at the eyepiece. (Of course, I’m generalizing and also excluding serious astronomers, who basically love everything.)
Here the culprits are familiarity and heightened expectations. Everyone’s seen sharp Hubble Space Telescope images of the Red Planet. Folks are aware of how Mars is “supposed” to look, so your blurry 15-arcsecond-wide wiggly disk cannot compete. By contrast, your guest likely has not heard of M13 — nor even seen a globular cluster — so an 8-inch instrument on a dark May night creates a reliable thrill when pointed toward Hercules. Oddly, a dense star concentration against a black background reliably awakens our sense of awe.
That’s why plain binoculars are sometimes all you need, as with the Pleiades. Other times, the naked eye provides the ticket to glory. Aurorae and great comets always have been trustworthy portals to splendor. With telescopes, only a dozen targets elicit consistent gasps, and if you’ve been at this awhile, you know what they are.
The perception of beauty and the human reaction to celestial objects are rather mysterious topics that lie outside scientific analysis. But by learning where and how they work their magic, you can gain a powerful tool for making new friends for astronomy.
And on a personal greedy level, it’s no small satisfaction to spoon-feed a bit of heaven to your favorite companions. You say, “Open wide!” and give them treats not for their minds, but for an inner place that’s older and more enigmatic.
Contact me about my strange universe by visiting http://skymanbob.com.