Visions of Saturn
The Boston skyline and the bright night sky above it. The light pollution from the city washes out the light from almost 99% of the stars visible to the human eye. “At least we could get a view of Saturn,” my boss told me in my observatory job training as, disappointed in our inability to observe the Andromeda Galaxy, we settled upon the gas giant. The faint orange glow from the setting crescent moon barely exceeded the light pollution from Boston, which drowned out the entire sky save for that moon and a few stars. Where the brightest objects did not eclipse the skyglow, we were blind, our eyes shielded from the glitter with which our ancestors, astounded and confounded by that constant and yet constantly changing sky, established science, religion and time. In my disappointment, I sat on the stool and fixed my eye to the eyepiece. Perfect seeing, excellent transparency,...
