I had never seen a star twinkle before seeing a moonless night in Africa.
Of course, I could see hundreds of thousands of stars, after the beautiful sunset complete with pink clouds opposite the turquoise sky. And the only light pollution was the lights of Maputo - but the thing I noticed the most tonight was the amazing spectrum of twinkling stars.
We have songs written about such things, but they harken to times and places that were less polluted than 21st century America.
So when you see a star discretely change from red to white to blue and black...it's simply magical. You kinda rub your eyes to make sure what you saw, really happened, and you see it again.
In the States, we're so used to this phenomenon happening because of planes or satellites passing above. So it's our natural inclination to look to another star for confirmation.
So you look to a close star...red-blue-red-white-blue-red-blue-white...and then all of a sudden your focus pans out and you can see every star in the sky twinkling.
Suddenly, the very mysterious night sky becomes alive with evidence of the atmosphere that protects us every day. Like that friend who always does the little things but never takes the credit; you always feel safer knowing they're around.
Blah. My writing's getting sappy. When I have more time, I'll write about some cold, hard facts :)
Peace
John
