Rene-NASA-Mooned-America

Star Light - Star Bright / Chap. 5 p. 29
STAR LIGHT - STAR BRIGHT
On evenings when the sky is clear, as the day's light fades from our fluorescent sky some
of us look up seeking the first star of the night. At such times, those of us still young at heart
remember the old litany in which we ask the gods for one small, measly little favor. We
remember squinching our eyes shut real hard and telepathically broadcasting our wish to the
all-knowing gods. The ancient magical chant goes like this:
Star light — star bright First star I see tonight I wish I may, I
wish I might Have the wish I wish tonight
Most of us quit the practice as we got older. We quit because we noticed that very few of
our wishes came true. For the few wishes that did come true, we usually soon came to regret
making that particular wish in the first place; especially when it involved sex, jobs or money,
all the really neat things in life. Indeed, sometimes a granted wish is so hard to get rid of that
we desperately attempt to make it go away by again eliciting the same gods who granted it.
To do this you have to try again, and again, and again.
By human standards, the fickle gods have a very distorted sense of humor, giving us what
we ask for only when it is not what we truly deserve. Despite that fact, I have an idea why
they do what they do. They sock it to us because most people wish on a star that is not a star
at all. The two brightest objects in our sky are the planets Venus and Jupiter. Most people
seeking to make a wish are too anxious. They usually mistake one or the other of these
planets for the first "star" of the night. True, these planets are usually the first visible celestial
objects, but from the viewpoint of the gods we are ignorant and greedy: ignorant for not
knowing the difference and greedy for not waiting a few more minutes. Had we but waited we
would have had our pick of the brightest stars: the important stars used by navigators.
Another ten minutes in the darkening night, provided we weren't legally blind, would
have allowed us to see a hundred stars. Then, mere minutes later, a thousand stars would peep
through in all their various shades of color and varying degrees of brightness. This, despite
the fact that we live at the bottom of the atmospheric well which is laden with dust, humidity,
smoke particles, and pollen. This, despite ground light pollution from house and streetlights,
headlights, lighted signs, and smog, which destroy our night vision. Professional and amateur
astronomers, along with a few hundred million other folks all over the world, know that the
higher the elevation, the less the ground lighting; the less the moonlight and the colder and
drier the air, the more stars can be seen. In fact, tens of thousands of stars are visible to the
naked eye, particularly at higher elevations on cold, dry nights.
Star watchers are entranced people who have been known to drag their kicking and screaming
friends out into the dark night just to get them to stare up at the sky. I'm a dragger. I've
urged many a friend out of warm sleeping bags when camped out on hunting and fishing trips.
I have hauled them from warm cabins and cars on sub zero nights, after skiing all day and
have even run them out of the warm cabin on my boat. Without exception, no matter how cold
the night was, the raucous complaints stopped once they looked up.
The point is that in my entire life I have never met anyone who was star-blind. In fact, I
had no idea that the condition even existed. Everybody I personally know (that's hundreds of
people with the exception of those who are truly blind) can see the stars. Yet, after NASA
NASA MOONED AMERICA! / Rene