YES!
#9 on
Auna's List of Loves is Astronomy! (Note: NOT to be confused with
astrology. I don't like astrology)
There isn't really any reason that immediately comes to mind why I like astronomy so much. I always have. Part of my blames my astrology (oh goodness, astrology coming into play here...). I am a cancer, which means that my astrological sign is the moon and evidently, if the internet is not lying, I was actually born under a full moon. Go figure!
Now if I'm going to be truthful here. My first love was the moon. The rest of the stars didn't come into play until later. Me and this moon thing, we have a weird connection. When I was little, I used to howl at the moon (like a little wolf!) and I don't know if this is something that my family taught me and then convinced me to do often because it was cute or if it was something that I picked up on my own.
Yes. I do howl at the moon.
No. I am not crazy.
Next came the stars in the sky.
If you read the last post that I wrote, my 10th love was sailing. It is no secret that people who sail at night sail by the stars. Well, I couldn't read constellations until I was in middle school at the very earliest so that doesn't really apply to me. However, stars are pretty.
I became obsessed with seeing shooting stars though. I don't think I actually saw one until I was a teenager. My parents would always point them out to me, but shooting stars are fast little buggers and when you're looking in the wrong part of the sky, it's very likely that you're going to miss them.
However, the thing that I love and the thing that mystifies me the most? The Aurora Borealis (i.e. Northern lights).
I didn't actually see one of these until I was in high school. The first time that I saw them was during the Perseid Meteor Showers at it was probably four in the morning. Let me tell you: amazing. This was also one of the most spectacular meteor showers that I've ever seen too. The sky was literally flickering orange and yellow and there were falling stars
everywhere. It was awesome.
The most amazing Aurora Borealis that I've ever seen was in my own backyard (which is amazing considering that I live in the city). There was some crazy solar flares going on that day or
something because the entire sky was pink and red. It was...beyond amazing. AND! It happened at 10 at night! I mean, seriously! That does NOT happen!
My favorite thing about summer is traveling off into the wilderness to hopefully get a glimpse of the brilliant night sky and northern lights. Unfortunately, I am absolutely a city girl and it's hard to see the night sky when you're downtown.
Around the end of high school, I started to contemplate studying astronomy. Hell, I still contemplate studying astronomy. The only unfortunate part in all of this is that I am not mathematical. Or scientific. Actually, the only kind of science I know
anything about is rocks and very basic elementary astronomy stuff.
Doesn't matter. I still love it.
I love it so much, that two years ago, I got a tattoo of it.
(Apparently I don't have a better image of it, and I'm too lazy to take another right now)
I knew from the age of probably...15 that if I
ever got a tattoo it was going to be of the moon. It's one of the only things in my life that I have actually loved for as long as I can possibly remember. The other few things are: my teddy bear Baba (which frankly, would be a
really creepy looking tattoo) and my kitty Willow. And of course my family and all that unconditional love stuff.
I waited until I was 20 and finally decided that I was going to get this tattoo whether or not anyone else liked it.
And I love it. :D
So now I can carry around my love for astronomy for the rest of my life and when I die and archaeologists unearth me in a few hundred years and see the ink pigments left on my remains they can know a little bit about me and the things that I loved. :)
Or they'll think that I was a pagan and worshiped a blue moon.
And that finally brings me to the next topic for my next post:
#2: Archaeology!
'Til then!
