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Skyward by David Levy: September 2022

By David Levy  |  1 Sep 2022  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

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This entry is part 33 of 35 in the series Skyward by David Levy

Astronline

During the last almost two years I have been busier than ever, meeting many new people, giving lectures, quoting poetry, and advocating observing the night sky.

And Wendee and I have barely left home!

Obviously, I have not been able to give lectures in person since the Covid 19 pandemic began. On the home front for me, our local Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association meets the first Friday of every month online over the Zoom cloud. But almost every day, I reconnect with friends in astronomy clubs around the world.

On Tuesdays, I am a part of Scott Roberts’ weekly Global Star Party. Scott has now had more than 60 of these wonderful events, and I enjoy each one.

On Wednesdays and Saturdays, I am part of the Montreal Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, where I meet people I’ve known for years, especially Carl, one of my best friends since we were teenagers in 1964. As a graduate student at Queen’s University in the 1970s, I also was active with the RASC’s Kingston Centre.

I have also reconnected with the Denver Astronomical Society, a group I joined in 1963 when I was a patient at the Jewish National Home for Asthmatic Children. That experience was precious back then, and it is even more delightful now!

Warren Astronomical Society

One of the groups, the Warren Astronomical Society in Michigan, does not use Zoom. Instead, they have WebEx, which is just as simple to use.

I have even participated in sessions sponsored by Kansas City’s Linda Hall Library, one of the largest science libraries in the world.

Not all of the online sessions are related to astronomy. Our local synagogue has a weekly Torah study session, and Wendee and I are regulars there. They also graciously listen to my poetry quotations, which range from Shakespeare to Chaucer, to this ancient one (from 1556) from Robert Recorde’s The Castle of Knowledge:

If Reasons reach transcend the Skie,
Why should it then to earth be bound?
The wit is wronged and led awrie,
If mind be married to the ground.

When the sessions drag on, as they sometimes do, I can get fatigued since I am not as young as I was in 1963 or 1979. But it is worth the effort, and I sincerely hope that the Zoom/WebEx experience will outlive the pandemic when it finally ends. Seeing friends so often like this is wonderful. And on some occasions, I have joined online meetings from a remote site in southeastern Arizona.

Sometimes, my quote tradition is something from scripture, like this gem from the Book of Isaiah:

Thou stretchest out the heavens as a curtain,
And spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.

My goodness—I never realized how a few words from the Bible could affect me as much as these do! They describe my experience perfectly—outside, I am peering at the curtain of the night sky. Moreover, the observatory out of which I look at the sky, or the observing pad upon which I stand, is the cosmic tent in which I dwell.

Doveed and the other Doveed (2 Doveeds) (=3.14159 Doveeds) and Ridley in the Shaar. Credit: Wendee Wallach-Levy

Editor’s note: The Warren Astronomical Society absolutely LOVES having David (or Doveed, as he likes to be called) attend our online meetings! We meet on the 1st Monday and 3rd Thursday of each month; on the 4th Saturday of the month we host a free public star party at our Stargate Observatory.

Bob Trembley

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More Posts in this Series:
"Skyward by David Levy"

78  |  What Do We Lose When We Sacrifice Science?

By Br. Guy Consolmagno  |  27 May 2021  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

69  |  To err is human… to admit it, is science

By Br. Guy Consolmagno  |  25 Mar 2021  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

32  |  Skyward by David Levy: August 2022

By David Levy  |  5 Aug 2022  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

34  |  Skyward by David Levy: October 2022

By David Levy  |  3 Oct 2022  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

35  |  Skyward by David Levy – January 2023

By David Levy  |  6 Jan 2023  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

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