OUT OF PLACE

Most of my life I’ve lived in the Northwestern United States.

  On any clear night in the summer I can look to the 

southern horizon and see the constellation Scorpio.

I’m no expert on astronomy, but it’s fairly easy to pick out 

the big hook of its tail and the bright star Antares that marks the head.

In 2007 I traveled with a group to Southern Peru.  While we were there we visited a planetarium. We learned a little about how the ancient people of that part of the world studied the stars and planets and incorporated the night skies into their legends and navigation.

After the program the instructor went outside with us and pointed out the Southern Cross.

For people of the Northern Hemisphere this was a new and amazing sight.  Then I asked her to locate my old friend Scorpio.  She directed my eyes to a place straight overhead.  It was astonishing to see it so out of place. 

At this time of year, if I go for a walk in the morning it has to be in the dark.  Here in December sunrise doesn’t happen until after seven a.m.   A day or so ago the usual cloud cover was gone and the pre-dawn sky was the color of ultramarine blue, fresh out of the tube. 

Venus was so bright in the southeast 

that it looked like an incoming airplane’s landing lights.

I stopped to gawk at the brilliance of the winter sky 

and felt that same feeling of shock to see …

…the big dipper, normally riding along just above the northern horizon,
 now directly overhead.