The new Stargazing series with Brian Cox reminded me of my first real memory of the fascination with the night sky. As a young child it was always exciting to be out at night time when it was dark, principally of course because it usually meant that you were either up past your proscribed bed time or that at the very least the evening routine was, if not totally abandoned, then significantly altered to make it an event to be remembered.
When I was 7 the Russian’s launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into Earth’s orbit, now I don’t really remember what all my real scientific understanding of space was at that time except that I knew that stars were really large but a long, long, way away, I definitely knew that it was really big out there and that there were other planets and other people and that one day we would travel in space ships to the stars and that I really wanted to go.
The reason for my enthusiasm was of course my Dad who was himself very much a science fiction fan, and sci-fi books, mostly from the library, as we certainly couldn’t afford to buy books, would be around the house as well as things like “Amazing Stories”, “Astounding Stories” which my Dad was given by a friend. Naturally the colour and appearance of these was attractive to me and by 7 I was already an avid reader of pretty much anything I could get hold of. My Mum and I would take a trip to the Library very regularly and unlike today I never needed to renew my books and would sometimes be hard pushed to find something new to read.
Anyway, on the night that Sputnik was due to pass overhead my Dad took me outside and we watched the sky together and whether my memory, of seeing it move across the sky, is real or a young child wish fulfilment doesn’t really matter. What does matter was that what my Dad gave me that night was an understanding of the historical significance of what was going on in the sky above us and the joy of sharing something so very special with him.
Thanks Dad!
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