Nature doesn’t speak up. It just displays its beauty wordlessly. The universe outside our atmosphere, the other mysterious world, has so much attraction to both a little 5-year-old girl and a 20-year-old adult. Despite the fact that it was two weeks ago, I still remember my shock at seeing this splendid nature and the beauty of the night’s sky full of stars..
Chatting with my friend who came to Yale last summer, I learned of a secret spot where once I heard about it I screamed - Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium. The shining stars, the romantic stories behind the dark sky, the sparkling planets… All of them were twinkling their eyes and saying to me: “We shall see you on Tuesday.”
Before we left that Tuesday night I was waiting restlessly for the tweet to announce whether it was a pleasant day to observe or not. At approximately 3pm, a new tweet arrived:” 7/5: Partly clear skies tonight; we'll have telescopes set up around 9pm for viewing of Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn. ” I was too excited to hold my phone. At dusk, after we finished the last class of the day, Ingrid and I couldn’t wait for our adventure to start in search of the the planetarium.
It is a long walk to the planetarium so we walked fast with only about 20 minutes before the show. Finally, after this sweaty walking, we found a green area with a tiny but elegant building and some kids’ playing. It was a quiet but vivid place ringing with kids’ laughter and I just couldn’t believe I was finally at the planetarium I had heard about so many months before.
We pulled the door cautiously and found all the astronomy equipment inside. In a few steps we found the entrance of the observatory. Two huge telescopes were standing on the corners of the observatory stage and three smaller ones were between them. The sky was dark with a few stars in the beginning. However, as time passed, brighter stars showed their faces and smiled to me.
The staff of the planetarium was kind and gentle. They explained every question from tourists and comforted naughty kids with stories of stars. The story one professor told us really touched my heart:” Since I got my first little telescope at the age of five, I haven’t left this beautiful sky ever.”
On the way we back, the marvelous stats and the touching spirits continued to impress me. (Someone I did remember said?):” Two things fill my mind with ever-increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more intensely the reflection dwells on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”
After seeing this natural beauty with by own eyes, I realized a secret of nature: it willingly shows its beauty, but it doesn’t show off.
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