Eagle nebula is about 6,500 lights years away from us. How big was this nebula? Our entire solar system would comfortably fit into one of the ears of the sleeping cat (highlighted in the photo)! It was a star factory where the star were being born (I keep using the past tense as we don't know what is happening now, as we are seeing the light that left the nebula a long time ago). Just as plants leave seeds for continued creation, stars leave dust after their death (i.e., when all the hydrogen is gone through fusion) which will again form stars.
These are the words (not verbatim) of the (awesome) presenter of the Twilight Program at McDonald's Observatory on Dec.26.09. This sure reminded me of our insignificance in the grand scheme of things. Rama and I had a great time with the tour of the 107-inch Harlan J. Smith telescope, the Twilight Program, and the Star Party (star gazing through powerful telescopes) in the amphitheater - a whole day of Astronomy 101.
Texas (which is larger than France) has very little public land from what I heard. Most of the mountains and vast empty lands are owned by the ranchers. I was told that Mt. Locke (on which HET is located) was donated by a lady to UT-Austin!
Some other things we did during post-Christmas Holidays of year 2009:
We went to see Marfa Lights - three nights, with no luck of sighting; it was hard to maintain motivation and wait for the lights, when wind was blowing and temperatures were below freezing.
Once in a while, I think that it is good for the spirit to be at least 100 miles away from the nearest Walmart.
