What a feature, the ecliptic

by Jamie Dillon


Wednesday night had a high haze, but stars were getting thru, about 3.5 to 4th magnitude. I really had to pay bills, go thru a stack of papers, you recognize the picture. Strolled outside a couple of times to gaze around.

At 1:30 I was turning in and went outside to take one more peek. There in the east were Jupiter, Saturn and the 3rd quarter moon, cast in a line.

Something so apparently simple but so satisfying to see, the ecliptic. Not so simple in the mechanics of a proplyd cloud long ago, to flatten and set up the system geometry of the whole.

But just captivating, that arc.