Looking for the Comet

Looking for the Comet

About the time the United States started taking the Coronavirus seriously, specifically March 27, 2020, NASA discovered a new comet that would come through the Earth’s solar system in its path through the cosmos. The comet was called NEOWISE in honor of the acronym for the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. This spacecraft has been a project that wasn’t launched to find comets like NEOWISE, but did that nonetheless and we now have a few weeks to enjoy the show this small (about 3 miles across) comet is giving us as it travels close to the sun and gives off the comet equivalent of sparks in the form of a gaseous tail that is notably visible across the U.S.. I must admit, this unexpected natural phenomenon that has come to light in the last few months had completely missed my radar. Tonight, my sister Kathy and her husband Bennett joined us (along with Brother-in-law Jeff and wife Lisa) for a socially distant dinner. They brought their binoculars and enough knowledge about the comet to make it an after-dinner event for us.

Comets and asteroids are very similar in their visitation approach to Earth, but asteroids are more metallic and rocky while comets are icy. Both are part of the timelessness of the universe, having been formed 4.5 billion years ago when time began. This little comet, with its diameter of 16,000 feet, is 4,499,800,000 years older than man. That’s a meaningful difference and once again does a good job of reminding us about how insignificant man is in the context of the broader universe. In addition, NEOWISE is not scheduled to return to us and our field of vision for 6,800 years. Nature tells us that mammalian species generally peter out in about one million years, which means we may be around to see NEOWISE return. To be clear, 6,800 years is a very long time for man even if much less so for the universe. 6,800 years ago man had barely invented calendars to demarcate the passage of time and while man was forming communities, no recognizable nations yet existed (except for Cave 76 of Mel Brook’s fame). Almost all history that we mere mortals can recount has occurred over the last 6,800 years while NEOWISE has been working its way back towards us. Is it just me or is NASA having some fun with us during this existential moment in human history, a moment when the human species seems particularly vulnerable to the whims of nature thanks to the Coronavirus? Wasn’t Neo the protagonist of the Matrix Trilogy and wasn’t he “The One”? And wasn’t he seeking the wisdom of the meaning of life with the help of Morpheus, the God of Dreams. Where is Rod Serling when you need him?

But back to our deck this evening. We had shifted from the patio where we do our socially distanced dining these days, clearing the table while we all wore our governmentally-mandated face masks (we would have worn them anyway, but it is still noteworthy that things are bad enough in California that the Governor deems it necessary to mandate masks and re-close the state). I turned on our relatively new fire pit and we all gazed out at the expansive Northwestern sky. I have been aware of the lovely panoramic views we enjoy from our deck as it is hard to miss them as a big selling point for our hilltop location. The viewing from the deck is done from under the shaded palapa and the views West are of forty miles of Pacific Ocean beyond the rocky chaparral of hills between here and there. To the North are distant Mountain View’s of the various mini-ranges that constitute the spine of the Sierra California. One cannot help but be impressed by the sunsets from this deck. The vast layers of colors stretch for 180 degrees and almost feel like one can see the curvature of the earth and the never-ending cycle of life where the sun sets and rises over our shoulders in a mere several hours.

But what I don’t think I had fully appreciated before tonight was the night sky from our deck. As the sun dips past the horizon and the strong and vibrant oranges fade to dark, there is still a layering of hues from the lighter horizon to the blackness of the apogee of the heavens where the starry night lives. It so happens that NEOWISE shows itself either just after sunset and before sunrise, but of course, it is best visible in complete darkness in order to see the contrast of its reflected brilliance and the effervescence of its solar-powered contrail. That contrail now points upward since the comet has now moved past the sun (closer and yet less destructively than imagined by astronomers, who have only had a few months to contemplate NEOWISE’s near-term future). The trick, as with all celestial viewing, is knowing exactly where to look in the heavens. Ain’t that always the way of the world? Life is always easy when you know exactly where to look for it.

Bennett was the resident expert on the comet and The One in search of its truth. The rest of the characters in this dinner party play were the chorus, but Bennett could not locate the comet in the bi-modal reality of waning light and expansive sky. So Kathy does what older-sisters like Kathy always do, she takes charge by seizing both the binoculars and the initiative and finds the damn thing. Meanwhile, Jeff is holding his iPad up to the sky to see if his celestial body geo-synchronous and Gimbel-locked stargazing app will help in the location. Me thinks the palapa is blinding his efforts at clarity. Kim is wandering the deck in search of meaning while Lisa sits quietly with her dog, Teddy, waiting for all the drama to end so she can go home. Meanwhile, I am trying to stretch and relax my aching body that is screaming about muscle and joint stiffening from a day of modest, but unusual (for it) exercise in the garden. We then all take our turns taking advantage of Kathy’s comet-spotting abilities. I see it right away. Kim eventually sees it. Jeff jokes about seeing it. Bennett concedes and sees it where Kathy has identified it. And Lisa continues to pet Teddy, wondering anon if suggesting its time to leave will get any attention. The tragic-comedy of the Greek chorus has once again simultaneously been wowed by the wonders of nature and also acted to overwhelm the beauty of it through individual frailties of the moment.

Here is what I learned from this adventure. It is always easier to see wonder in nature from the warmth of a fire pit and the comfort of a cushioned deck. The sky is more layered and more unobstructed from my hilltop in Southern California than I had imagined or realized. Comets come and go and we are all just momentary observers of the vastness of the universe. The search for meaning and the dreams of the night are best accomplished en mass as we stumble through life looking for the comet.