What do you see up there?

I've been a fan of star-gazing for a while. My aunt asked me what I see when I look up in the sky. Here's my answer:

I don't see colorized, "close-up" pictures (which are amazing, but romanticized.) Instead, it's black-and-white and very small in my binoculars or a low-powered telescope. But this captures something very true: the universe is a huge, mostly empty, cold place.

I enjoy imagining where I am, like finding your home on a world map, thinking about where you stand in relation to everything else. It puts life into perspective. I know our modern worldview sees man as a small speck riding on the outside edge of an impersonal galaxy. And that's true. But we are able to imagine the whole. We can measure it. We can even figure out a bit of how it all works. So we have a smallness and a greatness at the same time. It's very easy for me to forget that when consumed by the daily grind of life.

So getting out and looking at the stars, or tracking a planet, or whatever else is happening in the sky, is a way for me to reset my perspective. And I find that invigorating.