March 18th, 2017, 7:30 p.m. local time
This is my sky right now. Everything above me looks like this. Not a pinhole anywhere. No relief to be seen from the distant West. And these are not storm clouds. They are more like a proverbial middle finger given to stargazers on what could otherwise be a pleasant Saturday evening of observation.
So no crescent Venus tonight. No searching for Mercury. No late-season Orion. No Sirius. No falling Cassiopeia pointing to the ever-so-faint Andromeda Galaxy. No Big Bear. No Little Bear. No Aldebaran. No star clusters in Auriga. No Gemini. No early morning Waning Moon. No Spica. No Jupiter.
Yet many radiating objects are emerging as the day settles. Perhaps I will stroll through my neighborhood and observe the wonders of every house’s lit porch, three for five times over. Then perhaps I will begin keeping a log of all these incredible illuminations. I may even then, if I so fancy, name each one, noting their colors and brightness. I will conclude my studies by developing a new field of quantum physics to explain what each of those lights are.
