You are here-ish

Gazing up into the night sky is quite a good way to ground oneself, if that's not too contradictory a statement. Letting ones eyes become accustomed to the darkness, picking out some of the more familiar celestial bodies like the Moon, a few of the observable planets, particular stars and, with a bit of eye straining, the odd galaxy, well, it all helps to give a sense of being a very small cog in a huge universal machine. This contraption could be, I suppose, a pocket watch, but I don't have much time for that theory.

Image courtesy of Wallpapers.com

And we mustn't forget atmospheric phenomena like the Northern or Southern Lights (Aurora borealis or australis), meteor showers and noctilucent clouds. All wonderful life-affirming experiences, as long as one is not a slightly inquisitive dinosaur.

However, all these things require a clear sky, which in my part of the world is not a given. So much not a given, in fact, that I have turned off the aurora alerts on my phone. And when I did happen to notice a particular aurora forecast last month, it made me reconsider the intelligent designer question again, just in case he or she (or possibly they) had a really sarcastic sense of humour.

Other hand gestures are available

Then, yesterday evening, I noticed an article in a national daily newspaper, extolling the five best places in the UK to see an aurora. Only one of them was in Scotland and it wasn't here in Orkney.

But, hold hard. What's this on the banner photo for the article?

The stones seemed vaguely familiar. I wracked my brain, trying to think of where I had seen a stone circle in Shetland. Aha, yes, Stanydale Temple! Hmmm, as I recall, it didn't look anything like the photo in the article. Had I mis-remembered?

No, the photo is of the Stones of Stenness in Orkney 🙄

I was probably not the only one to notice and message the newspaper. Certainly, today the online article has a different, and hopefully correct, banner photo.