No.19 Buy Now Nothing quite competes with the night sky in country NSW. A glorious way to say goodbye to Scone, for another year. It’s been a great trip yet again.
The Other Day

There are so many reasons why country NSW is worth a visit.  The vibrant night sky sits at the top of that list.  Once you get away from the city lights and pollution of the open cut mines the sky truly dazzles.  Once out there, step outside and let your eyes adjust.  After a while, it is easy to get lost in the infinite little specks that dot the velvet sky.  It’s almost incomprehensible.

Take a moment to try and fathom the size of it all.  The closest star (besides our sun) is 4.2 light years from Earth.  Light takes an average of 8 minutes 20 seconds to travel from the Sun to Earth travelling at almost 3 million metres per second.  Light covers a distance of 149.6 million kilometres (average distance of the Sun to the Earth) in just 8 minutes 20 seconds.  By the time 4.2 light years has passed and the light from Proxima Centauri (the closest star to us) reaches Earth it has travelled a measly 40.14 trillion kilometres.  Can you comprehend that? I certainly struggle to.  I’ll repeat that is 46 140 000 000 000 kilometres.

If that wasn’t enough, beyond Proxima Centauri is a lot more.  Infinitely more.  It boggles the mind.  It makes one feel amazingly insignificant on Earth.  We are but a tiny, inconsequential blip on the universal radar.  From another planet or stars point of view, we are just one of those little dots that litter the sky.  This is just a fraction of what runs through my mind when I get lost looking at the night sky.  Then it all gets too much so I try to find the four constellations that I recognised, locate them and begin the whole baffling thought process again.

Try it some time and one of the best places to do so is in the darkness of country NSW.  Be sure to check out the video below.

Until next time,

Jimmy