In the late 70's, Hot Wheels cars were today's equivalent of Pokemon or fidget spinners, just orders of magnitude cooler. One Christmas or birthday, Mom and Dad found a package deal of some crazy number of the miniature cars, 50 perhaps, that was going to be my present that year. We went to the store to pick up the collection, and I had the big box of awesomeness in my hands. Then, when walking with Mom and Dad to the checkout counter, I saw it on display - a telescope.
I loved astronomy and read every book I could get my hands on about the subject. The pictures I saw in those books blew me away. From Saturn's rings and Jupiter's enigmatic Red Spot to the constellations and the moon, everything I saw in the night sky captured my imagination. Now here I was, standing the closest I'd ever been to an actual telescope, a magical apparatus that could bring those faraway objects tantalizingly closer.
In truth, this was a rudimentary reflector model. A simple, 3 foot long cardboard optical tube open on one end with a mirror attached to the other, all on a spindly metal tripod. The finder scope was just a rigid plastic tube riveted to the main body. The optics were probably weak as well, but it stopped me dead in my tracks. "Wayne?" Mom and Dad were at the checkout counter. I looked at the collection of scale replicas of hot rods and sports cars in my hands and then back at the telescope. Mom and Dad saw my struggle. "You have to choose, son." I looked up at them. As a 7 or 8 year old kid, it seemed like the toughest decision I'd ever had to make. I took another look the magnificent box in my hands and slowly put it down. As I picked up another box with a telescope, Mom asked, "Are you sure?" All I could manage was a nod.
That night, my new telescope was hurriedly assembled on the back porch and trained on the only thing in the sky I could find in spite of the flimsy finder scope, the full moon. When I looked through the eyepiece, my heart dropped. All I could see was a white light with fuzzy spots. Had I just made the biggest mistake of my young life? Then I remembered the focus knob. Turning it slowly, the image started to sharpen. Suddenly, there it was taking up the entire field of vision. In crystal clear clarity, I saw crater impacts, the dark "seas", and ridges of the highlands. I was stunned and stepped back, not quite trusting what I saw was real. Taking another look at the image I saw through the eyepiece, I smiled and decided I was happy with my decision.
Train released "Drops of Jupiter" in 2001, and it peaked at #4 on the Hot 100. The song saved the group from becoming a one hit wonder since their release of "Meet Virginia" had been two years prior. "Drops of Jupiter" went on to receive 5 Grammy nominations, winning two of them including Best Rock Song. With its multiple references to heavenly bodies, the song is usually viewed as a euphemistic journey of self discovery. I like the more literal take of this song being a personal voyage of exploration. Whether it's travel to another continent or driving down a country lane I've never taken, I thrive on going where I've never been and seeing things I've never seen. Dad was the same way, so I come by it honestly. It could also stem from wanting to see more of the wonders I glimpsed through the eyepiece of a discount store telescope all those years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment