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How To Hold 10,000 Galaxies in the Palm of your Hand.........
- Rebecca Reece
- Oct 29, 2023
- 6 min read
On Friday night, after a couple of very successful pre-date meet ups, I had an official first date with an absolutely amazing man who for now shall remain nameless.
As a lady of a certain age who has experienced an extortionate amount of first dates over the last 18 months, most of which have never made it to date two, (whole other article), I had come to expect the standard, incredibly uninventive first date.
Drinks, dinner, general but not too invasive or deep chit chat, and the slightly uncomfortable attempt at a first kiss with someone who you highly doubt you're going to see again. It had become a bit of a pattern, and in reality, one which I think I probably went with because my walls were up higher than the Tower of Babel. (Insert laughing emoji here).
When you date like that, you don't have to worry that someone is going to come along and knock them down in epic hero style!
You can pretend that whats on offer is not for you, but the reality is that you have stopped looking for whats right because its safer for your heart.
Anyway, back to the story!
We had decided on a couple of pre-date dates to get to know each other as friends first, and keep it at a nice, family friendly U rating as we have both been through some stuff.
In reality, the first second I saw him at Tynemouth market, that 'lets be friends first' thing became completely obselete.
Within minutes, we were holding hands, laughing and joking and wandering around the stalls as if we had been together for years.
We had another couple of pre-date dates which were just as successful and decided that Friday night would be our first offical date date!
I left the planning in his very capable hands, and for the first time, I think we could have done anything and I would have been happy. I was just enjoying spending time together.
What he settled on however, was quite literally out of this world!
(Fella's, if you've read this far, this is the point at which you need to take notes because this is absolute first date gold and will almost definitely guarantee you a second date!)
Instead of the standard drinks and dinner, I found myself in the car with him driving up to Stonehaugh Observatory in Northumberland for a stargazing evening. My job was road snacks girl and people, I take that job very seriously!
Pringles, seasonal halloween Haribos and Maltesers fuelled the hour drive to the observatory, along with the rock music playlist that we had put together specially for the drive.
One thing I love about meeting new people is hearing new artists. My music collection has grown exponentially over the last couple of years, and Friday was no exception!
The drive up there, although dark, was really beautiful.
Until you're travelling on these routes, its easy to forget just how beautiful the Northumbrian countryside is. Rolling hills, wild, untamed moorland, deep forests and incredible views are just a few of the amazing things that Northumberland offers, and the route we took up there was no exception.
Stonehaugh is a beautiful and tiny little village in the middle of nowhere, nestled amongst the hills.
The light pollution is virtually non existent unless the Man in the Moon has left his lights on full 😉, and other than the sound of running water and the occasional hoot from an owl, the quiet is unbelievably tranquil.
After getting slightly lost, we found Liam, the owner of Stonehaugh Astronomy, and the fountain of knowledge around all things universe related, and he walked us up to the hut where the magic was going to happen.
There was supposed to be another group joining us, but as it turned out, they cancelled at the last moment because of the cloud cover, turning an already epic date choice into an out of this world experience!
I hope you boys are all taking notes!
The night started with a hot drink and some casual chat about how much we knew about astronomy.
I love to look at the stars, but I am a little bit clueless really when it comes to them, so the talk that Liam was giving on an Introduction to Astronomy couldn't have been more perfect for me.
Fun fact........
Did you know, life was created in the final breaths of a dying star?
You are quite literally made from stardust!
This image, taken on NASA/ESA/CSA's James Webb telescope was taken as the star was dying. We all know how beautiful they are when we see them twinkle in the night sky, but star's truly do save the best till last!
Obviously, it is a tad more complicated than that, but opening with that absolutely fed the romantic in me. Each and every one of us carry the building bricks of the entire universe within us. Mindblowing!
From there, we talked about the planets, and Liam ventured onto the subject of distance and time in space. Trying to get your head around the unimaginable distances that lie between the planets just in our galaxy alone is incomprehensible.
The numbers were huge!
Another fun fact for you.... the nearest galaxy to us is Andromeda - named after the Princess Andromeda in Greek mythology.
For those of you who haven't seen Clash of the Titans, shame on you! (The original of course, although the new one is not awful!)
For those of you who have, she was the Princess that Perseus saved from being sacrificed to the sea monster Cetus.
She makes up the largest spiral gallery to our own, and if you're lucky, on a clear night you can see her with the naked eye. She is spectacular, and at 2.5 million light years from the earth, if you see her tonight, you are actually seeing her as she looked 2.5 million years ago.
To see her as she looks today, you will need to survive the next 2.5 million years to do so!
Just to give you an idea on distance, if we were to send Voyager 1 to investigate her, it would take 44 billion years for it to get there at its current speed. The only problem there is that she is actually due to collide with our Milky Way in around 4-5 billion years, so not only will the probe have not actually left our galaxy at the point that happens, she won't actually be there anyway when it finally arrives at her current position?
Mind blown yet???
Photo taken by Peter Forster.
Liam was amazing and continued to wow both of us with facts, figures and some of the most incredible photography and videos I have ever seen. They were breathtaking and really made the night sky come alive for me.
With the patience of a saint, he answered every single question fired at him and didn't falter at all.
The presentation was incredible but of everything I learned during it, the thing that blew my mind the most was this........ Wait for it!!
If you stand on the beach and put one single grain of sand on your fingertip and then hold it up to the nightsky, the area the single grain covers in the sky contains 10,000 galaxies!
I cannot even begin to comprehend that.
The Hubble Telescope was pointed at some of the darkest areas of space that appeared to be completely empty. It was left to gather light for around 55 hours and the photo below was what was actually up there.
(Photo from Hubble Telescope)
It's so pretty to look at. It takes your breath away!
What Hubble found was young galaxies, believed to be from somewhere between 400-800 million years after the Big Bang.
10,000 galaxies growing up in a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand!
I could go on and on, (the rabbit hole has opened up and I am on my way to Wonderland), but I won't!
All I will say is that the time we spent during the talk with Liam was mindblowing and I have learnt some amazing things!
The night ended with an attempt at watching the moon and a single solitary star that had broken through the clouds. As I mentioned earlier, the little man up there had left the light on making it a 98% full moon. Lovely to look at but creating a huge amount of light pollution.
Had the clouds not been there, it would have restricted what we could see so if you are planning on paying Liam a visit, check the moons phase at the time you want to go.
That beautiful big ball of while light is actually rather counterproductive to your viewing experience!
The moon also moves remarkably fast. I went to look through the telescope at her and you can actually see her moving as you watch. I've never noticed that with a naked eye before but it was initially a little disconcerting.
It took me a second to realise it wasn't me wobbling!
I could wax lyrical all night about the date, (and the guy of course who I am now rather smitten with), but I won't!
What I will say is get your tiny little tush's up to Stonehaugh Astronomy and spend some time learning about the wonder that is the night sky around us.
I guarantee you will love every single minute of it!
https://gostargazing.co.uk/events/locations/stonehaugh-stargazing-pavilion/
Single boys, I hope you have paid attention!
Next time you are taking a possible love interest on a first date, think outside the box. Don't go for the predictable. Do something different.
I guarantee you, she will absolutely love you for it!
Until next time...................
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