When was the final time you contemplated the marvelous issues with out quantity that God has completed on this universe? Have you learnt the place to seek out the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south? These are constellations, in spite of everything—issues within the sky that in precept anybody can see for themselves.
In The Discarded Picture, primarily based on his literature lectures at Oxford and Cambridge,  C. S. Lewis insisted that to grasp how the universe seemed to medieval and Renaissance authors, we “should exit on a starry evening and stroll about for half an hour attempting to see the skies by way of the outdated cosmology.” Listed here are some workouts, particular issues you are able to do to make your self extra conscious of the celebrities overhead.
Be taught to see the sky. Go exterior each evening at about the identical time and preserve a diary of what you see. Discover a good place to have a look at the celebrities. You have to go exterior; you can not actually see the sky via a window (as all prisoners know), so why imprison your self indoors at evening? The place the place you observe must be darkish, away from metropolis lights; it must be open, away from bushes and tall buildings; it must be straightforward to get to.
Is the Moon seen? The place is it situated? Is it in a unique place, or a unique form, from final evening? Should you can’t see it within the nighttime sky, search for it within the daytime!
The place is the brightest star you see within the sky? Describe its place by way of cardinal route (north, south, east, and west) and approximate peak above the horizon. Utilizing your fist, at arm’s size, as an ordinary measure, work out what number of fists above the horizon the star is.
Can you discover the Large Dipper or Cassiopeia—5 stars within the form of an enormous W? All year long, one or the opposite is all the time simply seen within the northern a part of the sky. (Should you stay too far south of the equator to see them, search for the Southern Cross.) The place are they situated? How large throughout are they by way of your customary measure of fist at arm’s size?
Are you able to see any stars which have a shade aside from silvery-white? If that’s the case, the place are they situated? Can you discover any clusters of stars, all bunched shut to one another like a bit of cloud of sunshine—till you look extra intently?
In case you have a transparent horizon to the east, discover a brilliant star (or the Moon) close to the horizon and watch it rise. Discover the celebrities which might be seen while you begin gazing and the place they’re while you lastly go indoors, half an hour later not less than. In case you have a transparent horizon to the west, watch some star (or the Moon) because it units.
Think about you might be an historical Chaldean shepherd out at evening along with your sheep, gazing up on the stars. What do you suppose you’d make of them? Think about you’re a medieval scholar, residing at a time when the generally accepted view of the universe describes the sky as a set orb of stars overhead and the planets as connected to clear rotating spheres between these stars and us. Do you are feeling a way of up and down? A way of absolute smallness in comparison with the universe?
That is an act of prayer we’re speaking about, so deal with it as such.
—Excerpted from A Jesuit’s Information to the Stars by Man J. Consolmagno, SJ
