Morning Stars

Lying in bed, I listened to the sounds of the night. Based on previous sightings, I figured there was a giant moth banging itself on our kitchen window and a mouse in the ceiling chewing something and whacking its tail. There was a crack of wood and an earth shaking thump as a tree limb must have fallen and of course the crickets chirping and dogs barking. I finally arose at 4:00, put on sweat pants, a fleece jacket, slipped on my trusty rubber boots and quietly snuck out the front door. The first thing I noticed was the darkness. Without moonlight, it can be very dark in Monteverde. The second thing I noticed was the abundance of stars. Magnificent, numerous, the most I have seen from this humid often cloud swept mountain.

Straight overhead is a planet, maybe Jupiter, and to the north, the Big Dipper. I could not locate the north star (Polaris), it must be close to the horizon behind the trees. I focused upward and could see a few faint clusters of stars and wondered about the other billions that I could not see. Flash, possibly a meteor lighting the sky somewhere over the horizon. In a span of thirty minutes, there were at least ten such flashes. I saw two meteors burn up, (shooting stars) and found four human made satellites smoothly passing overhead. Two were running parallel to each other as if in a race. Satellites look just like stars, except they are moving. I have only seen them from rural places. A plane has a blinking light.

A rooster at Meg’s started its morning routine and a couple of other small animals were moving about. I found the pasture gate and ventured past the ant mounds to the center of the field. Looking to the south admiring the majestic silhouettes of the 100 ft pines at the Troesel’s, toward the west an old tropical hardwood, to the north, the row of Mexican cypress and to the east a mix fruit, native deciduous and conifer trees. For hundreds of feet around me, I could not see a house nor lights, except for the thousands of natural lights above. The eastern sky lights up and stars gradually fade away.

It is now 5:30, the wrens are singing and a mot mot is whooting joining a brown jay in the background. Signed M.