Imagine a science-fiction novel in which the people are pinned to their planet by a mysterious force that allows them to move back and forth but keeps them from jumping more than a foot or two off the ground. Their entire lives take place within a few feet of the surface! What a curse!
As you’ve probably guessed, that’s us — except for ladders and tall buildings, we’re in almost constant contact with the planet’s surface. And although most of us ignore this mysterious force called gravity, others are very concerned. I know people who get on their bathroom scales daily to measure just how much this is pulling on them. Fortunately we do have ladders and tall buildings (sky “scrapers”) to give us a different perspective once in a while. Even better, we can also see and hear all the fascinating wonders that begin just above our heads and continue for millions of miles into space.
The first things we notice in the world above are birds, which can do something we can only dream of, overcome gravity and race gracefully around the sky using no more than the wings and feathers they were born into. They even land once in a while and sing about it! It’s easy to imagine that birds were placed on earth solely for our pleasure.
But humans aren’t out of the picture yet! Just above the bird realm we begin to see our own flyers, aviation devices, from hang gliders to jet airliners, that let us defy gravity, see the world from above and move around the planet. Flightradar24.com in a great resource telling us about each aircraft passing overhead: carrier, origin, destination, ETA, passengers, etc. Often the most visible evidence we see of high-flying aircraft is their contrails, paths of condensation left by jet exhaust.
Also made of condensed moisture and at about the same altitudes as aircraft are clouds, huge, highly variable formations that often tell us when to be outdoors, what to wear, what mood to be in and even, on occasion, create imaginative sculptures. Even more spectacular, they provide us with thunderous lightning shows and heavenly sunrises and sunsets.
Well beyond the clouds and contrails, from 90 to 22,000 miles above earth, we can see orbiters in the satellite belt, that area increasingly swarming with the devices that make your internet, long-distance calls and GPS location possible. It’s currently possible to view “satellite trains,” lines of little Starlink orbiters that stay in a row for a while after launch. Satellites are best seen one or two hours after sunset or before dawn, when they often reflect the sun’s rays.
Finally, far out in space, we see stars. They’re the most reliably stable things we’ll ever see in this frenetic world. Once, while backpacking across Asia, I found myself in Afghanistan, low on money, underweight after months on the road, and a little homesick. Traveling by bus through the Afghani desert at night to escape the heat, we occasionally stopped at roadside tent camps for tea and nan (Afghani bread). During these breaks I invariably wandered out into the desert so that I could see the stars. And what a joy it was, in a place where nothing was familiar, to see such old celestial friends as Ursa Major and Minor, Cassiopeia’s Chair, the Scorpion, good old true-north Polaris and, just before dawn, Orion’s Belt.
Given the alternative of slowly floating off into space, gravity is probably a pretty good thing. And with our natural senses and a fertile appreciation, we’re able to “slip the surly bonds of earth” and enjoy the world above our heads.
