Watch the Starry Sky When You are Lonely

By: Yuan Jing of the Bai Li Earth Running Team

How long since the last time you watched the starry sky? The real clear vast starry sky.

Following the steps of Bai Li Earth Running Team, now we had arrived the Atacama Desert which is located at North Chili. The air here is dry and transparent which makes it the perfect place to watch the starry sky. Under the starry sky, it feels like that you are living in a dream which you do not want to wake up from.

I met the star watcher at here.

Setting off from Taltal, then turned to 8-710 highway from a small fishing village which named Paposo after driving 50 miles on the No.1 highway which was along the sea coast. The small-displacement vehicle that I rented climbed up all the way. Desert's sand and stone mountains were left behind one by one, and the curving lines which were sculptured and painted were shown. The Andes highland appeared after I climbed over the last mountaintop. It seems that I entered a different planet where even never appeared in dreams. There was no grass, and the desert was quiet. My heart was filled with admiration, yet it was as vast as the view in front of me, and it felt like nothing could be unforgivable in life.

We arrive the Chilean Paranal observatory of European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere(ESO) which we climbed from the shore to 2,600 meters above sea level. It has the most advanced astronomical telescope in the world and a solar telescope which was still building with the largest diameter——40 meters.

I was thrilled and almost had tears in my eyes when I followed the leading vehicle and arrived the top and entered the inside of telescope. Yes, we went inside of an astronomical telescope. The telescope was a building. If coming to the wild highland desert was like visiting Mars, now I entered the human basement of this planet.

In the daytime,the engineers of the telescopes were busy, and the staff of control center had to clock out after sunset. I was inside the most advanced product of modern civilization, many people who were not famous were working there and tried to start the real journey toward the sea of the stars quietly.

There were vast red mountains and cloud sea in the end between the control center and telescope. Some goshawks were circling overhead as well. Looking back, the surreal telescopes had silver shinning under the hot sunshine at the highland. The solemn nature and human culture combined here which was astonishing.

The first time I met Farid was at here, and he was the English commentator when I visited the observatory. His day job was an astronomical researcher of Antofagasta University and also a photographer of the starry sky with a little fame.

We visited the Department of Astronomy of Antofagasta University which is located at the northern Antofagasta. It was as big as a tennis court, the building and observatory were all mini. If you look down from the mountain on the back, the houses were like toy bricks which were placed there randomly by children during play-house. But this would not influence their work which was towards the vast starry sky.

Farid introduced us to Christian Nitschelem who is a French astronomer, and he had been in this Chilean school to research for nearly ten years. He has a typical French look, haircut, and accent. He is passionate about people and despises politics. We stayed at his tinny office and talked about Switzerland, Belgium, the daily job of astronomical professor, aliens, Fermi paradox, the policies of Trump, and Three-Body which is one of Obama’s favorite book.

We also visited Farid’s small observatory where he worked at. Compare to the giant telescope of ESO, the closing room with dome structure was small. I had to stoop to get in. You could observe the sun during at daytime and watch the starry sky at night. Farid told us a lot about a project he worked on before which was about macula. I felt like I was back to university. Next, he demonstrated how to operate astronomic equipment, and I saw my face from a video. My expression was devout and thrilled like a primary student.

Star watchers are may not always in a star-watching pose. They may be in an office or a study, and the sea of stars will be in their heart.

The night before we left Antofagasta, we met with Farid for the third time, and he took us to the hinterland of the desert where was his favorite sport for shooting the stars.

The cloud was spreading in the sky at night, the stars started to shine after we entered the mountain and passed the cloud. When the shiny milky way appeared above us, we did not look down anymore. It was fascinating.

“Starry starry night...” the bright sound of Don Mclean’s song rang in my heart for hundreds of thousands time. This song had accompanied the memory of half of my life. I still remember looking at the stars at summer’s nigh in my childhood. A seven-year-old whose eyes were dark and shine at a small yard downstairs. She was fascinated with the starry sky for many years, yet there aren’t many places can see a sky full of stars on earth now. One can only see the starry sky on the road and out in the world. Under the shining sky with the wind of desert blowing at night, it felt a thirsty traveler who had travel long finally found water, and it felt like long lost friend finally met.

Farid is a persistent star watcher. His star photo exhibition was held at the art museum which was located at the center of Antofagasta. This exhibition would last a month.

I found Chakana which is also known as Crux in the starry sky. I only learned about it ten days ago. The bottom of Crux will always point at the south, so it is the eternal compass for travelers in south hemisphere.

Chakana is a story about different star watchers.

At Copiapo, my companions and I met a group of weird people whom may be called witches. We joined them, and we waved the flag, beat the drum and played pan pipe on the way to the mountaintop, to finish some ancient and mysterious ritual.

Under our feet, the sand of desert dune combined with gravels. The line was long and disappeared into the skyline. The sun was setting, the mountains afar were as beautiful as women, and the brims of mountains were golden when we reached the mountaintop. Inherited from old ritual, they put a colorful blanket on the ground, and people put things that had some value on the blanket such as pomegranate, apple, jewelry, rosary. A small wine cup was passed from person to person, they drank half and spread the rest half in the air. They prayed and blessed towards the sunset glow afar before the starry sky appears at night.

This was the perfect day to see Crux in the sky. In Inca culture, Chakana referred to Crux in the sky, and it also applied to the stepped cross which you still could find everywhere around the Andes mountain area. The stepped cross was the holy symbol of Inca culture. Incas believed that there were three worlds and every creature was connected, and we were a large life community. Ayu could travel between three worlds which means souls could do the same and gain balance and improve.

You see, a long time ago, people’s spiritual power came from looking at the starry sky in the night and those lonely star watcher.

Living on earth and watching the stars is a lonely thing.

Loneliness had appeared when the earth was born. Think about it, this blue planet is turning in the vast universe alone, and nobody answered the call from deep space and time.

Our human is small and insignificant. Loneliness follows our life. We are born alone and leave alone. How many of the people we met on the way will touch your soul? Can you touch your soul?

Thankfully, we still can look at the night sky when we feel lonely. Let the milky way send you to sleep and wash your heart and soul. The starry sky represents the information of the place where the universe was born. It represents the question of where we come and where we will go. It also represents the exploring journey outward and inward. That’s probably why it's so fascinating.

Wild said,“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

As one of the members of Bai Li Earth Running Team, I am touched when I look at Bing Bai and his friend, the same way star watchers touched me. This team’s goal is running to the North Pole from the South Pole and measure the earth inch by inch. Runners and companions are exploring their limits or the border of the inside world. They are as fascinating as those who explore the origin and boundary of the world.

You should know that looking at the stars and finding the light within is a long and hard journey.