Thoreau tells us that when he learned the Indian names for things he began to see them in a new way. When he asked his Indian guide why a certain lake in Maine was called Sebamook, the guide replied: “Like as here is a place, and there is a place, and you take water from there and fill this, and it stays here: that is Sebamook.” Thoreau compiled a glossary of Indian names and their meanings. It was like a map of the Maine woods. It was a natural history. The Indian names of things reminded Thoreau that intelligence flowed in channels other than his own.
Articles with Star gazing
Excerpt from the "Book of the Images of the Fixed Stars," 15th C., Persia (Public Domain)
The zodiacal light • Photo by A. Fitzsimmons/ESO (CC BY 4.0)
Night’s faintest lights
On the clearest, darkest nights thousands of stars are visible to the naked eye. In addition to stars, there are other wonders available to the careful observer who is far from city lights — star clusters, at least one galaxy, nebulas, the Milky Way, the zodiacal light. But even on the best of nights the typical urban or suburban observer sees only a few hundred stars, and none of the more elusive objects. We have abused the darkness. We have lost the faint lights.