Dickey Lake is a small body of water about an hour and a half northeast of Peterborough. My wife and I rented a cottage on the lake for the past two weeks (I just got back yesterday). Our cottage adventure began with a yellowjacket infestation, with the beastly critters flying and crawling in places they had no business–down the hall, in our bed, in a towel I grabbed to dry my hair with after a shower… So the first week was more of an Alfred Hitchcock experience than a holiday. And for various reasons I didn’t get my telescope out to investigate the wondrously dark sky above the lake until 8 days after arriving (which would be Sunday August 27th, after a rather wet weekend–those of you who went to ‘Tarpfest’ know what I mean). As you can imagine, I was more than eager to get down on that dock by the water and look up!
We got back to the cottage late that night after being in Bancroft at a friend’s for supper, but I was determined to do some stargazing, though I didn’t get my telescope set up until about 1 o’clock in the morning. I am so glad I did, because I had a great night! The conditions were average, and the seeing was so-so, but the darkness more than compensated. Before my session was over at around 3:30, I had observed 6 new Messier objects and become more familiar with some of the dimmer autumn constellations that I had never really seen clearly before, such as Aquarius and Cetus. As the night progressed, the winter constellations Auriga, Gemini, Taurus, and my favourite Orion slowly rose above the lake where their bright stars reflected in its calm, serene waters. I had toyed with the idea of pulling an all-nighter, but the dew finally got the better of me and my equipment by around 3 o’clock.
As I packed up my scope, an interesting thing happened: Instead of seeing the sky as a kind of treasure map hiding celestial treats to hunt out and log in my book, I was able instead to just gaze up and appreciate the incomparable beauty of the night sky. I will never forget the sight, with the shimmering stars on the calm lake, the dampness of the night air, the smell of the water, and the soft sounds of nature around me (the splashing of fish in the lake, the hooting of an owl, a rustling in the brush). Isn’t it interesting how the vastness of nature as embodied in the starry splendour of the night sky can make a man feel so small, and yet somehow affirm his place in the grand scheme of things? I look forward to the upcoming months, as my friend Orion makes his grand march across the sky until he once again bows out next spring. I wonder what secrets I will discover by then?
