The heavens declare the glory of God…” Psalms 19:1
Astronomy is fascinating. On a clear night, especially away from city lights, you can look upward into a calm beauty that leaves you breathless. And if you have a telescope, another level of vision is granted and the sheer magnitude of the size of the heavens begins to sink in to your soul. All of a sudden, mankind is so very small and God is so amazingly glorified.
When was the last time you looked upward, pondered the wonders above, and praised the One who created the night sky? On the next clear night, make a date with yourself (and your friends, kids, or spouse) to sit on a blanket and observe the wonders revealed above. It is a great way to worship and a great way to end the day.
Want some fast facts about astronomy? Check out this excerpt of an article from the Answers in Genesis website:
Today, the local Milky Way galaxy (of which our sun is a part) has been found to contain 200,000 million stars. What an astounding result! If somebody could count three stars per second, after 100 years he would have counted less than five percent of this number.
Our galaxy comprises not only an unimaginable host of stars, but the size of this bright starry band in the sky is also astounding. Its diameter is said to be 100,000 light-years.
Astronomical distances are too large to be measured in kilometers, so light-years are used instead. One light-year is the distance that a light ray travels in one year. At a speed of 300,000 kilometers (186,000 miles) per second, it amounts to 9.46 million million kilometers (5.87 million million miles).
Can we really grasp such an immense size? And this is not the only galaxy. With the naked eye we can see three more, namely the two Clouds of Magellan near the southern celestial pole, and the Andromeda galaxy in the constellation of the same name. The Andromeda galaxy is thought to be 2.25 million light-years from us.1
Its total light emission is equal to 2,500 million times that of the sun. However, at this distance stars (as opposed to galaxies) having the same luminosity (light output) as the sun can no longer be proved to exist by the use of optical telescopes. The Andromeda galaxy is the most distant object in the universe that can be seen by the naked eye, except for the occasional supernova.
Numerous other galaxies have been discovered by means of the prolonged exposure of photographic plates. The total number discovered thus far is probably in the region of several hundred thousand million, and it may even amount to a few million million.
The total number of stars in the observable universe is estimated to be 1025 (1 followed by 25 zeros). Nobody knows the actual number.
(http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v19/i2/stars.asp)
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