Brad Kronen  

Show Notes

• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 9/5/2009 9:35 PM UTC

  Saturn: The Anti-Agnostic of Man
  

  Saturn: The Anti-Agnostic of Man

   

  One of the best memories of my life was when I was walking down 3^rd Avenue in NYC about a decade ago, late on a Saturday night in the dead of winter.  A blizzard had pummeled Manhattan the previous day and into that morning and even though the city was fully blanketed in snow, the sky was as crisp as freshly smoothed pavement.  I walked past a homeless man who had what seemed to be a short barrel on a pronged stand.  On closer inspection, the barrel was a telescope and a mini-powerhouse one at that.

   

  Next to the telescope was a cardboard sign that said in uneven, randomly capitalized letters:

  “Once in a lifetime view.  75 cents”

   

  I asked the homeless man what I would see.  All he said was “Pay up 75 cents and you’ll know soon enough.”

   

  This is where being a Gemini can really be a nuisance because I had no choice, my mental curiosity HAD to know even at the risk of seeing the Empire State building up close or worse, getting pink eye from a lens that wasn’t given thorough cleanings in between other gullible chumps' missed attempts at seeing a whole lot of nothing previous to my visit.
   

  I pulled out a dollar bill to which the homeless man said he only accepted exact change. I irritatingly fumbled for 3 quarters and he then took both arms, wrapped it around the telescope and placed it down.  He then looked up at the sky, and his hand manipulated the lens a few notches.  Without looking in the lens, he said “Go Ahead.”

   

  His actions were done with such precision, it was almost magical, so much so that the New Yorker in me didn’t even bother to ask how did he know that the telescope would even be focused on the right target? I slowly stepped up to the lens, and as trite as this sounds, what I then saw took my breath away – literally. I remember making a gasping sound as if I had emphyzema and was involuntarily gulping in oxygen.

   

  Within the telescope’s lens was the mighty planetary giant Jupiter and from the angle I was gazing at, The King of the Solar System was escorted by 4 of his most notable squires, the Galilaen Moons; two satellites on each side of him as if they were perfectly suspended with divine scale-like balance.  The image was so clear and detailed, not only could I see the striated tan, gold, brown and orange swirls of Jupiter’s surface, but I could also see the mysterious "Giant Red Spot", an ever moving massive storm that at that particular moment in time was traversing the bottom lower quarter of the gaseous Titan's orb. 

   

  I stood there literally slackjawed and I heard the homeless man say “You ready for another?”  All I could do was simply nod and aimlessly hold out a dollar bill. He whisked both me and my outstretched hand away, inferring that everything was inclusive with the 3 quarters fee I had paid earlier.

   

  He scurried past me and then began the same ritualized hugging and moving of the telescope, this time a good distance from where I was standing.  He once again did not look into the lens but announced “All set.”

   

  I was mesmerized and was still reeling from a view I didn’t know was possible from anywhere outside of an Observatory, let alone from any point within a major city’s limits whose glaring lights made viewing of the evening sky close to impossible.

   

  Nothing prepared me for what I saw next.

   

  Saturn, placidly lying in the thick black velvet casing of outer space on an almost ¾ tilted axis, so that the Sun’s reflected light made the planet’s circular orb a ball of radiating, pure white.

  Its rings, too, reflected the Sun’s light at this perfect angle and they could be seen individually, each one shimmering like the most precious South African diamond.

   

  The sight was so powerfully pristine and perfect that I began to uncontrollably cry and even though the path of my tears was starting to harden on my face due to the bitter cold, I still had to linger looking at this rare and truly heavenly vision!

   

  Looking back, I think I was in some form of mild shock because when I moved away from the lens I smiled and put the dollar bill I was still holding in the homeless man’s hand and mumbled “Thank you, please have it.”, walking like a somnambulist to my apartment on 1^st Avenue.  If I were in the right frame of mind, I should have given him a minimum of at least a few $20’s or $50’s. 

   

  I would think there aren’t that many occasions when another person can prove the existence of a Higher Power to you in a matter of 12 minutes or less.

   

  

   

  • Tags:
  • astrology
  • brad kronen
  • saturn
  • jupiter
  • galilean moons
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