Or, another fine whine…

Even though this is sweeps month for TV and all the networks are trotting out their “finest” (read: most dramatic, salacious, violent, etc.) programming, chances are if you’re a child (or an adult who acts like a child), you’ve heard (or said) that wonderful whine many times.

Well, what are you waiting for? Get the whiners outside and do some stargazing! Just step outside and look up. If you’re not looking at cloud bottoms, you’re looking at stars (probably through some light pollution). So, what’s overhead these mid-November nights? Well, the Moon presents a nice observing target. Get that pair of birding binoculars out of the closet and use them to check out the craters and mountains. I don’t know when you’ll be looking, but if you want a hint as to how it will look tonight (or any night you go out), check out this page.

I like to look at the Moon. The craters are fascinating, especially when you think about how many of them date back about 3.8 billion years — to a time when the solar system was a little over a billion years old. That seems old to us — although in the span of the universe’s age (about 13 billion years), the solar system is but a baby.

The universe does stuff like that you. You’re standing there looking at the stars or a planet or something and next thing you know you’re thinking about the age of the cosmos and how old the planets are and then you remember that people have only been around a small, small fraction of time.

Amazing!