Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 4

Peter Tyson
Spectrum
Founded in 1941
by Charles A. Federer, Jr.
and Helen Spence Federer

Celestial Balm

S&T: SEAN WALKER

Hed.GillSans.30
Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and author, wrote recently of seeing the
night sky "powdered with stars" (in Milton's phrase) while spending a night
in the countryside. Witnessing this dark-sky grandeur made Sacks, who this
year has been chronicling his battle with terminal cancer, realize how little
time he had left. "My sense of the heavens' beauty, of eternity, was inseparably mixed for me with a sense of transience - and death," he wrote in the
July 26th New York Times.
Did this awareness cause him to despair? Just the opposite. Sacks told
friends he would like to see such a sky again when he is dying. He noted
that, since he first publicly discussed his condition in the February 19th
Times, the hundreds of letters he has received expressing appreciation for his
life and work have brought him comfort. "I remain very glad and grateful for
all this - yet none of it hits me as did that night full of stars," he wrote.
Why, as he stands on the brink of the beyond, does Sacks find solace gazing
at the vault of heaven? Sacks recounts how he has long coped with bereavement by turning to the nonhuman. The chemical elements - "little emblems
of eternity," he dubs them - are one such
source of succor. For his 81st birthday last
year, friends gave him a small box containing thallium, element 81.
To me, Sacks' reaction that night in the
countryside makes perfect sense. All those
elements that he treasures, that comprise
his body and each of ours, originated out
there amongst the stars. We talk of Mother
Earth, but Mother Supernova might be more
apt. From the human perspective, the firmament, like the elements, is constant, whereas
everything here on our planet - save the
elements it consists of - is ephemeral, as
Sacks understood that summer evening.
And what is so universally inspiring
as a night sky powdered with stars? Sacks
is not an astronomer, nor even a physical
scientist. Yet he, like most of us no matter our field of interest, nor our age,
background, or beliefs, is struck dumb by their resplendence and mystique.
I for one am grateful to Sacks for so graciously and sensitively sharing his
observations in this last stage of his life. Each of us will reach that moment
when we, too, are staring at eternity. Sacks' words offer their own consolation
that death is not something to be feared, in part because it couldn't be more
natural: our elements returning to the cosmos from which they sprung. ✦

The Essential Guide
to Astronomy
EDITORIAL

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Emily Lakdawalla, Jerry Lodriguss, Rod Mollise, Donald W. Olson, Joe Rao,
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Mike Simmons, Alan Whitman, Charles A. Wood, Robert Zimmerman
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Editor in
Edi
i Chi
Chieff
Postscript: Oliver Sacks died on August 30th, as this issue went to press.
May he rest in peace amongst the stars.
4

November 2015 sky & telescope

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Sky and Telescope - November 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - November 2015

Contents
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - Cover1
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - Cover2
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 1
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - Contents
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 3
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - A
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - B
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 4
Sky and Telescope - November 2015 - 5
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