Martians?

Yesterday the small town I live in went dark. We were incommunicado for the sum of all our prime hours (6am-4pm), which meant no one could get in and no one could get out.

For the month of March, it was an unusually cold day, bitter and cutting. And, of course, in retrospect ~ eerie. As Oz and I ventured outside for a quick brisk walk, we were unaware that anything was amiss at all. Other than an unusually cold and still day, I hadn’t noticed that our connections to the outside world had been cut off. Not until the spousal unit, (from Montana), and our youngest hatchling (from Texas), were finally able to get through, did I even know about our little ‘black-out’.

I suppose this is where I could conjure-up some out-of-this-world story, just to make this blog-post attention-grabbing, but the only thing that comes to mind is the fact that the planet Mars has moved into the *ecliptic, and will stand above the moon tonight as a bright orange star. They will remain close until the wee hours of the morning, and not again until 2012. What this has to do with the events of yesterday is, of course, nothing - but a good segue nonetheless. So if you want to get a good look at Mars, just look-up tonight and search for the brightest star closest to the moon.

As earth enters the realm of the galaxies, we are in store for a panoply of spectacular new events in the sky. Tonight being just the tip of it. I think of Mars and can’t help but be reminded that this red planet has inspired many tales of wonder: The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury; Desolation Road, Ian McDonald; Empress of Mars, Kage Baker; The Martian Way (a short story), Isaac Asimov. Just to name a few. Lurking beyond are many, many more, and so without further ado, I am going to Check. It. Out, and find a good ‘Martian’ book hidden away in my dusty library somewhere, to smooth out the thoughts that yesterday we may just have been visited by ’other’ beings moving about us in their cloaks of invisibility.

*The ecliptic is the path the sun, moon, and planets take across the sky as seen from Earth.

Image of Mars courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
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