8 - The night sky

Summary

To persons standing alone on a hill during a clear midnight such as this, the roll of the world eastward is almost a palpable movement. The sensation may be caused by the panoramic glide of the stars past earthly objects, which is perceptible in a few minutes of stillness, or by the better outlook upon space that a hill affords, or by the wind, or by the solitude; but whatever be its origin the impression of riding along is vivid and abiding. … After such a nocturnal reconnoitre it is hard to get back to earth, and to believe that the consciousness of such majestic speeding is derived from a tiny human frame …

Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, New Wessex Edition, Macmillan, 1977, p. 47

A brief history of the sky

You do not need to be told that day and night are not the same. But in what does their difference consist? That the one is light and the other dark? Surely there is more to them than this? There is, and it is this: the absence of airlight allows us to see stars and planets. Their nightly drift across the sky is much more than mere spectacle, though it certainly is that, for it is one of the few clues we have to the fact that we inhabit a spinning sphere of solid matter racing through a void.