My Weekend...

I got to help my mom's cousin Nathan with his astronomy, not to be confused with astrology, presentations at the ICHE (Illinois Christian Home Educators) convention. I always enjoy working with him, in fact, I helped him do these presentations for last year's convention also! I also enjoy receiving all of the facts and being filled with awe at how gigantic our universe is, not to mention our God who created it and is even now in complete control of every aspect of it!

This year we started with Psalm 103:11 ~ "For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him." Other versions translate the word "mercy" as kindness, love, and lovingkindness. We took this verse and began to expound on it. How high are the heavens above the earth? Here is the very short version. It took the Voyager 12 years to get to Pluto traveling at 40,000 mph! To get to the nearest star it would take approximately 40,000 years at 40,000 mph! It is estimated that there are around 200 billion stars in our galaxy, and that there are around 200 billion other galaxies! Talk about a vast universe! It is amazing and huge, yet God chose to make man in His image and to place us in the Milky Way galaxy on planet Earth! By the way, just as a note that might be of interest, secular scientists are saying that one human being is more informationally complex than the entire universe!

This is one of the groups that came through for the presentation. ( I am on the left and Nathan is on the right.)

This is Nathan, myself, and Joe.

This year, during a break of about an hour in the schedule, Nathan told me that I should go into the planetarium and mess around with all the switches and see what I could learn. I did so, and I greatly enjoyed it!

By the way, if anybody is even slightly interested in stars and hasn't ever heard of the program "Stellarium", I would certainly encourage you to take a look at it. Stellarium is a free downloadable program. All you need to do is google it and you can download it in a matter of a few minutes. I have it, it is part of the presentation we do, and it has really come in handy when I'm looking out at the night sky wanting to understand what I am looking at.

Here are some other passages of Scripture to look at:

Isaiah 66:1&2 ~ "Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."

Psalm 8:1-9 ~ "O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"

Psalm 19:1-6 ~ "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof."

Job 38 makes several mentions of different stars.

Also look at Isaiah 40.