Chapter One; Little
Bessie Falls in Love - with Mars
Connie
Howard poked her head into the computer room. “Ben honey, in a little while
would you like to go star gazing with us?”
Eyes staying
blued to the monitor, her seven year-old shook his head. “No Mom, I’m gaming
Jeremy from school!”
“OK, dear!” Continuing down the hall,
she wasn’t too concerned about the preoccupation with gaming, so long as he did
other things besides. Which he did, like building tree forts with his pals, and
tossing, kicking, or batting around whatever kind of a ball they had. Ben was a
bright and active boy for whom she and hubby Rob could ask for no better. Her
combination of threats and bribes got him to fit in schoolwork and even pick up
his room now and then. The lack of interest in star-gazing, her favorite
past-time, was disappointing of course.
Entering the den, Connie smiled to
her-self - But one out of two’s not bad. She
called out, “Come on, Bessie! Let’s go look at some stars and planets!”
From another
part of the house came a squeaky yell. “Coming, Mommy! I’m bringing your
knapsack!”
“No rush dear!
It won’t be dark for an hour yet!” She smiled at how her little girl’s face lit
up when told earlier that she could also help set up Mommy’s high-powered
telescope. Darting in and out ever since, her willful little scamp was
probably, Connie knew, trying to talk the sun into setting even sooner.
Rather than ADD (Connie hoped),
Bessie simply had a serious case of something else; falling in love with the
planets and stars practically since learning to walk. And quite frankly, the
prospect of finally showing her these through Connie’s high-powered refractor
telescope had her as revved-up as Bessie was.
Walking over
to where the ‘scope stood in its accustomed corner, Connie patted it
affectionately like an old friend. Which it was, this instrument having been in
her family since Teddy Roosevelt was President. Qualifying as an antique, the
tipped-up tube’s intricate scroll work designated the major constellations, the
best known comet back then - Halley’s - and depicted with artistic license all eight planets, Pluto remaining
undiscovered for another thirty years or so.
Built of steel before aluminum found
common use, the bulky apparatus was heavy and cumbersome to move around.
Fashioned by an exceptionally skilled crafter, however, one of its saving
graces were the lenses. Able to magnify far-off objects with amazing clarity,
these and the marvelous workmanship overall made the ‘scope more than
worth-while for Connie’s great - grandparents to pass it on until it was hers.
Fairly young when schooled with it by
her own mom, Connie easily pictured Bessie as the next owner and in the not too
distant future, either. In any case, Wisconsin’s clear summer skies promised
excellent viewing tonight, a perfect time for her daughter to learn how to use
it.
Hearing some scuffling and grunting,
she turned to see little Bessie dragging Connie’s old knapsack over the carpet.
Her long reddish hair or most of it anyway, was scrunched up beneath one of
Rob’s old Green Bay Packers caps. Big blue eyes barely showing beneath the
brim, she two-handedly hoisted up the knapsack by its strap. “Here’s all our
star gazing things! Let’s go, Mommy!”
Smiling back, Connie held up a hand.
“Whoa honey, I’ll take that. It’s too much for you.”
More
independent with each passing month, Bessie’s vigorous head-shake dropped the
cap down over her eyes. Pushing it back up, she wagged a finger (the same as
Connie), “No-no-no, Mommy, it’s not! I’ll get the door for you!”
Connie
laughed, “Okay, little Miss Helper, be there in a second!”
As Bessie held
open the door, Connie squeezed by while hefting the out-sized ‘scope. As she
set it down on the stoop for a better grip, her daughter hopped down the steps
ahead of her. Somehow tangling the strap in her legs, she tumbled head over
heels into the grass.
Connie
exclaimed, “Oh, honey! Are you okay?”
Bessie leaped
to her feet. “Of course I am! Let’s set it up!”
“Then find us
a nice open spot and I’ll follow, OK?”
Trailing
Bessie, Connie smiled ruefully over this latest pratfall. Her head always so
a-buzz over so much to see and do, the little klutz would forget to watch her step. The resulting scrapes, cuts, and
bruises had Connie constantly digging for disinfectant and bandages, plenty of
which she’d learned to keep on hand.
When well away
from the big oak, Bessie sized up the amount of viewable sky. Setting down the
knapsack, she stamped her foot. “Here’s a really good spot!”
Connie obligingly set the ‘scope down
beside her in the grass. “Whew! Honey, you’ll have to grow bigger to carry
this! It’s heavy!”
Bessie stretched way up on her toes.
“No Mommy, I’m already taller than my friends!”
She truly was by a couple of inches.
Then again, tallness was a given for both her and Ben, Dad Rob being a
strapping six-footer and Connie at five-eleven minus her shoes. For all she
knew, though somehow doubting it, her daughter’s falling-down-itis might be
partly due to an early and very awkward growth spurt.
Staring up,
Bessie wrinkled her face. “It’s still too light to see Mars!”
“We
will when it’s darker.” Heading for the settee beneath the oak, Connie motioned
her to follow. Taking a seat, she patted the cushion next to her. “Sit yourself
down, okay? Before we do any viewing, I need to teach you some things.”
Anxiously
glancing skyward, Bessie saw not one single star showing just yet. Mollified,
she plunked down. And so did the cap. After turning it backward, she beamed up
at Connie. “All right, Mommy, teach me everything!”
Without
question, all kids her age wanted to know everything.
Whereas, Bessie’s curiosity seemed to burn more insistently than anyone’s, no
matter what their age. Only last week she bombarded Connie with a barrage of
questions as they moon-watched through the 7X50 binoculars. They were too bulky
for Bessie’s small hands to grip solidly, so Connie steadied the field glasses
by propping them up on the picnic table to stay steady. Despite the awkward
positioning Bessie’s few tantalizing glimpses of the Moon’s cratered surface
merely whetted her appetite to see more, much more. Which was why in the week
gone by, Connie often saw Bessie in the den staring longingly at the telescope.
Bemusedly watching her squirm, Connie
smiled, “My-my, you are an eager beaver tonight! So, let’s begin.” She first
explained, “With nighttime coming on the air cools, so the ‘scope needs to sit
for a-while. This lets the lenses adapt to the lower temperature and not fog
up.” Next she pulled a pen-sized flashlight from the knapsack. Clicking it on,
she aimed it at Bessie. “This helps us to see what we’re doing. Notice anything
different about it?”
“It shines
red! Why?”
“The regular
shiny white light causes our irises…” Circling her eyes with her fingers,
Connie closed them together. “…to get smaller. That lowers our night vision and
we can’t see as well. Red light doesn’t do that as much.” Opening her latest
copy of Astronomy Magazine, she spread out the star map for the month. Pointing
to one of the constellations, she began, “Remember this one? It’s…”
Clapping
her hands, Bessie finished, “Orion!
I like it more than any of the other ones!” Back while seeing The Hunter
through the binoculars she was utterly fascinated by the star-clustered nebula
at his belt.
Continuing the lesson, Connie
explained the map’s plane of the ecliptic illustrating tonight’s most viewable
planets. “We’ll first see the brightest one low in the western sky. You know
which planet that is, right?”
“Oh-yes! The brightest is always
Venus!”
“Correct and soon after, Saturn will
appear higher to the southwest. Tagging along behind will also be the planet…”
“Mars!” Bessie yelled. “That’s the
one I love the very most!”
Connie laughed, then put a finger to
her lips. “Shh! I think the neighbors heard you. So anyway, what is it that you
love about it?”
Bessie felt, for a reason not even
she knew, that the Red Planet was hers and hers alone. Honesty a large part of
her natural chemistry, she shook her head. “I don’t know, Mommy. I just do.”
Automatically looking up, she saw
finally showing amidst the steadily deepening blue a few points of light.
Grabbing Connie’s hand, she practically dragged her back to the telescope.
Since it wasn’t fully dark yet, the mount was
visible enough for Connie to adjust without using the red light. By now in fact
she could have done it blindfolded. But to keep Bessie busy and to quit hopping
around, she handed it over. “Switch it on and hold it steady for me, all
right?”
All
seriousness, Bessie bobbed her head, “I will!” and again the hat slipped down.
In no mood to fool with it anymore, she yanked it off and dropped it. Dutifully
aiming the light at the mount, she kept it as motionless as she could.
Following a peek through the eye
piece, Connie made a final focusing adjustment and took another look. “Ah,
perfect!” She made a summoning motion. “Now, dear, it’s your turn! Before Mars
drifts out of sight!”
Bessie
bent to the eyepiece. Momentarily jittering around, she froze. “Woo-hoo! I see
it really clear!” Completely enthralled, she didn’t move a muscle.
Connie knew that by her helping to
set up the ‘scope and then seeing Mars so greatly enhanced, something very
special was happening here. Purely delighted she grinned, “Good for you! Plus,
magnified like this, you can see much better why we call it the Red Planet!”
Not budging an inch from the eyepiece Bessie giggled, “We should call it the
Orange one!”
“Come
to think of it, we should. Try to find the polar cap at the top. It’s like our
own but smaller. You’ve seen Earth’s polar caps in our big coffee table book.”
Turned
from the eye piece Bessie poured it out so excitedly that Connie could hardly
follow. “The book said they have more snow than the whole rest of the world!
Our north one has polar bears and the south one has penguins! But Mars doesn’t,
because there’s no air they can breathe! It’s also way too cold!”
Connie
laughed, “You know what you are?”
There came
another giggle. “I’m a chatterbox!”
“You sure are,
but I like that!” A K-5 teacher and a good one, Connie encouraged her students
to toss lots of questions at her. They came unceasingly from Bessie of course
and normally able to field these too, tonight she was hard pressed to keep up.
Half hearing her daughter’s next remark, she lost track. “Slow down, dear. Say
again?”
“The
book also said it’s so cold that a certain kind of gas in the…” Pausing to
recall the right word, she repeated it carefully. “…the at-mo-sphere of Mars freezes! I know they don’t mean the kind you
and Daddy put in your cars, right?”
“Right, it’s what we call carbon dioxide.”
Anticipating the next question, Connie headed her off. “When frozen it’s the
same as that dry ice I showed you.”
“You mean the
smoky kind?”
“It was frozen
CO2 and Mars also has it.”
Bessie
repeated that carefully also. “See-oh-two! Brrr! It was really cold!”
“And
so is Mars. It’s cold enough during its winters to freeze the CO2 into snow.
See if you can spot the little bit of white at the south polar cap.”
Bessie
was too quick for her this time. “Why can’t we see the north one just as well?”
Connie angled
her cupped hands. “Sometimes the north tilts away from us like this, so the
south cap is aimed toward us. That’s why we can see it.”
“Oh! Isn’t
there snow in the middle of Mars?”
Connie
thought-Good question! “The middle of
Mars is warmer than its polar caps. We call that part…”
Breaking in, Bessie carefully pronounced, “The…ee-kway-ter.
We have one here!” Raising a finger as if at a lectern, she finished, “Ours is
also very hot!”
Seeing the
raised finger, Connie nodded – She’s more
like me each passing day. She smiled at her added thought – But smarter. Starting to read at
three, her daughter now paged through books of all descriptions. When no one
was around to ask, she kept the dictionary close at hand to look up words like
this one. Already adept at using the family PC, Bessie also browsed the
internet to learn about not just astronomy, but anything else that sprang to
her busy little mind, various people, places, and things. In other word,
everything.
Connie nodded,
“Yes it is, dear. The one on Mars gets warm too during its summer. But at night
the temperature gets lower than our coldest winters in Wisconsin.” As far as
she knew from NASA’s latest findings this was so.
Looking
away, Bessie muttered, “I’ll dress warm and bring my own air.” Hearing that, Connie was a bit startled. “For
what, honey?”
Without the
slightest hesitation Bessie replied, “When I’m there, Mommy.” She sounded
already signed aboard for the expedition.
Letting it
pass, Connie glanced at her watch to find it was after ten, long past time to
get her pint-sized astronomer into bed. “I guess so, dear. Anyhow, before we go
in, take one last look, OK?”
The Earth’s
rotation had again shifted the refractor’s field of view. Bessie saw only the
planet’s disappearing edge. “I can’t, Mommy! It’s almost gone!”
After
readjusting the mount, Connie urged, “Hurry before it moves away!”
As
taught Bessie carefully held her hands away to not accidentally bump the tube
out of alignment. Unwilling to risk Mars drifting from sight, she said without
looking up, “I wish we could do this all night.” Came the after-thought, “And I
will as a grown-up astronomer.” A
couple more minutes went by and then - “Oops! It’s nearly gone again.” Backing
away from the eyepiece, she looked up at the reddish dot. And kept looking and
looking.
After
letting her be for a slow count to ten, Connie patted her shoulder. “You did
wonderfully and I’m proud of you. But
that’s enough for one night. Now I need you to help me take everything inside.”
Still
looking up, Bessie nodded absently, “I will.”
Another time check made Connie raise
her voice. “Now dear!”
This broke Bessie’s spell. Resigned
to her fate of soon being in bed instead of out here, she said quietly, reluctantly
“All right, Mommy.” Then pointing up at Mars, her own voice raised up, “But
someday I’m going there!”
The
determination in those big blue eyes was not lost on Connie. She nodded slowly,
“You know, sweetie? Somehow it won’t surprise me if you do.”
