Not much will catch my attention as I scroll through videos in social media, but the science ones stand the best chance. A short video from an enthusiastic scientist named Dr. Becky caught my eye and I watched her tell a story about a new space telescope.
It’s the Euclid telescope and the snippet showed how it scans the sky and provides a view even better than the James Webb telescope. In passing, Dr. Becky mentioned how it had already had “first light” on the receptors as it was moving into position before it was focused.
There were some nice images of space after that, but I was hung up on the phrase.
Even before it was really ready to “see” the sky, light had already shown on the “eyes” of the telescope Not something it would “remember”, but that light had been captured – no matter how briefly.
We each had our “first light”, before we were really ready to see or remember. Of all the light in the universe, we each got a little – right at the start – that was just for us.
There seems to be more to see each time we humans look skyward and more mysteries to explore just beyond our reach. Old light from far away, traveling unimaginable distances, to grace our eyes for a moment.
And there will be a last light for all of us as well. We’ll each get one last photon before the darkness takes hold – and there will be one last “final light” before the universe goes dark.
For now, the light of the screen streams photons to my eyes and I have this bit of light – just for me.