Shining Hour

I became aware of my own mortality at the age of 5. My parents and I were invited to the funeral of my great-aunt, and I was even asked whether I wanted to see her for a very last time. This had a crucial impact on my relationship with the topics of dying and death. I have an open-minded attitude towards it. A few years later, during my first year in high school, we took an excursion to the catacombs of St. Stephen’s cathedral. The transience of all life might be frightening. But without transience nothing new could evolve. The cycle of life will exist as long as there is life on earth. As a passionate visitor of cemeteries, I love reading the inscriptions on tombstones. And it is a small hyphen between the dates of birth and death that is dedicated to life.

Maybe a year after the experience in the catacombs, my classmates and I visited the Prater. Just one attraction, to be exact: the Planetarium. I had passed it by often before, without delving deep into the bowels. Right next to the entrance there is a globe. I still remember exactly how delighted I was by the projection that awaited us pupils. The star projector can light up the unbelievable number of 9000 stars. Therefore, a magnificent sight of a starry sky is offered that I simply could not get enough of. Children and adults both are likewise amazed by it. The Planetarium in the Prater was opened on 20th June 1964. Hermann Mucke was its manager right from the beginning up to the year 2000. From 1971 onwards he additionally took over the Urania observatory, also up to his retirement. It was important to him to get especially young people interested in astronomy. He also was editor of a monthly astronomy paper. It might even be that it was Mr. Mucke himself who personally granted us a view of the night sky.

Today, several spectacular shows can be seen at the Planetarium. There are even moderated fictional adventure travels for kids on offer. Two arc lamps are responsible for the magnificent view of the starry sky. This light source ignites a glass bulb filled with inert gas. Via glass fiber each individual star is tapped from the central light source. Special lens systems create the starlight.

For many years I believed to be a single molecule in the universe. I felt isolated. That scared me. Over time this feeling dissipated. The exceptional thing is that everything is connected. If no stars existed, then neither would we. And isn’t it incomprehensible that something exists, and not nothing? I like watching the night sky. On a clear night I can see many stars even in Vienna. And then I do not feel alone at all. On the contrary. I am part of something huge! And the journey to the stars at the Planetarium is phantastic.