Mælkevejen Over Glacier Point

Yosemite har meget mørke nattehimler. Polly ville gerne se dem.

Yosemite has very dark skies at night. Polly wanted to see them.

Hun ventede ved Glacier Point. Det er en høj klippe over dalen. En lille gruppe mennesker var der for at se solnedgangen.

She waited at Glacier Point. It is a high cliff above the valley. A small crowd was there to watch the sunset.

Solen gik ned. Half Dome på den anden side af dalen blev først rød, så mørk. Publikum klappede stille.

The sun went down. Half Dome across the valley turned red, then dark. The crowd clapped softly.

En parkastronom satte et lille teleskop op. Han talte om nattehimlen. Han sagde, at de fleste amerikanske byer har mistet Mælkevejen på grund af gadelys. Men Yosemite har stadig mørke himler.

A park astronomer set up a small telescope. He talked about the night sky. He said most American cities have lost the Milky Way because of streetlights. But Yosemite still has dark skies.

De første stjerner kom frem én efter én. Så dukkede Mælkevejen op. Det var et bredt bånd af blegt lys hen over himlen. Der var mørke pletter, hvor støv skjuler stjerner.

The first stars came out one by one. Then the Milky Way appeared. It was a wide band of pale light across the sky. It had dark patches where dust hides stars.

Astronomen pegede teleskopet mod et lille punkt. "Dette er centrum af vores galakse," sagde han. "Det er 26.000 lysår væk."

The astronomer pointed the telescope at a small spot. "This is the centre of our galaxy," he said. "It is 26,000 light years away."

En besøgende kiggede gennem teleskopet. Så lod astronomen også Polly kigge. Hun så mange stjerner og støv gennem okularet.

A visitor looked through the telescope. Then the astronomer let Polly look too. She saw many stars and dust through the eyepiece.

Lyset fra de stjerner begyndte sin rejse for 26.000 år siden. Polly kiggede længe.

The light from those stars started its trip 26,000 years ago. Polly looked for a long time.