冰川点上的银河

优胜美地的夜空非常黑暗。Polly想要看看这样的夜空。

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

她在冰川点等待着。那里是山谷上方的一处高崖。小群人聚集在那里观看日落。

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

太阳落下了。对面的半圆顶山变成了红色，然后变暗。人群轻轻地鼓掌。

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

一位公园天文学家架起了一台小型望远镜。他开始讲解夜空。他说大多数美国城市因为街灯已经看不到银河了。但优胜美地仍然有黑暗的夜空。

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.

第一颗星星一颗接一颗地出现。然后，银河显现了出来。它是一条横跨天空的淡淡的光带。光带中有些地方是黑暗的，那是因为尘埃遮住了星星。

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.

天文学家把望远镜对准一个小点。“这是我们银河系的中心，”他说，“它距离我们有两万六千光年。”

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."

一位游客透过望远镜看了看。然后天文学家让Polly也看。她通过目镜看到了许多星星和尘埃。

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

那些星星的光在两万六千年前就开始了它们的旅程。Polly看了很久。

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