It is late at night. No street lights. Dark. We are sitting listening to waves crash on the beach. You can smell salt and sand as they mix on the breeze off the water. There they are resplendent before us…stars. Like a shimmering canvas in the sky. So close you could virtually touch them. I wonder what Van Gogh felt when he painted Starry Starry Night back in the late 1800’s? Would he have been swept up with romantic notions and marveled at their mystery?

I make a wish on a shooting star and then bring my mind forward to the 21st century. I pull out my phone, open my Star Maps app, and point it to the sky. Every name of every star. Every moon and planet. The amazing technology of Star Maps.

How do I feel? I feel like an interstellar explorer.