"...as the Distance to a Star."

[mutualcode at aol.com]

"The times are as impossible to calculate, this Advent, 
as the Distance to a star." p.6,  Holt.

But times have changed. Our closest neighboring galaxy,
the great Andromeda Galaxy is one of the furthest
objects from earth that can be observed with the naked
eye- albeit in the country- away from city lights, but even
in the suburbs with binoculars. It's about 2+ million light
years away. If the Milky Way were roughly the size of an
American Football Field, the earth and solar system would
be maybe several centimeters in diameter, not more that
several blades of grass, and Andromeda would be another
football field about 2+ miles (3-3.5 km) away.

This is how to observe Andromeda:
http://m.wikihow.com/Find-the-Andromeda-Galaxy

If you try it tonight- and now's a great time of year to look
for it- the light you see will have left Andromeda just about
the time that Kubrick's murderous proto-human was flinging
that bone into the sky. That is, the light that hits your eye
will have been travelling for the entire time span of human
evolution and recorded history. And Andromeda is the
Milky Way's closest neighbor.
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l