On November 1, 2005, Día de Todos los Santos, I jotted down this in my "observation" log, proving that Astronomy can be both scientific, mathematical and spiritual issue, as it inexorably has been in the last 10,000 years:

I call you my "lucero" (evening star in Spanish), and you know what it means. This week Mars has reached its greatest proximity to the planet Earth -it is half of its normal distance- and you could not believe how resplendent it is. It seems more a reddish balloon than a planet; it appears early at twilight and glitters during the evening like a plane approaching, and then it lingers for long in the middle of the sky in front of the glass wall of my study room (where I practically live!) and it is you giving me sweet companionship, radiating sweetness and loving promises at night. Normally the lucero is Venus but for some time now is being Mars. Due to the difference of time between Karviná and Santiago we cannot see it simultaneously; you are already sleeping but I am sending to you by the lucero my loving waves to watch your sleep and to be in your dreams.

Raúl Hernández Olea - raul hernandez chile - raul hernandez