Fairlead of the Filament

At 36.7 light-years from Earth, Arcturus burns orange-red in the constellation Boötes.  It is one of the brightest stars visible to the naked eye, and among the oldest. The Sumerians understood it as a key structural element of the heavens. Known to them as Šudun, the yoke, Arcturus was among the stars charged with physically holding the heavens in their proper arrangement — a load-bearing feature of the sky.  Famed trance-psychic Edgar Cayce also spoke of it in exalted terms, naming it as a gateway through which souls on earth must pass through between incarnations.  

The title draws on two registers. In sailing, a fairlead is a guide — a ring through which a line passes to keep it true, to redirect force without friction. In plasma cosmology, filaments are the electrified threads connecting stellar bodies across incomprehensible distances, the literal architecture of the cosmos. From an earthly perspective these suggest Arcturus is a node — something the universe runs through.  

This image was made using the dual distortion caused by looking through the telescope using a digital camera.  The colors and shapes drawn out of the star invite the viewer to imagine the familiar night sky as laden with layers of information,  evoke the process by which information about composition and behavior can be determined through the photographic process.  

This photograph alludes to the distortive power of photography to show us something which can enhance our poetic understanding of objects like stars by bringing new kinds of information into focus.