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I am going to the South Downs this afternoon with my daughter.

We are going to camp out under the stars hoping to see the Perseid Meteor Shower - where hundreds of tiny meteors will be darting through the night sky - and hopefully putting on a spectacular show for those of us who are prepared to put on our thermals and sit out at midnight in the darkest skies we can access.

The night sky has always fascinated me. I can remember as a child sitting out and looking up and seeing a sky filled with stars. The scourge of light pollution around our cities makes that harder and harder, hence our trek out of the city. But whenever I witness a star lit sky I am always awe-struck.  

Each star is the centre of another galaxy, as our sun is the centre of ours.
The light from some of these suns takes millions of years to reach us. It is extraordinary to contemplate the fact that we are looking at light from the time of the dinosaurs and before.  We cannot count the stars. We cannot even fully imagine the magnitude of them, or their potential for other life.

The vastness of space makes my heart leap, and yet I also feel a deep and profound sadness, because down here on earth I wonder if we are losing the ability to marvel.

We have telescopes that allow us to see further than ever before, that allow us to peer into the depths of galaxies light years away. But do we stop in awe? Do we stop to wonder at the ultimate realities of the universe? Or are we too caught up in our tiny screens to notice anymore? Has modern life not only taken away our dark skies, but also our ability to see beyond our own selves?

The Qur’an asks us in numerous places to consider the Heavens, to look at “the star that pierces through darkness".  For me, I have to take time to do that at least once a year. I am glad I can now share that experience with my daughter, and together we can contemplate our own lives, as well as our place in the whole extraordinary, majestic universe out there.