Night Owl Uses a Telescope

by Night Owl Unicorn

Rating: everyone
Tags: Slice of Life, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy
Length: 1298

On a clear night, Night Owl peeks into the stars.

On the first clear night in weeks, Night Owl opens a box, sets up a telescope, and stares into the great, endless expanse of stars, or, he would, if he could decide what to look at.

Dedicated to a childhood telescope I never got to use.

Published 2021-12-13 01:40:00 UTC
Last updated 2021-12-13 01:40:00 UTC

To the Moon and Back

Night Owl Uses a Telescope

By Night Owl

The snow made a soft, familiar sound, blending with the sound of Night Owl's breathing. The young unicorn stallion slowly treaded up a small hill, an amateur telescope in his magical grasp, tinted saturated yellow. The early winter night was calm and chilly, the stallion himself bound in a warm, comfy hoodie. Night Owl made a larger exhale than usual, finally on top of the little bump in the earth. After a short breather, he set the telescope on the ground, adjusting the tripod to match his height.

"Alright, that's step one, be on location," Night Owl said to himself confidently. "Step two, check for dark skies!" Owl looked up, his eyes adjusting to the soft yet crisp starlight. "Well, that's good. But on second thought, that should probably be step one," Owl looked around the sky, practicing step three. "Step three, orient yourself," Owl muttered constellation names to himself, "Canis Major, the Great Dog. Lepus, the Hare. Monoceros is right there, so is Orion, I can confidently say I am facing south!" Owl announced to his audience of stars.

Now, it was time for Owl to set up his telescope. He grabbed the telescope and adjusted the finder scope, making sure it aligned with the main body of the telescope. Next, he tightned the joint of the telescope, allowing it to rotate, yet not fall to the grip of gravity. Owl checked the tripod, seeing it to be operating as usual. All Night Owl had to do now was figure out what he was going to look at.

"This telescope has the capability to zoom in 75 times, and 150 times my eyes, so the only galaxy I could see other than our own is Andromeda," Owl thought out loud to himself. "Jupiter and Saturn are also too small to see any detail with this, plus Saturn just set," Owl said, looking towards the western horizon. "I should have brought the Galileoscope," He muttered, lightly stomping the ground in frustration, before carefully checking the telescope to see if he knocked anything over. Confirming he knocked nothing over, he looked back towards the sky. "I could look at the Orion Nebula, but I did that last time with the big scope," He looked around before settling on an object, rising on the eastern horizon. "Of course, the moon! Why didn't I think of that right away? It's on my flank!" Owl looked back at his flank, softly chuckling, confirming the presence of his cutie mark, a waining moon.

Owl cleared a patch of snow, revealing some wet grass, and sat in it. He grabbed the telescope, and looked in the finder scope, adjusting the telescope until he saw a bright white light in the finder scope. He popped the 150x lens in the telescope, took a deep breath in, and peered into the scope, seeing nothing but black. "What?" Owl said out loud, confused. He looked in the finder scope, and yes, the bright white glare of the moon was in the perfect spot to be seen by the main mirror in the telescope. He looked at the sky, and yes, the moon was there. He stood up, and started to pace around the telescope. "What is going on?-" Owl asked himself before being interrupted by the answer. "Oh dear Luna, I'm an idiot," Night Owl stated, staring at the lens cap, still covering the front of the telescope.

Owl activated his horn, carefully yet quickly popped the lens cap off, then stuffed it in his pocket. Quietly muttering to himself, he sat down and peered in the finder scope again, readjusting the telescope back where it was, and moved to the eyepiece. Peering into the telescope, he was met with a soft, fuzzy image of a white circle. "Perfect," Owl confidently said before adjusting the focus, watching as the image got more fuzzy. "Nope, wrong way," He muttered, before rolling the focus the other way, watching the image get sharper and sharper. And after a bit more fiddling, he was happy to see a sharp, clean image of the full moon. Owl smiled to himself, staring at the moon, counting the craters.

"Five hundred forty seven, five hundred forty eight, five hundred forty nine, five hundred fifty!" Owl counted, before removing his eye from the eyepiece to readjust the telescope for the twelfth time, the moon having moved out of the view of the telescope. Sitting up straight, he realized how high in the sky the moon was. "Oh, that's interesting, the moon's crossing the Prime Meridian! Wait, the moon's crossing the Prime Meridian, meaning it's lunar noon. And if I started counting at moonrise, it's been at least five hours!" Owl shot up on his hooves, quickly putting the lens cap back on and spinning to the north, viewing Ponyville, and seeing his house, undamaged. "Oh, phew, leaving the wood stove on didn't burn down the place," Owl said, his heart rate decreasing, and he slowed his disassembly of his telescope.

After a couple minutes of disassembly, the last thing to put in the case was the telescope body itself, cleaned of the tripod, finder scope, and even the eyepiece. Owl held it in his hooves, and removed the lens cap, looking into the main lens. He quickly popped his head up, looking for anypony around, before looking down at the telescope again. "Goodnight Owl Junior, sleep tight," He softly said to the telescope, nuzzling the telescope before putting it in the case and closing it in. Owl picked up the case, and began trotting home.

Night Owl entered the edge of Ponyville, and quietly walked in the direction of his home, trying not to wake anypony up. If he had to guess, it had to be around 11 pm, but he wouldn't be sure until he checked his clock. Finally, after 10 or so minutes of walking, he made it to his side of town, the side facing Canterlot. He walked up to his house, quietly entering while taking off his hoodie. He looked at his clock, sighing as he read the face of it. "12:20 AM. I swear, one day I'll get it right," Owl stepped into his living room, turning off the wood stove, and sliding 'Owl Junior' on the shelf, next to a large assortment of telescopes, star charts, and night sky magazines. After looking at his shelf for a moment, Owl walked out of the room, and into the next room over, his bedroom. He slid under the heavy blankets, and went to bed.

Author's Note

Yes, In real life I own a Telescope I call "Owl Junior", It's a Vivitar VIV-TEL-150x, and I got it for Christmas when I was 12. Although I've never nuzzled it, I do refer to it as 'sleeping' when not in use.

The telescope this story is dedicated to had a sad and short career. It was another Vivitar telescope that I got for my 7th or 8th Christmas, and the first thing I did with it was try to look at the moon. Unfortunately, the view was fuzzy (I later learned this meant that a lens may have been cracked.) I sat it in the entry room, and every day when I returned from school, I looked at it, sadly. Then, a few months later, someone broke into our house, and stole it, along with a bunch of other stuff, but leaving only a couple movies in our DVD collection, including Titanic, so, I guess in exchange for a broken telescope, I got my love of Ocean Liners, I guess.

Anyway, I might write more of these one off stories about my OC's, they're easy to write.