Star Gazing

Last year I began to have an interest in learning the constellations. I'm not good at it and as I have recently learned any star configuration could be any number of star constellations. Last weekend a friend and I went camping. I was looking forward to getting out of town and doing some star gazing. I took the constellation chart I have. You can adjust it to the date and time you are star gazing.

The first night at camp I was too tired after having worked two jobs, packing and then setting up camp. The second night at camp we were looking at the stars and I can't seem to make things out. My eyes were having trouble adjusting to looking at the lit chart and then the dark sky. I thought I found Orion, but it does not look like Orion on the chart. I am not sure we ever found the North Star and I thought this was the brightest star and pointed the lost North. Maybe it was the light pollution. It did not help the Boy Scout Troop 10 feet from us had 3 bright lanterns.

Finally I decided to call it a night and went for a walk to the bathroom. On the walk discovered the street was the "best" place for gazing at the stars. The trees filtered the Boy Scouts lanterns, however I was rudely awakened by a van full of scouts while walking, as if drunk, in the middle of the street. By the time the scouts turned out their lanterns the sky got cloudy. :(

Wednesday night a friend and I went out looking for the new comet, Lumin. This is a new comet in the south east horizon. It supposedly has a double tail and was closest to earth on Tuesday. Initially we had trouble finding it because we could not find Leo, which is the constellation the comet is close to. Even on the east side of town and away from town there was too much light pollution or too many clouds. We tried to find Leo and to see the comet, but to no avail. We were looking with the naked eye and I guess the other elements made it impossible to see.

Last night we saw the moon and bright star above it. Later we discovered it's Venus.

In the midst of it all I'm learning how to read the star chart. I still don't know where the North Star is. I've found the sky and telescope website to be helpful, but can't exactly use it while star gazing. They publish something weekly about what one might be able to see in the sky on a weekly basis. It's a cool site!

One of the charts I have helps you tell the time based on the location of the North star and two other constellations. It's my goal to learn where those two are and maybe beginning to learn how to tell time based on that.

My brother tells a great story about his son and celestial figures. His son is a little over a year and half old. He has taught his son the sun, moon and maybe the north star. When they walk the dog at night my brother and his son talk about what they see in the sky. When his son hears an airplane he will point to the plane. If his son can't find it he grabs my brother's hand and grunts as if to say where is it? I love that story.