Study astronomy.

I am starting on Dava Sobel’s wonderful book, The Planets as part of my TBR challenge but I think it will also nicely support this goal.

What a wonderfully thrilling sight! This photo is from www.spaceweather.com – oh, to have taken this photo!

It is a crystal clear, so far very warm evening here in Central VA and I just spent about 20 minutes on the deck, listening to the waterfall in the Secret Garden while picking out constellations in the sky. Yes, the moon is very bright tonight but the stars are, also. So, I found my old friend Orion, in his full glory and I revisited the Pleiades and for the first time, I picked out Taurus (with the help of Aldabaren)! It was wonderful until the people in the house behind us turned on their floodlights (at 11:30 p.m., my only question would be, “WHY?” Anyway, it was fun while it lasted.

we continue to study the lessons (we printed them all off). This week we did the moon and the planets. We haven’t gotten outside recently to look at the stars, partly because it has been sorta cloudy at night and partly because, after the amazing skies we gazed at on vacation, it is hard to come back down to earth. But soon, we will get back out there.

because it is not just about constellations. It’s the moon and the nebulae and the Hubble Space Telescope photos, and the planets, and so many things that can’t be captured if I only try to learn the constellations. That is what I love about life-long learning – you start off with one thing and it just grows and grows!

So, while on our annual pilgrimage to Maine, my husband and I spent several spectacular nights stargazing. The Milky Way was quite clear to us. We got the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper down pat (though I must admit the Little Dipper isn’t exactly what I always thought it was!)but the best was the Pleiades. We went to Rangeley Lakes State Park to camp and to look at the stars and it was fabulous. We staked out an open spot with great sky and headed out to that spot about 8:30 p.m. There was no moon, no light pollution – just fabulous sky above. We had our binoculars out (this year’s anniversary present to each other) and we had planned what we were looking for (Cepheus and Casseiopea) but then we just started gazing. My eye kept returning to a slightly blurry spot off to the northeast and I asked my husband if he saw it too. He did and, with the binoculars, he took a closer look. He said, “Wow! It’s a bunch of stars together!” I got our trusty star chart and started trying to figure out what it was. We agreed quickly that it must be the Pleiades and he counted the bright stars and there were definitely 7 and we knew the Seven Sisters would be on our list of constellations from now on. It was such a thrill! We looked for a while longer, watching the constellations move through the night sky and catching about 5 or 6 pretty good shooting stars. I am truly excited about continuing on with this goal!

Apparently, in order to learn the constellations, you must first learn a bit about how things work…thus, -“precession.” Now, I doubt that I could really explain this at this point (something about the wobbling earth) because when my husband and I did our online lesson tonight, I saw this word for what must have been the first time in my life! Still, the next lesson is supposed to introduce us to some of the constellations and that should be fun! We have purchased binoculars (we already have a telescope that we haven’t really used) and we will be going to Maine next week and, every year, when I am in Maine, I am humbled and awed by the clear and magnificent Milky Way. I expect to return from Maine this year with stars dancing in my eyes and in my memory!

So, today was the first day of school. Both of my stepdaughters are in high school this year and the day was a bit overwrought as a result. But tonight, while they were getting all of their binders organized and writing their first papers (the getting to know you kind), my husband and I “attended” our first Backyard Astronomy Class on-line! We didn’t get too far (too many papers to sign and crises to resolve) but we started and we learned some things (about light years and parsecs and alpha stars and such). I think I am going to like this!

My husband and I have signed up for a Barnes and Noble University course of backyard skywatching. We will start this week and take advantage of the deep dark skies over Maine when we go up there at the end of the month to see how much we have learned. I’m excited.