Memorize the constellations

I’ve been working on this for eight years now! I am familiar with the shape, location, celestial objects and major stars of all prominent Northern Hemisphere constellations. Contrary to popular belief, I really love this knowledge, and I pursued it for its own sake (not to impress the boys, as eli thinks). Go Me. Now I need more people to go camping and stargaze with!

I went out today to look at for the constellations that are “best viewed in February”: Auriga, Camelopardalis, Canis Major, Columba, Lepus, Gemeni, Monoceros, and Pictor (which cannot be seen from St. Augustine because we’re at the wrong Lattitude).

I am happy to report that I did see Canis Major. Heh heh. And the only reason I found it is that I knew it was near Orion (who wasn’t on my list, but who practically jumped out of the sky at me).

Part of my problem is that I don’t know how to look for something in the sky using only Right Ascension and Declination – everything I’ve found on the Net just says “use Right Ascension and Declination.” Apparently, stargazing is not for the thick skulled…

Anyway. So tonight wasn’t a total bust. I saw Orion. I saw Canis Major (and while I couldn’t see all of the stars in that constellation – I could easily find Sirius again, I think). And I saw Ursa Major – couldn’t find Ursa Minor though. The last two weren’t on my list; but I figured – what the heck. I’ll look anyway.

My information on these constellations is on my Yahoo360 Blog. Check it out if you want to learn more.