posted by Catherine on Dec 28
There is a great way to see things thousands of miles away without flying – look into space!
You don’t need all that technical, astronomical and expensive equipment to see the stars - there is plenty you can see just with your own eyes. And what great way to add to your camping experience than to watch distant planets and other-wordly stars pass by through the night.
Obviously the one thing you do need is a dark clear sky to start with, but there are many places even just on the outskirts of cities that will do just fine as well. You need as little ambient light as possible – so steer clear of huge street lights, football stadiums, airports, late night shopping centers and motorways and you should be fine!
So, below I have listed some things that could enthrall not only your children, but even yourself. And they are not difficult to identify even by a very beginner!
Venus:
The small gaseous planet next in towards the sun after earth (Sun-Mercury-Venus-Earth-Mars-Jupiter-Saturn-Uranus-Neptune-Pluto (if it’s still in your books as a planet as otherwise it ruins the saying: My Very Energetic Mother Jumps Several Universes – No Problem!).
Venus is best seen right after sunset or just before sunrise due to the way it moves around the sun, but it is the brightest thing in the night sky after the moon – and like all planets: it doesn’t twinkle – it’s a solid light and will be quite low in the sky.
Orion’s Belt:
These 3 bright stars are in a slight diagonal line and appear in the south if you are in the Northern Hemisphere (north of the equator). They are part of a larger constellation and once you have identified the ‘belt’ part, you can look out from there to see the 4 other bright stars in each corner so to speak, the top left being Betelgeuse – a red supergiant star, nearing the end of it’s life and ready to explode!
The Big Dipper (part of Ursa Major):
This is a well known constellation of stars in the shape of a kitchen pan, and can be seen in the Northern Hemisphere as well but looking north. It is basically a square to the right with a curved handle leading off to the left. It makes up the rear end of the mythical bear (ursa is the latin name for bears).
It’s quite a large constellation to – as opposed to Ursa Minor – it’s smaller equivalent and sort of upside down! However, Ursa Minor has the Pole Star at the very tip of it’s tail – so can be easy to find in the dark sky as well.
The Milky Way:
You really can see the Milky Way up there on a very clear night. It takes a while to actually see it as it is a huge expanse of ‘cloud’ – really a multitude of stars all overlaid and twinkling away – some estimate it contains up to 400 billion stars!
All of these stars are actually Suns – just like ours. They can be different sizes and different colours depending on what stage of life they are in (ranging from 1 billion to over 13 billions years old!) and what elements they are burning.
So, get out there, and have a look!
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