Stargazing.

After a couple of weeks reading about stars and galaxies and squinting at overcast skies, we finally saw a clear night.  So yesterday night we piled into the van and drove thirty miles out of town to get away from the lights of the city, at least a little bit.   Oscar read the sign at the park entrance that said "Closed at Sunset" and became worried.  "It'll be okay," Mark told him, "look, the gate's still open."  I remain hopeful that we haven't just inculcated a lifetime of relativism w.r.t. trespassing and breaking of minor civil ordinances.

We threw a couple of blankets down on the ground and got out the star maps and library books and flashlights and spent an hour lying on our backs looking at the sky and talking and snacking on the emergency beef jerky I keep in my car.  Mary Jane nursed.  Oscar kept insisting he could see Orion's Belt and I kept insisting that he couldn't, because it was summer.   Milo kept begging to be taken to the water fountain.  But still, it was lovely; a perfect, cool evening, with a perfectly clear sky.  Oscar pointed out the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper and answered Mark's questions about them.  I learned to recognize a constellation I did not know before (Lyra, the lyre, and its bright star Vega, which was almost directly overhead last night at 9:30 or so CDT).   Oscar thinks he found Pegasus, which he remembered from The Sky is Full of Stars, and I'm pretty sure he was correct.   

We left when Milo got impatient.  All three kids fell asleep on the way back, and were carried up to bed.  It was such an easy outing, I wonder why we never did it before -- does it seem too much trouble to drive out of town?  Mark said at one point (because Milo was wanting a snack) that we should have brought a mini-picnic, but I'm glad we didn't make a big production out of stargazing.  We just threw some sweatshirts and blankets and flashlights in the car, and I grabbed the school bag because it had some star guides in it, and we were off. 

We should get a few more chances to go in the next few weeks, while we study the planets and the moon.

Comments

[Christy P]

If you get them up early you can see Orion. I did on Wednesday in the east at about 5:20 am mountain time.

Putting a red bandanna over the flashlight will help prevent loss of night vision.

Glad that nobody gave you a hard time for trespassing. I got in trouble for that once in a quite similar situation.

[Linda]

A public golf course is often a good place for star-gazing (and maybe closer to home).

[bearing]

Linda, thanks for the idea. Don't those usually close at dusk too? We kind of have to get thirty or forty miles away from home -- since we live in the inner city, light pollution's pretty bad.