I remember in the late 1940s when my father first pointed out all the millions of stars in the night sky and how they seemed to move across the heavens, as the night progressed. He also showed me the different Moon phases and we wondered about the man on the moon and who lived up there. Later in the 1950s I read an article with my father about people living on the Moon under ground. I really believed that the article was true. Later, I told my science teacher about it in grammar school. He smiled when he saw the magazine article and then explained that it was just a Satire (fiction). He said, “Don’t be embarrassed, maybe people will really live on the Moon some day.”
Then in July 1969, the first man landed on the Moon in Apollo-11. I was now a science teacher and started to collect all the published pictures showing astronauts and their fantastic voyages. Space flight was always a dream of mine and I watched with wonder at all the developments that world scientists achieved learning about the stars. Space walks, satellites, probes to Mars, sampling moon rocks and always doing tests to determined if life exists out there.
Later in the 1960s, science fiction writers began producing thousands stories about trips to outer space. Eventually the TV series Star Trek was born and I relished each episode as I traveled into the unknown “Where No Man Has Gone Before” with the crew of the Starship Enterprise.
Today there are even more fantastic movies and TV series that depict man’s exploration of the heavens and alien monsters. In the not to distant future we will eventually make a journey to another planet or star system and maybe discover another life form. However, today we can still look up at the heavens and dream.
Recently, I introduced my grandchildren to star gazing. We have a camp way up north in New Hampshire on the border with Vermont and Canada. The night sky is really dark and beautiful and not contaminated with city lights. Each night you can see patterns of bright stars as you try to imagine the shape of a constellation. “Look at those stars there and imagine a big spoon, that’s the big dipper”, I said to my grand kids as I pointed north in the sky. Of course the shape of a constellation is in the eyes of the beholder. Thousands of years ago people looked at the sky and imagined seeing things that were familiar to them like a goat or bear or warrior and thus named the constellations.
To help see the stars and moon a little better, I bought a pair of binoculars. You can shop online and see what kind best fits your use, but I found the 10x50 size was adequate for star gazing. The number 10x is the power of the eye piece and tells that the object you see is 10 times larger than actual size. The number 50 is the size or diameter of the objective lens (far end). Mine is 50 mm. With a larger objective you get more light and the image is brighter as well as the field of view larger. However, the larger objective gives you a lot of bounce (image wiggles). It’s best to brace your arms against your sides when looking through the binoculars otherwise the image seems to bounce around with the slightest movement.
To further help with my star search, I found an APP for my iPod called Star Walk ($2.99). You can see some info about the Star Walk APP at the link below. It has loads of astronomical information but also allows you to see the night sky in the iPod just as if you were looking at the sky. As you move the iPod to the right or left, the sky image changes to what you would see in the north, south, east or west direction. You can adjust the APP for the time of night and location. To see what the sky would look like at a future or past date, you can flick the time dial and watch the sky change as the stars and planets fly by. It’s like a time machine.
After making the correct adjustments, I gave the iPod to my grandson who is 11 years old and loves computer gadgets and was amazed with this iPod APP. Of course his young eye sight is 100 times better than mine. Where I saw one star, he saw 6 stars. As he held the iPod over head and looked north, I pointed to the North Star and said, “See if you can make out the Little Dipper Constellation.” Using the iPod, he saw the star pattern up in the sky just like it was shown on the iPod.
As soon as he found out how to use the iPod, he turned it to face another direction and found a bunch of other stars and constellations and was pointing them out to me. I could just make them out with my “Old Eyes” and was just so pleased with my grandson’s excitement.
My granddaughter was now using the binoculars and also finding stars and planets that were not just dots of white light but also had various colors. Every other minute she would say, “Josh look at this,” as they exchanged the iPod for the binoculars. You can see some photos of the constellations seen on the iPod and some other pictures at the link below on My Photos.
I’m now looking forward to our next sky adventure. There are millions of more stars to search for and hundreds of constellations to imagine. Hopefully, my grandkids will pass along this excitement to there children and grand children. And so, time marches on.
References:
Boston Globe Magazine (July 10, 2011) Information on local star watching places and references
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2011/07/10/star_struck_by_amateur_astronomy/?page=full
Star Walk APP
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/star-walk-5-stars-astronomy/id295430577?mt=8
Star Charts
http://www.midnightkite.com/starcharts.html
Star Trek
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek
My Photos
https://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/StarBlog#5630749683842213986
Comments: Comments always welcome. markryan82@Comcast.net
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