According to my calendar of weird holidays, today is International Astronomy Day! "Astronomy Day is a day to look up to the stars. It was established to promote astronomy to the general public. Astronomy clubs and groups use this day to help teach the people about the stars, and other celestial bodies in the universe. These groups take advantage of this day to offer people a view of the stars through a telescope, if possible." When I was younger, I was really in to the stars! I knew all the constellations and how to find them. I had a telescope and would spend every night I could studying the sky. I still love to sit outside in the summer and just look up at the stars. I don't own a telescope anymore, but would love to have one again. Do you like star-gazing? Own a telescope?
I've always been fascinated by the stars. I loved them when I was a kid, too. I used to find the Dippers every night I was out! That was my thing. We had a telescope for awhile, but don't have it anymore.
I only had one required class for science in college all those years ago. I took astronomy. I've forgotten most of it but I've always been interested in "the final frontier" of space. Must be because of the most famous person from my town being a very famous astronaut.
I grew up either in the country side or very close to it, so we could go out and see the stars with very little or no light pollution. I still own my old telescope. It's not very strong and a modern pair of binoculars is as good if not better at magnification. My dad has a much better one. However, we live right in the middle of a borough now (bigger than a town, but not quite a city) so rarely see much in the way of stars with all the street lights etc everywhere. My dad took the kids out with his telescope a few years ago to see the moon, and one of the planets in view at the time. I miss exploring the stars.
The big dipper was the first star shape my dad taught me. He taught us all how to navigate with the night sky. Unfortunately I can't remember any of it any more.
I love it, but I can't identify anything in the sky! I love when we go to the countryside and we can see shooting stars...so beautiful! but I don't own a telescope, never had one. In my city it's difficult to see stars...
I love going out and trying to take photos of the moon when something is going on like a full moon or eclipse. I wish I could name the constellations.
My constellation of choice is Orion. I do t know why, but it's the first one I look for- his belt. Then the dippers and seven sisters. I taught my son some of the constellations. We have a turtle nightlight. The nightlight projects the constellations on the ceiling. We've laid on his floor and looked at them when he was younger. That helped him be able to see it in the night sky. I also downloaded an app for my phone: sky view. We will go out at night and see what we can see. The app helps us label the constellations. It's pretty cool.
I find it interesting and the kids are starting to want to star-gaze but I can't decide if it's just a ploy to stay up late. DH wants to get a telescope but I'm not ready for that yet lol. And I also first look for Orion's belt, like @bestcee Courtney mentioned.
I am not overly fussed on the exact constellations, but I love looking at the stars. I don't enjoy being in big cities because often it is too bright to see much. The best place is my childhood home, Mum and Dad live on a farm, so there are stars as far as you can see. The kids enjoy seeing all the stars, but Bellamy isn't quite able to look where you are actually pointing yet, so we don't focus too much on what is what.
