Stargazing Hour

It was such a long time I don’t do stargazing. Rainy season still go on which means too many clouds in the sky that make stargazing activity is ineffective.
One day, the sky is clear, and my niece yelled,”Anty, It’s Orion, right?!”
I just smile. I previously told her about Orion the hunter so every bright star she saw will be considered as Orion. And she pointed a wrong constellation.
Maybe it’s a sign for me to gaze a night sky.

Date: April 25th, 2006
Time: 10.30 pm, Sky status: clear
Observation result:

• Head of Scorpious the scorpion is prominent on the East.
• I saw Arcturus for the first time. The color is yellow and bright. It belongs to Bootes constellation, the herdsman. Part of the constellation is blocked by the building :(
• I saw Spica for the first time. It’s part of Virgo constellation, the maiden. Spica is dimmer than Arcturus actually.
• There’s a square of 4 stars with the same brightness on the right of Virgo. O...that’s Corvus the crow.
• Start to identify dim constellations which are Libra the scale & Lupus the wolf.
• At first, I just notice the front legs of Centaurus the centaur. They are 2 bright stars which are Alpha Cen and Beta Cen. But now I can identify the whole part.
• Identify dim constellation near Crux the cross entitled Musca the fly.
• There’s a very bright star at the tip of Libra. It dominates the other stars. But I don’t find it fit in the map sky. So I guess this one is a planet. Finally I know what the mysterious thing is. It’s Jupiter!! I’m so happy. I have no interest to identify planets because their path pattern is irregular. But now I change my mind.
• I was relaxing my eyes but still looking at the stars. They’re beautiful and sparkling, look like jewels spread in the sky.

Date: April 26th, 2006
Time: 5.00 am, Sky status: clear
Observation result:

• Scorpious is seen as a whole.
• Sagittarius the archer is shown behind Scorpious. The square body part is clearly visible.
• On the north side of Sagittarius, I found the close pair of stars. One star is brighter that the other. The brightest is Altair, part of Aquila the eagle.
• Identified Cygnus the swan nearby Aquila.
• Once you have identified Aquila and Cygnus, then you will found Lyra the harp. These 3 constellations are known as summer triangle. But it’s so strange I couldn’t identify Lyra. Maybe because the cloud came that blur my view.

I wake up in the morning just to see the sky for a moment. I guess the excitement overwhelms me.

Date: April 28th, 2006
Time: 8.300 pm, Sky status: rather cloudy
Observation result:

• Jupiter still twinkling bravely on the east. I don’t see any star around it because blocked by cloud.
• As I gaze north, I saw line of prominent stars there. I’m a little bit shocked. Are they planets? I grab my sky map and start to observe. O my Goodness, that’s the big dipper, the well-known pattern of stars within Ursa Major. I though I would never seen Ursa Major the Great Bear since this constellation lie on north polar sky. Woo hoo!! The dipper/bowl is so bright and sparkling. This is the best constellation beside Orion.
• Finally Regulus, the brightest star in Leo constellation is identified.

I stop my activity coz the cloud cover the sky little by little. I can’t wait to see Pisces and Pegasus constellation because this region is a place for dim constellations. I have seen many bright constellations so it’s time to identify dim constellations. But of course it takes time to find the right time.

Last thing to do is checking my constellation list, which ones have been identified and which ones still waiting to be found.