Starry Night

Starry nights are one of the pleasures you get out of growing up in an island. I have always been fascinated by the twinkling stars and the moon in the night sky. But during then it was only twinkling stars and phases of the moon that you would notice.

The myth of wishing upon a shooting star, and the fact that most of my childhood friends were able to sight shooting stars made me take an interest towards sky watching. I can still recall that day sitting with my aunt on the harbour wall, staring into the vastness of the night sky. I wasn’t in for disappointment; minutes later I caught a glimpse of a light shooting across the sky, my first shooting star (in all my excitement I forget about the wishing part).

If you take the time and really look into the night sky there are a whole lot of fascinating things to see. The only instrument you would need is your eyes and a good spot away from the lights. Soon you would notice twinkling stars with varying brightness and some which doesn’t shine at all. The actual number of stars, the name of the closest star to the earth, and the reason why we draw a star with five points are few among the many questions that I used to wonder about.

During the ancient times travellers used stars on the night sky as a map. Now we call that (map of stars) constellations and take delight in spotting it and use GPS to travel! There are 88 constellations or groups of stars that appear to form shapes in the sky. Most people can name the twelve constellations of the zodiac among the 88, and some may have even seen easy to spot constellations like Orion and Cassiopeia. My personal favourite is Orion, due to the fact that it was the first constellation name I knew and spotted. Orion is fairly easy to locate with unaided eye and you only have to locate the three bright stars making a line in the night sky.


three stars in the Orion (can you spot it?)



Once you are well versed with the stars and few constellations it would be interesting to spot the planet of the month: the most visible planet at a current period. A good difference between a star and a planet is that planets never twinkle. It would be good knowing few facts about our nine planets if you ever try to spot it. Mercury is the most difficult to see due to its proximity to the sun, Venus is white and very bright, and easy to see at dawn and dusk, of course Mars is the red planet, Jupiter is yellow and very bright and Saturn is also yellow, but not as bright as Jupiter, and so and so forth it goes ;P. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn can be seen at any time in any position on the sky unlike Mercury and Venus.

During this December, all armature astronomers are all excited by the lining of Venus and Jupiter side by side with the moon fair distance to upper left, making it the three brightest objects in the sky. It could be seen to the unaided eye soon after sunset, though I haven’t tried seeing it (not that much of an armature astronomer after all and I have even read somewhere on the web that this happens once in 247 years!!!).

For me still the most fascinating thing is seeing a shooting star (or a meteor as they call it) and I have learnt that one could see meteors every night at any given point in time. Another thing interesting to spot with the unaided would be a satellite, like International Space Station (ISS). Satellite will appear as a yellow "star" moving slowly across the sky, usually from east to west or west to east and satellites are only visible a few hours after sunset, or before sunrise. There are even spy satellites and that made me think of the saying that if you spot a satellite be sure to wave. Websites like http://www.heavens-above.com/ give you the predictions of ISS and other satellites. They even provide predictions for the recent lost tool bag during a spacewalk that made headlines (but with binoculars).
So if you could spot a planet, a constellation, a satellite and a shooting in one night with the naked eye, you are as good as an armature astronomer could ever be. Or if you think you are smarter (;P) aiming for your own zodiac would be a fun thing, there are numerous websites that provide sky maps based on your location.

The best way to start astronomy as a hobby is to read and watch the sky without technical equipment (with the naked eye). Gazing at the starry night with the unaided eye would be a pleasant way to pass time in an island environment. So welcome to the fascinating world of astronomy.

PS: I almost forgot the trick question, which is the closest star to the earth? of course it is the Sun!!!