This past Monday evening I spent close to two hours gazing at the night sky. I was aided in this adventure by a pair of binoculars and my Orion StarBlast telescope (a gift from my wife and daughter two Christmases ago).
The sky was clear of clouds but was hazy from all the dust the winds had kicked up earlier in the day. The glow from the city lights was amplified by the haze. Still, I could clearly see the brightest stars and the familiar constellations they created.
Once I set up my gear, I let my eyes acclimate to the night. I used my binoculars to scan the skies for satellites. I saw two within a short time (a third crossed my field of view while looking through my telescope). I also witnessed two shooting stars. The first was brief and faded quickly, the other went across the whole of the sky, flashing with brilliant light as it skipped across the atmosphere (it reminded me of the scene from Howl’s Moving Castle when Howl is standing in a field while shooting stars fall all around him).
I then began to look at the heavens with my telescope. I looked first at Saturn. The rings of the planet were just about edge-on and I could see its largest moon, Titan, as a small white dot to the right of the planet. I get a kick out of watching people look at Saturn through a telescope – they are so surprised to see that it really does have rings!
I then turned my light bucket to look at some of the brightest stars in the summer sky…Arcturus (in Boötes), Antares (in Scorpius), Altair (in Aquila), and Vega (in Lyra). I also looked at Albireo (in Cygnus), which is a beautiful double star (one is yellow, the other blue). I was very happy with the way my lil’ ol’ telescope was performing. The stars were focusing down to pinpoints of light and the tube held up well to the occasional gust of wind.
I decided to wrap up my evening by testing both my optical limits and the limits of the telescope under less-than-ideal viewing conditions. I began a search for the Ring Nebula (in Lyra). It took me about 10 minutes of searching to find it as my telescope is the point-and-look type (no fancy-schmancy computer or axis drives on this small telescope). I was scanning slowly across the skies when I found it – a faint, wispy circle that I knew immediately to be the Ring Nebula. I let out a subdued cheer as I was in my backyard and didn’t want to freak out the neighbors. As I looked at this wondrous site it occurred to me that the first time I saw this nebula through a telescope that I owned was over 25 years ago. It was still there as if it had just been hanging out in the sky waiting for me to find it again. I kept looking at it, switching from one eye to the other, making sure that I saw every possible photon of light that this nebula was sending out. I was thrilled to find it and to find out what my telescope could bring to my eyes even with haze, light, and the occasional mosquito zipping about.
As I gathered up my things and headed back into the house, I found myself reflecting on how much I missed looking at the stars. As a young boy and into my teenaged years I would spend many nights observing the stars with a telescope similar to the one I have now. Afer I was married and my life situation changed I took my telescope outside less and less. During one of our moves my telescope was stolen out of our storage unit. I was quite upset but unable to do anything about it. It would be over 15 years later when I would have my own telescope again thanks to my wife and daughter (I wondered what was in the BIG box next to the Christmas tree).
If you cannot remember the last time you looked up at the night sky, take a few moments tonight (weather permitting, of course) to reacquaint yourself with some old friends. They are still there and are happy to remind you of a time in your life when you looked at the skies with wonder and amazement.
