Sky watching

[layla]

The moon is SO bright tonight. It's getting dark so early now that it's full dark by the time we get home at 5:30 or so, but tonight the moon is nearly full and I walked Lucky around the "block" (driveway, gravel pit, creek, home again) by the light of the moon. Reflecting from the snow, it is so bright you can almost believe you could read a book outside -- which you probably couldn't, at least not without severe eyestrain, but it is bright enough to walk the dog without falling into a pit or running afoul of moose.

I tend to do a lot of star watching out here, in short bouts before the cold drives me inside. With no city lights to get in the way, and a wide-open skyfield over the gravel pit, we have great star views -- along with the curse of Alaska, namely that you can only see the stars when it's so cold that it's uncomfortable to stand outside and look at them! I need to locate my star book and identify some more constellations. I can usually find Mars, the Big Dipper, North Star, Orion (of course), Casseopeia and the Pleiades ... things fall apart with the rest of them, though.

I guess we've been having meteor showers (the Taurids) the last couple of weeks, but I've only seen a few random shooting stars myself. The aurora has also been quiet lately.

EDIT: The President was in Alaska this afternoon en route to Asia. Not something that happens every day.

Comments

[dewgeist.livejournal.com]

One of the things I looked forward to when planning to come here was the night sky (not much of one in Orlando anymore). The Aurora, stars on stars and the light of the freakish moon were all dancing in my head long before we arrived.

"The curse of Alaska" -ha. Yeah, I've noticed that too...

hi

[(Anonymous)]

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