Winter Blessings and Beauties, Day 16: Stargazing

 

“I will love the light for it shows me the way;

yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars.“

- Augustine “Og” Mandino

The long, dark nights of winter are a wonderful opportunity for stargazing. The earlier it gets dark, the earlier you can be out there - bundled against the cold, eyes turned heavenward, enjoying the ever-changing patterns of the night sky. With a little study you can learn to distinguish between stars, planets, meteors and passing satellites. There are constellations to identify, meteor showers to watch for and sometimes other astronomical phenomena to spot such as the milky way or comets. 

Winter Blessings and Beauties: Day 16

Stargazing

The best nights to stargaze are those with little or no cloud-cover - although these will also be the coldest, so wrap up warm and maybe take a flask of hot tea or coffee with you! The skies will be darkest on the nights when there is little or no moon - those around the new moon are ideal. The November new moon fell on Monday 15th November, so the next few days are a great time if the skies are clear. The next new moon will be on December 14th. Try to do your stargazing as far away from light pollution as you can - though of course this will be dictated to a certain extent by where you live. The further you are able to get away from built up areas, the better. 

There are several meteor showers during winter - over the next few weeks, look out for the following:

• The Taurids, which are split into two segments - the South Taurids which are visible now and will continue until November 25th and the North Taurids, which will continue from now until December 2nd.
• The Leonids which are visible between November 15th–20th. 
• The Geminids, visible between 14th-17th December.
• The Ursids, which you can see between 17th-25th December.
• The Quadrantids, between 1st-5th January.

You are most likely to spot meteors after midnight, but if you can't stay up that late there are plenty of constellations to enjoy, and planets such as Mars, Saturn and Jupiter to look out for. There's plenty of information on where and what to look for in the skies where you are on sites like this one. 

If the weather is cloudy, you can make the most of your time by studying up on the constellations so that you are well-prepared for the next clear night. You could also branch off and read up on the myths attached to the constellations, or teach yourself about the moon and its phases.

And if you do happen to see a meteor - don't forget it's a shooting star, so make a wish!