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Backyard stargazing is back in fashion.
Maybe you’re taking solace in the stars after a stressful day working or home-schooling your kids. Or perhaps you’ve just suddenly got time on your hands to devote to something you’ve always wanted to do. Either way, it’s likely that you live in a big city, or near a town, where light pollution—though perhaps slightly reduced at the moment—makes it difficult to see stars.
No matter. If you get really into astronomy, then yes, light pollution will become intensely annoying, and since it’s International Dark Sky Week (April 19-26, with lots of online talks and events) it’s important to complain bitterly about the pointless, wasteful and harmful light-pollution that we’re all subjected to.
However, if you’re a casual observer and/or just starting out, don’t sweat it. It hides all but bright stars, and in doing its evil work it actually makes taking your first steps in night sky navigation a little easier.
MORE FROM FORBESLight Pollution Is Bigger Threat To Astronomy Than Satellite ConstellationsBy Bruce Dorminey
“Right now, families around the globe find themselves spending many hours at home together,” said Ruskin Hartley, IDA’s Executive Director. “It’s a perfect time to reconnect with the night sky—and International Dark Sky Week provides a portal for that experience.”
Preparing to go stargazing
Here’s how you can prepare your backyard (though you could just as easily lean out of an apartment window):
- Switch-off any lights around you and make your surroundings as dark as possible.
- Make sure there are no light directly in your field of vision. If you can see a streetlight, then move. Ask your neighbors to switch-off their security lights.
- Leave your phone in your pocket (its bright white light will instantly kill-off your night vision) unless you’re using a planetarium app, in which case put it in the less damaging red light mode.
Five tips for stargazing from light polluted skies
To get the best advice for you I possibly I could, I talked to a presenter at International Dark Sky Week, the inspirational Tyler Nordgren, a former astronomy educator who—among many other things—currently teaches National Park Service Rangers how to give night sky programs (he’s also an incredible space artist as well as a solar eclipse tour leader).
1 – Look for planets along the path of the Moon
“Right now there’s a super bright “star” in the west after sunset,” said Nordgren about what stargazers call the “Evening Star”. “That’s the planet Venus—watch how it moves over the coming weeks as it gets lower in the sky to eventually pass between Sun and Earth and then becomes the “Morning Star” in the east before dawn.”
As a bonus, if you rise before sun-up then you’ll see Mars, Saturn and Jupiter in a line in the southeastern sky.
2 – See a shooting star
Although it may be tricky to see too many “shooting stars” from this week’s Lyrid meteor shower (which peaks at night on Tuesday through Wednesday), if you go out stargazing when it’s really dark—around midnight—you might see one. If you’re lucky, you could even see a bright “fireball,” a bright streaking meteor that the Lyrid meteor shower is known for producing.
3 – Watch the Moon
Here’s an activity for the back-end of IDSW. “When you first see that thin crescent Moon in the evening sky after sunset, go out the next night at the same time and see how the Moon is now higher in the sky, and fatter,” said Nordgren.
“Do that every night for two weeks and you’ll see the Moon slowly move across the sky from west to east moving from crescent to full. That’s the Moon actually orbiting the Earth and it will get back to where it started after one month.”
For best results, start looking for the crescent Moon in the western sky just after sunset this Friday, April 24, then watch the Moon’s progress through till the next full moon—the “Super Flower Moon”—on May 7, 2020.
4 – See where the sun sets
“I like to watch as the Sun sets farther and farther northward along the horizon each day as the seasons change,” says Nordgren. “Same with where the Sun rises if you are a morning person—you can make a calendar out of where the Sun rises or sets each day of the year.”
MORE FROM FORBESThis Is How The Sun Moves In The Sky Throughout The YearBy Ethan Siegel
5 – Watch the stars move
Some constellations and asterisms (familiar patterns in the stars) are visible even from bright skies, like Orion—right now after sunset in the southwest—the Big Dipper (above you), and the Summer Triangle in the east before dawn. “Watch as all of these move from night to night slowly moving westward as seen each night at the same time,” says Nordgren. “This happens as the Earth moves around the Sun and winter constellations give way to summer.”
6 – Just go out and look up
“We have trained ourselves not to do that,” says Nordgren. “Just give it a try you’ll be amazed at how many stars you really can see.”
So, this International Dark Sky Week, let yourself get lost in the night sky. Amid the constellations, planets and perhaps even a shooting star or two, maybe you’ll find yourself a new and much-needed perspective on life, the Universe and everything.
Now more than ever we all need some space.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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