5 - WRITTEN IN THE STARS
11/06/20
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| 50 Things to See in the Sky, a book by Sarah Barker |
The skies have been overwhelmingly cloudy lately and the weather drizzly which is not ideal for stargazing. With lockdown lending to plenty of downtime at home, I have been able to spend some time flicking through the pages of an adorable pocket-sized book on stargazing. Sarah Baker's book is super easy to read, breaking down how to see 50 astronomical objects in simple steps, making it super beginner-friendly. I have found in the past some sites or articles are crammed full of confusing scientific terms which can make stargazing seem inaccessible to those not an expert in the field, which is completely false! There are so many fascinating things to see if you know where to look.
At first, I found Stargazing with the naked eye daunting as I struggled to navigate my way around the sky, just about able to pick out a few constellations. However, since discovering the app Stellarium I have been able to get so much more out of the starry nights. The app uses your location to show you a map of the skies in your area in real-time and can even show you the stars and constellations which will be in the direction you are pointing your phone. The star map also has little illustrations over the constellations. Without this, it is easy to become skeptical about how constellations like Draco would ever make the shape of a dragon.
I have found that using a star map makes it hundreds of times easier to use constellations to find specific stars. So far I have been able to locate the stars Polaris and Vega, but I hope that I can build up to locating bright planets like Saturn and Jupiter.
-M
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| The 'not so Dragon looking' constellation Draco as illustrated on the app Stellarium. |
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