When was the last time you just looked at the stars... MIB

[Allegra]

At friends last night. What was the strange light above the clouds, moon shadow? I don't remember seeing that or an aeroplane when taking the photo. I like that even the moon was bright, you still could see some stars.

 

[Extollager]

Allegra, that could be lens flare. Another possibility is that it's the lunar equivalent of sun dogs -- ?

 

[Allegra]

Allegra, that could be lens flare. Another possibility is that it's the lunar equivalent of sun dogs -- ?

I'm pretty sure it's the latter.

 

[jelizaga1]

A weekend ago, the weather was dry and only slightly cool, and the skies were clear in Monterey California. I got lucky and stayed by Asilomar beach that Saturday night. Starry skies...makes me smile thinking about it, as the area where I live welcomes a storm.

 

[Ellizze]

A week back, I suppose. Went for a casual walk and found a bunch of em.

 

[Guttersnipe]

My dad was really into astronomy when I was a kid. Sometimes we'd get up really early, go to a secluded spot, and see what we could find. I have good memories about catching a couple meteor showers. Nowadays, it just doesn't engross us as much.

 

[pogopossum]

There is an international program, "Dark Sky" listing places that are particularly free of light pollution, for star viewing.
Many of these are in the US, as our Southwest has many wild and frequently unclouded spots.
But it is international.
LINK
And here is a LINK 2 to Brit locales.

Miz Pogo and I are going to our nearest, in Pennsylvania,USA, as part of a trip this summer.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I have pretty dark skies where I live. And my bed is right under a big skylight in a low coombed ceiling - on the darker side of the house. So when it's not fecking raining (which it does a lot round here) I get to lie in bed and look up at the stars sometimes. I don't know whether it's because I'm so far north but I nearly always see at least one polar orbit satellite going overhead each time I do. There's no mistaking them.

 

[alexvss]

Think I've never went stargazing my whole life, but if someday I have the chance to go to a "dark sky park" I won't miss it.

 

[Saiyali]

I look at the night sky all the time! I live on the side of a hill with no other town for miles in the direction I see (west) so I get an amazing view of the western sky from N to S - but no eastern view (because of the hill). I love the movement through the seasons, and sometimes I try to picture the spinning and wobbling of the ball I'm stuck to the side of. But the scale is too vast .. and honestly, the whole idea of being inside a film of air around a rock that is essentially careering around a star again and again, wobbling away in the void is .. a bit scary if I look too close at it...

I have a simple telescope but i tend to prefer just looking with my eyes. Making a mental map of our immediate vicinity, you know .. for when I get kidnapped etc.

My favourite astronomy site is In The Sky.org because you can set it to show your actual sky, then it's easy to learn about what's what.

I'm really into names of stars and other celestial bodies from languages other than English and cultures other than European. I like that stars and planets and the moon are features of every human experience ever, and in fact more so than now because of the amount of light pollution we live with. I suspect stars played a bigger role in everyone's life before the spread of science and technology that has explained so much of what all that stuff in the night sky actually is, and what it means. Or rather, what it means that we mean.

Here's a picture of Saturn through my telescope a couple of years ago. Not exactly Hubble! But recognizable.
(the actual view was much clearer .. this was from a phone camera held against the eyepiece .. low tech DIY!)

 

[Rodders]

I thought this chart symbols of both the Zodiac and the Solar System was quite interesting.

 

[Ori Vandewalle]

Here's a picture of Saturn through my telescope a couple of years ago. Not exactly Hubble! But recognizable.
(the actual view was much clearer .. this was from a phone camera held against the eyepiece .. low tech DIY!)

View attachment 79672

I've got a similarly blurry Saturn picture from a few years back:

I live in a suburb outside of DC, so I'm never far from city lights, and there are plenty of hills and trees around to block the horizon. But I've got two telescopes and a pair of binoculars I wheel out from time to time, and I can occasionally get some bad cell phone camera pics of what I see.