Stargazing

Adam and I love anything and everything about space, when we had cable we would always watch anything to do with it and basically learn as much as we could. The last time my Dad came to visit us he left us with an amazing laser. It is so high powered you are able to shine it at the stars and and actually point them out as well as constellations! (No more following someone else's finger) lol.

Every so often we like to go outside when the kids are in bed and stargaze, we are learning about the constellations. Some we know are:


                                                                          Triangulum

"The "Triangulum Spiral (M 33)," a nearby galaxy 2.7 million light years away that under ideal conditions can be seen with the naked eye..."  http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/tri-p.html

The 7 Sisters

The cluster is dominated by hot blue stars, which have formed within the last 100 million years. Dust that forms faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud that the stars are currently passing through. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, when it will have dispersed due to gravitational interactions with the spiral arms of the galaxy and giant molecular clouds.

http://www.crystalinks.com/pleiades.html

Polaris

The North Star or Pole Star – aka Polaris – is famous for holding nearly still in our sky while the entire northern sky moves around it. Polaris is not the brightest star in the nighttime sky, as is commonly believed. Polaris is only about 50th brightest.

Still, this star is bright enough to spot even from some suburban skies. In a dark country sky, even when the full moon obscures a good deal of the starry heavens, the North Star is still relatively easy to see.

Best of all, Polaris is readily found by using the prominent group of stars known as the Big Dipper, perhaps the northern hemisphere’s most famous star formation. To locate Polaris, all you have to do is to find the Big Dipper pointer stars Dubhe and Merak. These two stars outline the outer part of the Big Dipper bowl. Simply draw a line from Merak through Dubhe, and go about 5 times the Merak/Dubhe distance to Polaris.

http://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/polaris-the-present-day-north-star

Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse is a massive star as well. It may contain as much as 20 times the mass of the sun. Because of its large mass, Betelgeuse is a star that will run through its life history fairly quickly. The star has already consumed the bulk of its hydrogen fuel in the core and is on the way to stellar graveyard. Betelgeuse is losing mass at reasonably rapid rate. It is estimated that within a few hundred thousand years Betelgeuse will eject about one solar mass of material.

http://domeofthesky.com/clicks/betelgeuse.html

Orion's Belt

The proximity of the three stars in the sky is an illusion. In fact, the stars at either end of the Belt, Alnitak and Mintaka, are the closest together in space, Alnitak being a little over 800 light-years away, and Mintaka 100 light-years farther off. The central star, Alnilam, is much more distant than either of these, lying on the edge of the Orion Molecular Cloud, more than 1,300 light-years from the Sun. Alnilam is also easily the most massive and luminous of the three stars, so that despite its greater distance it still shines more brightly than its two companions. 

I just love looking into space, I mean it is always there and we forget to look up and gaze upon Gods marvelous creation. How beautiful it is!!! Here are some amazing pictures from the Hubble Telescope

I also was able to share a very special moment with Grandma Josie (Adams Dad's Mother) the other day. I was at her house at night and I was able to show her some stars and constellations. She loved it and so did I. While with her that night I realized how important it is to make an effort to make time for family. To bridge the generational gap.