So many of us are so used to looking at a night sky polluted by nearby lights and haze, most of us have never really (I mean, REALLY) seen the night sky..
My friends and I once drove from Miami to Naples, Fla through the Everglades via Alligator Alley in the late 60's.. we stopped about halfway across and got out of the car. Even then, out in the middle of nowhere, we could still see faint glow of lighta on the far horizon but looking up into the night sky was a sight I'll never forget (and have never really seen since).. the night sky was literally packed from edge to edge with billions of stars.. a beautiful, awe inspring sight I wish everyone could see.
Makes you stop and think about the real size of the Universe and just how awesome it is..
Another place to look at the sky at night is by the Grand Canyon. We stayed at one of the lodges on the rim and at night sat out watching all kinds of shooting stars. It was a challenge walking to another lodge in the dark. They didn't have many lights outside.
There's a spot on the Gulf Islands National Seashore (runs along the coast of Florida where I live)......about 5 miles west of the gate on Navarre Beach, 4 miles East of the gate on the Pensacola Beach side of the island. Once you get to the spot, civilization seems so far away. The "park" closes at sunset, but I have cheated and stayed overnight there camping by taking a kayak across the sound. (you can hide a 2 man tent in the sand dunes )
That's when I have seen that sky.
Door County was always a favorite of mine to go camping, even winter camping (backpack cross-country skiing!), forgot the name of the park though. The stars were endless.
I had a boyfriend once in Nashville that used to suprise me occasionally and come get me and drive me out to the middle of nowhere West of Nashville, a place called Kingston Springs, he owned some land out that way. We would just throw the quilt over the warm engine of his truck and drink wine and watch the stars. Beautiful.
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.....just another day in Paradise
If you look closely you can see satellites moving by. We've gone out to a friends house in southwest Wisconsin. I can't think of where it's by exactly without looking at a map, but it's away from city lights. At night we'd have a campfire going and look out at the stars. Our friend would point out different things to us.
Well I just saw something I was not expecting to see this evening!!!!! THE SPACE STATION!
I got home 1/2 hour ago and came up to my 3rd floor porch....at night, on the water here, it's very dark, our neighborhood only has a handful of homes left after Hurricane Ivan. That's why I love sitting up here at night, so quiet, so dark.
I got online to read the local news, it was 6:10pm. The headline was "Space Station will fly past Pensacola, FL. at 6:17pm"!
I live 25 miles east of P-Cola. SURE ENOUGH! I started watching for it! At 6:19 I saw a very bright white light emerge from the NW heading SE, which brought it directly over my house and out over the water! It looked SO CLOSE, but of course, it was WAY WAY far away! It last about 5-6 minutes I think. I was engrossed and forgot to look at the time again!
This was viewing with the naked eye!
Too cool!!!!!!!!
__________________
.....just another day in Paradise
Well I just saw something I was not expecting to see this evening!!!!! THE SPACE STATION!
I got home 1/2 hour ago and came up to my 3rd floor porch....at night, on the water here, it's very dark, our neighborhood only has a handful of homes left after Hurricane Ivan. That's why I love sitting up here at night, so quiet, so dark.
I got online to read the local news, it was 6:10pm. The headline was "Space Station will fly past Pensacola, FL. at 6:17pm"!
I live 25 miles east of P-Cola. SURE ENOUGH! I started watching for it! At 6:19 I saw a very bright white light emerge from the NW heading SE, which brought it directly over my house and out over the water! It looked SO CLOSE, but of course, it was WAY WAY far away! It last about 5-6 minutes I think. I was engrossed and forgot to look at the time again!
This was viewing with the naked eye!
Too cool!!!!!!!!
It zoomed right "under" Venus, which is super bright tonight. So surreal watching this thing just disappear over the Gulf Of Mexico into the horizon. I am stunned! I wanted to wave at it.......ha ha ha!
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.....just another day in Paradise
It zoomed right "under" Venus, which is super bright tonight. So surreal watching this thing just disappear over the Gulf Of Mexico into the horizon. I am stunned! I wanted to wave at it.......ha ha ha!
It will also tell you what constellations you can see from your house; you have to register and enter your city (or your longitude/latitude). Here is what I should be able to see above my house tonight:
Thanks for the site tamed! I'll check that out.........I want a new telescope! (lost one in the hurricane....bummer) I have binoculars, but honestly never thought about using them for that.....hmmmm
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.....just another day in Paradise
The farthest you can see with the naked eye is 2.4 million light years away! (140,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles.) That's the distance to the giant Andromeda Galaxy. You can see it easily as a dim, large gray "cloud" almost directly overhead in a clear night sky.
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