I enjoy looking at the stars. I live in the far southeastern, rural corner of Colorado where star-gazing is great even right in my small town, because the lights from corner street lights on every couple of blocks don't interfere much. A drive out of town just a mile or so offers fabulous opportunity for star gazing, especially when meteor showers happen.
On summer nights when I was a kid growing up on a small ranch, I'd often climb up on the top of our sloping, flat-roofed barn and lay there for hours looking at the sky.
I’m not skilled at recognizing constellations, even when using a star-gazing guide. I can pick out Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Orion, Pleiades, and sometimes Aldebran. My brain can’t connect the abstract dots of constellations. If I check the Farmer’s Almanac for any given night, I can go out and usually locate Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and maybe other constellations. Identifying isn't all that important to me. I simply enjoy the view.
Oh…and the moon. I’ve got that one down pat. :-)
For information about The International Dark Sky Association, which has a plethora of information, CLICK HERE.
For the Wikipedia version, which includes lists of worldwide locations, CLICK HERE.
I live in the southeastern area of Colorado's Comanche National Grasslands, which is often listed in 'best places in Colorado to star gaze', even though it doesn't have the official international seal of darkness approval.
It’s amazing to think that throughout history (and prehistory) people looked at the same stars I’m looking at now.
A portion of Inspector Javert’s song “Stars” from the musical Les Misérables comes closest to expressing how I feel when looking at the stars, but only from 0:59 to 01:42, since the bulk of the song is about Javert’s vendetta to apprehend Jean Valjean.
As Agent K said to Agent J in Men in Black 1: They're beautiful, aren't they? The stars. I never really look at them anymore, but they actually are quite... beautiful.
Are you a star gazer? Constellation tracker? Night sky watcher?
