recovering the satellites

Officially, star season is coming back into full bloom. It may be getting darker earlier these days - almost dusk at 4:30p - and the sunrise and sunsets are long and low on the horizons - but it only means we will be able to see more and more stars in the sky at night.

For bedtime reading last night Jake picked out the 'Celestial Sampler' book that Aunt Margaret sent. She also sent others that we have read in part or whole, depending on their difficulty. The Celestial Sampler is broken down by months and it focuses on a hand full of constellations that should be prominent that particular month, with an accompanying sky map.

This month, or at least from last night's reading, we read about Pegasus and Aquarius. Maybe we only made it to Pegasus. Some of the reading is pretty academic even for Dad and thick to get through. I like to be able to read the old Greek mythology stories about the constellations to Jake. It makes it very interesting for both of us. It's a trick to imagine the days before electricity and blinding neon, when guys would look up at the stars in the night sky and formulate the stories. In scanning through the book for something else we learned that Orion the hunter was killed by a scorpion according to Greek legend, aka Scorpio, another constellation. But that is December's thrilling reading. Yet I digress.

Pegasus is a winged horse that is primarily made up of a square (more irregular like a diamond) with appendages for legs, head and tail. From the map the feet should be facing toward the west and it is headed north. Not far from the end of the nose is a cluster of stars called M15 which you need a telescope to see. We don't have a telescope but depending on our interest and our proximity to a viewable night time sky, that may be a future investment.

After reading a little about Pegasus Jake wanted to go see it. We snuck on our shoes and coats and stood out in the back yard and looked straight up. The stars are clear and prominent enough at mormor's that we can see occasional satellites in the sky, even in October. I'm assuming they are satellites or something else in orbit. Way too high up for a jet and beyond the sound barrier. We did see a couple jets though. They blink red or amber and the sound is about a 30 seconds behind. We also thought we found Pegasus, at least the big diamond at its core.

After staring up for a while Jake asked if we could look at the moon for a bit. Last week one night we read 'The Moon Seems to Change,' another of the night sky books that Aunt Margaret sent. The moon has been rising out over the harbor not far from mormor's. Jake told me when we were in a place to see it, 'that's a second quarter moon.' He really meant to say third quarter. I asked him if the moon was waxing or waning - terms from the book. I had to think about it myself. Since the full moon was last week, we decided it was now waning, or getting smaller, making it a third quarter moon.

This may be boring most the audience, but we thought it was a neat night. Feeling inspired it felt natural to say good night prayers out under the sky looking up at the stars and the waning third quarter moon.