Family Camping
ONE. TWO. THREE…300 BILLION. PHOTO: YUICHI TAKASAKA
[ LITTLE EXPLORERS ] Seeing Stars SEVEN FAR OUT REASONS TO STAY UP PAST YOUR BEDTIME
The dark skies of the wilderness are perfect for stargazing. Most campers stare up at the night sky in awe, but aren’t exactly sure what they are looking at. Don’t stay in the dark. Impress your friends and family with your knowledge of the night sky using this quick guide.
Milky Way Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, stretches across the sky and though some part of it is visible every night, summer provides spec- tacular viewing. Best seen from very dark ar- eas, look up and find a cloud-like band across the sky. It’s made up of about 300 billion stars. It’ll take your eyes 15 to 20 minutes to see their best in the dark—even flashlights and campfires can make the Milky Way less intense.
Planet Dance From August to October, Venus can be seen in the western sky near sunset. Even though it’s not a star at all, Venus is often called the wishing star because it’s the first light to ap- pear in the sky at dusk. No single object has been misinterpreted as a UFO more often than the planet Venus.
34 SUMMER/FALL 2013
Big Dipper After sunset, look for the Big Dipper in the northern sky. It looks like a big spoon, with four stars making up the bowl and three more making up the handle. The Big Dipper is part of a constellation called Ursa Major (the big bear), which doesn’t look like a bear at all, no matter how you squint.
North Star Once you find the Big Dipper, draw a straight line through the two stars at the end of the bowl. Follow that line until you hit a very bright star, which is the North Star, or Polaris. This star stays in the same place all night and all year, which is why navigators have used it to find their way north for thousands of years.
Little Dipper The North Star is the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper, or Ursa Minor (the little bear). This constellation looks very similar to the Big Dipper because it also has a bowl made up of four stars and a handle made up of three stars. It looks like it is pouring into the Big Dipper.
Cassiopeia Continue the line you used to find the North Star from the Big Dipper, and you’ll come to a big “W” in the sky. This constellation is called Cassiopeia, who is the queen of the night sky in Greek mythology. This constella- tion peaks in brightness in late fall.
Meteor Shower Shooting stars aren’t stars at all, but mete- ors—pieces of rock and dust burning up as they come through the atmosphere. When there are a lot of meteors coming from the same direction over a few days, it’s called a meteor shower. The Perseids meteor show- er happens every August and is one of the best showers all year. Other meteor showers will peak on the nights of October 21 and November 16, perfect for late season camp- ing. The best viewing of meteor showers is always after midnight. Visit comet hunter, Alyssa Gilbert, PhD, online at
www.mrscomethunter.blogspot.ca.
DIGITAL EXTRA: Click here to see an online guide to the stars.
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