The Night Sky

The night sky has always been something that fascinated me. At a young age, I was able to find major constellations because my parents would point them out to my sister and me. Astronomy has always had a major impact in my life, whether it be looking into the sky to find constellations during a campout or looking for Santa's sleigh, my sister Caroline and I have always found ourselves stargazing.

Some of my favorite memories are ones where we would lay under the stars until we fell asleep. I can remember sleeping under the stars in my backyard, at the beach and at Landmark Park. As my sister and I got older, we continued to be intrigued by astronomy and constantly found ourselves looking towards the stars searching for those familiar constellations. Some of our sorority sisters, who happened to be at our house during a meteor shower, thought Caroline and I were crazy when we grabbed quilts and walked out to the middle of the road, laid down and enjoyed one of nature's greatest shows.

Caroline and I were raised to appreciate the wonder and beauty of nature, astronomy included, but like many other things in life, that beauty is something we take for granted every now and then. People tend to find beauty in things they don't see very often, so in the case of something like the stars, the true beauty is sometimes overlooked. The stars are something we almost always see when we go outside at night. Even on nights when we can't see them, we know they will return.

I never appreciated the beauty of the night sky until I visited Cinque Terre in Italy during my study abroad. Never in my life have a seen so many stars. My dad has always talked about how beautiful the stars are in the desert, and I always thought that was odd because they are the same stars that I see from my backyard. It was not until my trip to the Cinque Terre that I began to fully understand what he meant.

When you're in a place where there is nothing to take away from the beauty of the stars, they truly sparkle. We were in the mountains, so there were no street lights, no lights from houses, no smog. The air was so clear we could see more stars than any of us had ever seen in the states. Looking up at the stars in a place like that made me feel so small. Time seemed to stop, and I began to realize not only how lucky I was to be seeing the stars in such a beautiful state, but how I tend to take their beauty for granted sometimes.

If you are out here stargazing during an event such as astronomy night, you don't have things such as light to take away fromt the stars like you would if you were in your backyard, that's the great thing about Landmark Park. I might be a little partial, but aside from the Cinque Terre, I think Landmark Park is the best place for stargazing around.

For more information about the night sky and stargazing, visit our planetarium or come out to one of our Astronomy nights! Planetarium shows are Saturdays at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and Sundays at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Admission is free for park members and $2 for nonmembers. Astronomy nights for 2012 are held in February and offer the viewing of several stars, constellations and planets through telescopes and binoculars, as well as regular planetarium shows in the digitarium. Our Astronomy nights are February 17th and 24th from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with admission $3 for members, $4 for scouts and their leaders in uniform and $5 for nonmembers.