Getting Out: In my backyard, wrapped in fleece against the cold,
I gaze up at the winter stars on a moonless December night. As
usual, my imagination coughs and wheezes under the strain of trying
to comprehend the immensity above me.
In my backyard, wrapped in fleece against the cold, I gaze up at the winter stars on a moonless December night. As usual, my imagination coughs and wheezes under the strain of trying to comprehend the immensity above me.
Let’s see: Light travels 186,000 miles per second. Light from the moon gets here in one and a half seconds. At 93,000,000 miles away, the sun’s light gets here in eight minutes. Over there is the star Betelgeuse, namesake of a movie (Beetlejuice) and Orion the Hunter’s shoulder. The light from Betelgeuse that I see tonight left there 570 years ago and has been traveling through empty space ever since — just now tickling my optic nerve.
Keep in mind, all the stars we see are part of the Milky Way Galaxy and are our very close neighbors. In perfect viewing conditions, there is only one object we can barely see with the naked eye beyond our galaxy: Andromeda. It is a spiral galaxy like ours. Through my binoculars, it looks like a dim smudge. The light I see tonight left Andromeda 2.5 million years ago. If Andromeda disappeared 1.5 million years ago, we won’t know for another 1 million years.
Trying to grasp the immensity of space is a little like an ant trying to lift an elephant. It’s futile. But laying here underneath the night sky, it fills me with a magnificent sense of wonder.
Of all types of natural history, stargazing has a corner on convenience. No special seasons, no distant habitats; just wait for a clear night, walk outside and bang. You’re stargazing. And what’s more, the show is constantly on tour. As we take our annual trip around the sun, our nighttime view into the Milky Way changes with the seasons.
Winter is when the show reaches its peak. There are many bright stars and easily recognizable constellations that help point them out. Equipped with a simple star chart, you will quickly see a pattern that you can track on its slow westward march through the season.
Orion the Hunter dominates the winter sky. At this time of year, you are likely to see it slightly to the east of directly overhead. The three bright stars that mark Orion’s belt are easy to find. Of the two stars above the belt marking Orion’s shoulders, the reddish one on the left is Betelgeuse. Below Orion’s belt, two more stars mark the hunter’s feet. The brighter bluish star on the right is Rigel, the seventh brightest star in the sky.
Once you have located Orion, you can use it to find other stars and nearby nebulae. Follow the line of Orion’s belt down to the left. You will run smack into Sirius, the dog star, and the brightest star in the sky. Follow the line of belt in the other direction up toward Aldebaran, the red eye of Taurus the Bull.
A little further along the same line is Pleiades, a beautiful cluster of stars that really sings through a pair of binoculars. Next, point your binoculars at a fuzzy light just below Orion’s belt and look into the Orion Nebula, a bunch of bright stardust coming together to create new stars.
Mark your calendar for a special event. On Dec. 20, there will be a total eclipse of the moon. Beginning at 10:32 p.m., Earth’s shadow will begin to fall on the moon. Our shadow will slowly move across the moon until 11:40 p.m. when the eclipse will be complete and will remain so until 12:52 Tuesday night.
