Showing posts with label sky maps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sky maps. Show all posts

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Star gazing

Sister got me started stargazing when we were in Yuma this past winter.  Nothing like a navy blue sky and sparkling stars shining down on you to get your juices going for more star gazing.  I have a curious nature  so I wanted to learn more.

Fast forward to Gunnison, Colorado where we have spent the last three summers.  Guess what they have an observatory!!  Click here  to see the site.  This place is run totally on volunteers and has been in existence since 2007 I believe.  They now have some fairly fancy telescopes for viewing. 

Imagine the nite sky in the Western Rockies in SouthWest Colorado.  Many navy blue skies I'll tell ya.  And the stars sparkled like diamonds

The local college has some nite classes that they call Wednesday at Western, well one of them was an astonomy lecture and visit to the observatory, fee $5.  When I saw that I checked with some friends here and we quickly made a reserve since I figured these kind of things fill up fast.

Last nite was our lecture...................what a terrific experience.  Professor was a tad geeky but then I kind of expected that of an astronomer. 

The clouds cleared, all but a couple of wisps and low and behold there was Saturn in all its splendor includng the rings.  Everyone that viewed walked away from the scope say WOW!!

If you would like to partake  in some amateur star gazing check out Skymaps.com   You'll print out the map calendar and wander out in the nite time sky and see some pretty amazing  sites.  Best viewed on a pretty clear sky, no clouds, and when the moon is not real bright.

It was a wonderful nite and I will definitely go back because they have public viewing on Friday nites.