“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”
By: Stephanie Benney
“When You Wish Upon a Star”, “Lucky Star”, “When The Stars Go Blue”, “Shining Star”, “Stairway To The Stars”, “Star”, Shooting Star”, “Seeing Stars”, “Star Spangled Banner”, “Stars In Her Eyes”, “Stars On the Water”, “The Keeper Of The Stars”, “Written In The Stars”, “Video Killed The Radio Star”….and that’s just a small example of the myriad of song titles including the word “star”.
For centuries, the stars have served as a great source of inspiration to the human race. Stars are luminous, ethereal, paramount, brilliant and capital. When one is called a “star”, one is thought of to be talented, well-known, leading and outstanding; it is the epitome of heightened success. I don’t think there is anything more beautiful or more mysterious to be compared to.
When I was a little girl, I had a fairy tale bedroom with a large walk-in closet that boasted dormer window alcoves. I used to steal my Dad’s binoculars and curl up in a mountain of stuffed animals to gaze out of the window and up at the stars. I would prop open my book of constellations and try to see what I could see. I used to love the stories of Cassiopeia, Orion the hunter and Ursa Major(the Great Bear in the Big Dipper). Astronomy was always my favorite chapter in Science. Everything in the skies seemed so magical to me and being able to view Halley’s Comet in 1986 really clinched it for me.
For me, it was and still is so inconceivable that there is all of this energy happening outside of the Planet Earth. Sometimes, I think we get so wrapped up in our daily drama that when news of landing on Mars or end-of-the-summer meteor showers hit, it tends to have quite a humbling effect on us.
We just experienced one of the most magnificent meteor showers of the year (8/10/12-8/13/12). The Perseids are an annual shower that are considered by many to be the best, peaking at more than 50 meteors per hour in the dark sky! So, what do the future skies hold for us?
The next meteor shower show is the Draconids, starting October 7th 2012. This shower is best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere and unlike most meteor showers, is most visible in the evening night sky, versus dark, pre-dawn skies, Do to no moon interference, try watching this meteor shower show early evening on October 7 and 8.
There are many meteor showers to follow for the remainder of 2012 year:
Orionids – October 21, 2012
South Taurids – November 4/5, 2012
North Taurids – November 11/12, 2012
Leonids – November 16/17 2012
Geminids – December 13/14 2012
Make sure to follow these helpful tips for watching meteors:
- A dark sky!!
- Know your dates and times!
- Bring along gear to make yourself comfortable(blanket, binoculars, folding chair, thermos, sweatshirt)
- Make sure the predictions to view the meteor are reliable!
Now that you have a schedule and some viewing tips, star gaze away!
photo courtesy of ecorazzi.com
Stephanie Benney is a “Sustainable Visionary” and also the new Pittsburgh Representative for Fuzed Marketing, where she helps companies increase their brand presence. stephaniebenney@yahoo.com