The early risers secret world

  **Note** I wrote the following post before the holidays, however since then my wonderful husband Mr. Curious gave me my coveted night vision scope as a Christmas gift! I decided to go ahead and leave this post as it was - I will write another dedicated to night vision adventures in the future! 

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As I get older, my body seems to do its own thing, and I just try to roll with it. For instance, recently I've been waking up early for no apparent reason. By early, I'm talking 4:00 am. or so. Wide awake. Sigh. So I just go ahead and make coffee and let the dog out. When I go back outside - coffee in hand - to call the dog, I stand there gazing at the sky. If I'm lucky, the sky will be clear (this is Pennsylvania, after all, Land of Perpetual Overcast Dreariness). If the sky is in fact clear, it takes my breath away.

There's something about the pre-dawn silence and the brilliance of millions of stars that makes me shake my head in amazement. The past few mornings, several planets are prominent in the skies above. Saturn is overhead and Venus is in the east. Beautiful! To add to the spectacle, I usually see a meteor or two streak across the sky. And I sometimes hear things in the woods: strange squawks, grumblings, screeches, or yelps. There are surreptitious shuffles in the dry leaves. It's my own personal safari of darkness. Oh, how I yearn for a good pair of night vision goggles!
 
But back to the sky - star and sky-gazing isn't strictly a pre-dawn activity, unless you're weird like me (I do a lot of it at night, too). My favorite internet reference for what's up there is heavens-above.com. This site contains everything you'd want to know about what you see up there. It's easy enough - and free - to register and once you do, the site is tailored to your location, which is necessary for accurate predictions of what you'll see and where. There is a whole-sky chart, which is how I found out which planets I was seeing the other morning. There is info on where to look and when to see the International Space Station passing overhead. My favorite feature of all, though, is the section on Iridium flares. Most people are unaware of these, so this Wikipedia article should be of some help. Using the charts on heavens-above, you can get the timing and the location in the sky of the next iridium flare and easily observe it. WooHoo! Flare time - whatta blast! You will have to get familiar with a few terms, namely altitude and azimuth, but they're easy enough to understand. Besides, it's great fun to toss off nerd-isms in front of company! " Well, you gotta remember your azimuth there, Bob". Haha! As I've mentioned before, it doesn't take much to give me a thrill. But it really is a fun way to pass an evening, although ideally in warmer weather.

This morning it was about 34 degrees. However, if properly bundled up, it isn't so bad. One more fascinating star gazing pastime is to use binoculars to scan the skies. Yes, binoculars, not a telescope. For one thing, I don't own a telescope - though I surely would like one. Bundle that with those night vision goggles and there you have the ultimate gift for Curious Girl! In any case, using binoculars reveals depths upon depths of stars not visible to the naked eye. Galaxies, nebulae, open star clusters - it is truly an astounding sight. When I finish up a session of binocular-gazing, I'm mentally exhausted from mulling over all the possibilities and theories that this infinite spectacle presents to me.

A few tips to keep in mind if you want to try some stargazing: You will get a stiff neck. Laying back in a lounge chair is the most comfortable. Ambient light will mess with your night vision, so turn off the lights inside and out. And, it is of course best to have no moon in the sky. If the moon is up one night, you can time your next evening's session by remembering that the moon rises 50 minutes later every night. Thus, you know you'll have an extra 50 minutes of dark sky the next night before the moon rises and blots out all the juicy details.

 

                                            Not optimal stargazing conditions

But perhaps I should bring myself down to earth a little more and try to figure out what makes those odd noises I mentioned! I think a headlamp would be good start, until someone gifts me those night vision goggles. In the meantime, if you wake up early as I do, bundle up and get on outside for a thrilling adventure, without even leaving your porch!