Starry
Starry Night
Someone
once said....."I love the stars too much
to ever fear the night"
I
know how they feel. I love to look at the night
sky and do it as much as I can. Growing up in the
inner city of Baltimore my view of the sky
was the approximate thirty-five feet of space
that separated the line of rowhouses on each side
of the street. With light pollution and a narrow
view I never really saw very many stars. One
weekend my scout troop took an overnight trip to
Broad Creek Scout Camp in northern Maryland. We
were there with troops from all over the
Baltimore area. Our tents were lined up in a long
row with the woods behind us and a large open
field in front of us. When night had fallen and I
came out of the tent I couldn't believe what I
saw in the sky - a huge field of stars on a very
dark, moonless night. A sight I will never
forget. My first good look at the night sky and I
couldn't help being fascinated with the detail. I
thought what it must have been like for those
stargazers of long ago - I knew why they too
loved the night.
 On many nights throughout
the year I will be staying up late looking at the
moon, the planets, galaxies, comets, nebulae and
the other points of interest in the sky through
my Meade
DS-2130ATS telescope. I never
get tired of looking and I always wonder about
what's out there among the stars. On other nights
you can catch me sitting on the deck looking up
at the sky. The amazement and wonder will never
cease.
Recently,
I acquired a Meade Coronado Personal Solar
Telescope (PST). This has doubled the fun and
research. It allows me to view our sun and safely
look at its surface. I also have a set of solar
filters that I can attach to my camera and
photograph sunspots. Nothing can match the view
through the PST. Looking at solar flares and the
detail of the sun is just something you have to
see.
The
photographs we've seen from the Hubble and the
probes launched to the planets, moons, comets and
asteroids have been nothing short of amazing, but
nothing can match peering through a telescope and
seeing it with your own eyes. It's an exciting
feeling when you see the rings of Saturn at a
distance of one-and-a -half billion miles or
Jupiter and it's moons and of course the many
features of our own moon.
Click to view a few of my
Astrophotos on Flickr
 
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