Starry Night

http://www.space.com/12973-skywatching-find-tatooine-alien-solar-system-kepler-16.html

Well, after months of trying, my boyfriend and I were finally able to go stargazing through the Roanoke County Parks & Rec's free nighttime astromony program.  Once a month around the new mooon, Frank from the Roanoke Valley Astronomical Society will unload his giant telescope on the Blue Ridge Parkway by an overlook area and point out whatever the night sky has to offer.

The last few months that I've registered, the program has been cancelled each time due to cloud cover and haze.  Yesterday, it was a bit cloudy but clear enough that the program could go on.  Yay!

There were about ten of us and Frank showed us a globular cluster in the Hercules constellation's keystone area using his telescope.  It looked like a cotton ball.  We also checked out a binary star that only looks like one star when you are looking at it without a telescope because the two stars are so close together.  It's Cygnus the Swan's beak - Albireo (see pic above from Space.com).  What's neat is that when you look at the two stars in the telescope one is clearly white and the other is blue.  It's really pretty awesome!

Frank also pointed out lots of different summer constellations using a green laser pointer: The Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, part of Ursa, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Hercules, Cygnus...  He also showed us the Northern Cross and some other neat things.  I liked how Frank would say: "That star is 25,000 light years away and that light started traveling here before agriculture even existed."  Mind blowing...

On the way there and back, we encountered fog, raccoons, and deer ~ plus nice mountain views.  I can only imagine how pretty the parkway is in the autumn!

Today, will be Roller Derby.  Hopefully!  Have a great weekend ~