Watching the Skies: The Gathering

Another great experience for the “newbie” stargazer as she shares with you her excursion to the gathering hosted by Silver Creek Falls and Nightsky 45 Astronomy Club.

(SILVERTON) - Saturday night, our family got together and caravanned from Salem to the “Star Party” at Silver Creek Falls’ Old Ranch site to discover what surprises the summer’s night sky might reveal.

The youngest of the group, 7-year old Ciana, and 5-year old Moria, were excited at this new adventure. Amazingly, the adults were too. We were not disappointed.

This event was hosted by Silver Creek Falls and Nightsky 45 Astronomy Club, and was a night to remember. The “glow” bracelets handed out at the gate gave an eerie ambience to the quickly darkening night. The human bodies transformed into surreal shadows with glowing, moving, small round objects of blue, red, purple, green or pink around their wrists, in their hair, or on their belts.

The shadows seemed to glide to the telescopes and whisper “What are you looking at!” which solicited a return whisper of “Take a look.” For those in my group it was a first time experience to look through a telescope and see Jupiter and its moons. It was also a first time experience of seeing with our naked eyes the “dust” of our own Milky Way.

The youngest members of our group soon became less interested and more spooked by the darkening night and the “glowing” bracelets, and mom and dad decided to take them home early. They left with a wonder and awe at what they had seen through the telescopes.

Just being there to look at the vastness of space and having a piece of that space brought closer to us through a telescope was exhilarating. Seeing and learning about our night skies and the stars and planets, was well worth it. My overactive imagination took me further. It took me to the world of Greek mythology as I listened to Dean Kelly of Nightsky 45 Astronomy club tell us the mythology of the constellations while he used his laser pointer to direct our attention to whichever part of the sky he was talking about. I was taken to what else may be lying beyond the last point of vision our human eyes can reach and beyond the peripheral vision that captures images which elude our central vision.

In looking for Sagittarius “The Archer,” we stretched our imagination to see this mythical being with his arrow pointing – this centaur of half horse and half human.

This ancient Greek story tells of the centaur, Chiron, who tutored the likes of Achilles, Jason, and Hercules, and who was accidentally shot by Hercules. Chiron then gave himself to the Gods as a substitute for - well what can I say - it is fascinating and my repeating of the story would lose much of its magic, so follow this link to finish this wonderful piece of mythology: www.comfychair.org/~cmbell/myth/myth.htm/

Also, this link can take you to another mythical storytelling of Ursa Major “The Great Bear” or Ursa Minor “The Little Bear” and learning that these two constellations hold within them the The Big Dipper – part of Ursa Major and the Little Dipper – part of Ursa Minor.

This story tells about the huntress Callisto, who was a maiden in the wild region Arcadia, and when Jupiter caught sight of her he immediately desired her. This becomes a story right out of our modern-day soap operas, as when Jupiter’s wife, Ovid, found out Callisto bore Jupiter’s son, she . . . well, okay, again, check out the above link and read the rest of the story.

The generous telescope owners who graciously stepped back and let those of us who did not have a telescope view their sightings, were great, even as they had to readjust when the telescopes were accidentally bumped. They were willing to share their knowledge about the stars and about their equipment. Wonderful group of people.

I found out that becoming a stargazer holds a certain level of responsibility as one attends these events. If you too are interested in attending a future event, the following link at Nightsky 45 gives these tips and much more.

nightsky45.com My new adventures of watching the skies, from the Perseids meteor showers to this gathering, has made me feel so tiny in the vastness of space our little planet Earth is part of. It also has made me so much more aware of how important it should be to each and every one of us to protect and value our planet during this very short time we are a part of this space – this Universe.

Check out these links and follow them with their links to other places beyond our minute little planet: