Basic celestial navigation
July 28th, 2007 at 4:26 pm (Astronomy)
I came across this fantastic introduction to the night sky today. I’ve browsed night sky books before and taken introductory astronomy, in which we got some practice identifying constellations in the night sky, but it’s always nice to get a refresher — especially for those of us immersed in city nightshine. I have to applaud the author of this particular resource, whoever he or she may be, for creating an experience that is informative, fun, interactive, and educational! Highly recommended.
stough said,
July 31, 2007 at 8:10 am
I kinda learned something new… I knew Orion and the Dipper, but I didn’t know the navigation bit, Cassiopeia, or the ecliptic.
Very cool! Now I need to practice.
Cheers,
Tim.
jim said,
July 31, 2007 at 12:11 pm
It’s an interesting tool; Like Tim, I knew Orion and the dipper. It’s so often overcast here that I rarely get to enjoy the sky. (I’m trying to camp on the 12th to enjoy the meteors.)
Heuristics Inc. said,
August 1, 2007 at 6:59 am
Heh, those were all constellations I knew how to find already! The bit about the runaway slaves using Polaris I didn’t really know, though :)
-bill
Iain said,
August 27, 2007 at 11:09 pm
Reminds me of two things.
i had this great conversation with a coworker about a bright line of stars he saw rising stright from the horizon. There was another bright star that night. The line was Orion. The other star was Jupiter. The cool thing was that by getting a desctiption, and makeing a few guessed (Using NightSky) identifying all the stars was easy.
The other thing it reminds me of is just how difficult it is to get from star to star on a star chart through a high magnification telescope. Surprisingly easy to get lost :)