“The retreat brings people together, builds community in the forest, gets participants outside and off their screens, and uses nature sustainably to heal and inspire minds and souls,” stated Great Mountain Forest Executive Director Michael Zafros. Retreat registration closes on July 30.
Seeing the rest of the planets visible this spring, especially the spectacle of red Mars increasing in magnitude, requires awakening by 5 a.m. close to a location with a clear view of the southeast to southwest horizon.
Venus and Mercury appear in evening twilight, about half an hour after sunset, and sunset will be an hour later–artificially changed from 5:47 p.m. today to nearly 7 p.m. on the 11th.
Recent daytime skies have reflected bracing ice blues over frozen landscapes and, alternately, soft vernal overtones during thaws. As the Sun arcs higher in the sky, we feel the pull toward spring.
When planning on being outdoors at dawn for planet- and star-gazing, know that being out just an hour earlier may add shooting stars to your experiences of the heavens.
On this, the vernal equinox, let’s pause together to notice sunrise due east on the horizon and the higher arc our star draws as it climbs and then descends to its due west position on the skyline.
Perseus evades the casual stargazer and is not well known because the star pattern lacks brilliant stars that create outstanding stick figures like Orion that are visible even in cities.
Cinching evening darkness, new moon falls on the 29th, followed by evenings enhanced by a waxing crescent moon that sets early leading to long, dark, moonless nights.
On Friday and Saturday, the 7th and 8th, follow a robust crescent moon from midafternoon in the southeast until it completes its arc before midnight in the southwest.
In the hour before sunrise during the last week of September and the first week of October, an additional incentive to prompt our waking up to go outdoors in the early morning is the promise of witnessing the ethereal zodiacal light.
There’s much more to lure us outdoors at 4 a.m.: Between catching shooting stars, skim the southern skyline to see one of the most compelling constellations, Scorpius the Scorpion, accented by brilliant, red-orange Mars and golden Saturn.
