“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.
This week December’s Geminid shower is predicted to peak Thursday the 13th after 10 p.m. into Friday the 14th before dawn, with 2 a.m. as optimum observing.
By Friday, the 29th, a half moon, last quarter, rises close to midnight, accompanying springtime’s quintessential all-night constellation, Leo the Lion, visible now during the hours after midnight.
Where the glistening bay reached the sea, a rosy red rounded radiance colored the skyline, a concentrated shape of color above the east-southeast horizon.
The Great Square may be visible in less-than-ideal stargazing conditions, whereas the whole of the flying horse, which includes dim stars, requires unpolluted, dark skies.
At the first sight of the clearing, I was wonderstruck by an aerial display of countless blinking golden lights and dipping, curving, white gold lines streaking all over the meadow from the ground up to the treetops.
Most of us are never prompted to think about the dynamic nature of the world, a world in which the planets move in their orbits in space at varying speeds and that the relationship between the planets changes.
Namesake of the Roman king of the gods, Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and the third brightest object in the night sky, next to Venus and the moon.
For me, the astronomy forum centered around two days of riveting lectures that included 'Einstein was Right! Completing the 1919 Relativity Experiment at the 2017 Solar Eclipse,' 'The History of the Universe from the beginning to the end: Where did we come from, where can we go?' and 'Preventing an Asteroid Extinction.'
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.
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.
“I will miss seeing and working within this awe-inspiring creation that we, as a people, have constructed here in space, traveling at 17,500 mph. I still can’t believe the incredible level of detail that was required to imagine this place, let alone to build it!”
-- Astronaut Peggy Whitson
