I first became intimate with the night sky on the sleeping porch of my grandmother’s house on Ninth Street in Chattanooga, Tennessee, during the early 1940s.
Articles with Star gazing
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"The Vision of the Prophet Ezekiel" by Ditlev Blunck (1830)
Ezekiel’s vision
As I ease into retirement, I have taken to spending part of each year on a quiet little island in the Caribbean. I came here looking for winter warmth, of course, but also for dark skies. I am a stargazer by lifelong habit, and my primary home near a major American city is awash in artificial light.
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To see stars, let’s turn off the lights
I first became familiar with the stars on the sleeping porch of my grandmother’s house on Ninth Street in Chattanooga, Tennessee, during the early 1940s.
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Blinded by the night lights
In the year 1750, a baby boy was born in Gambia in West Africa. On the eighth day after the birth, as was the custom, the village paused from its normal routines to celebrate, with feasting, music and prayer, the naming of the child — Kunta. Kunta Kinte.
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A whole lot of heaven at a starstruck resort
Looking for dark, starry skies? Drive 60 miles east out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Get off the interstate at Las Vegas (not the neon-lit casino town, but a place with fewer lights and considerably more charm).
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Only 158 more days ’til summer
Among things that help keep alive thoughts of summer during cold, cloudy days of January are the Burpee seed catalog and Guy Ottewell’s Astronomical Calendar.
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For all lovers of the night
The January 1991 issue of “Sky & Telescope” is on the newsstands and in the mailboxes. With this issue, the Cambridge-based astronomy magazine kicks off a celebration of its 50th year of publication.
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Touring the zodiac
Why should astrology buffs have all the fun looking up their birth signs in the newspaper horoscope? Herewith, a horoscope (of sorts) for real stargazers, a potpourri of light-hearted zodiac trivia.
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The Milky Way rises like a gathering mist
For the poets of ancient China, the Milky Way was the Celestial River, “a river of stars turning in the jade vault.” Or alternatively, it was “the Great Path without a gate” that passed between heaven and Earth.
17th century star atlas (Public Domain)
Detective work in the heavens
Who invented the constellations? Who first imagined the confrontation of Taurus and Orion in the winter sky? Who placed the figures of the Great Bear and the Little Bear near the northern pole? Who sent Cygnus the Swan winging along the stream of the Milky Way?