Ready for the Great World Wide Star Count

When I was in junior high school -- they call it middle school these days -- I used to really dislike having to write themes for Mrs. Anderson's English class. It was a dark day when she would come in and present the assignment of a theme to write. The idea of having to write something about something else really didn't appeal to me all that much.

Little did I know how much good that experience would do me. When you count my two years on the college newspaper and 10 years experience working on a weekly newspaper and now writing this weekly column about astronomy, I guess it was a good thing after all.

But then, as now, knowing where to start and what to write about is a difficult thing. Take for instance this week in astronomy. There isn't really very much going on.

The full moon on Tuesday will pretty much wipe out any early evening viewing for the next few days even if there was that much to look at, which there isn't.

I guess we could talk about the occultation, the covering up, of the Pleiades star cluster by the moon on Friday, Oct. 17. It will be the fifth time this year for such a covering to occur. It will be an early morning event taking place between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.

It won't be a full covering, as the moon will only drift through the northwestern edge of the cluster and since the moon will be about three days past its full stage, the reflected light may blot out many of the cluster's stars making them difficult to see.

There is also the upcoming "Great World Wide Star Count" beginning on Oct. 20 and lasting until Nov. 3. The event simply involves going outside about an hour after sunset, waiting 15 minutes for your eyes go become accustomed to the dark, and then observing the constellation Cygnus, the Swan.

It is not so much that you have to count all the stars there; rather, it involves comparing the number of visible stars at your location to provided magnitude limitation charts. The darker your sky, the more stars you will see. Then you submit your report via the Internet.

With thousands of others doing the same all over the world it will be possible to obtain a picture of the global extent of light pollution.

You can involve your entire family in this event. In fact, you can make observations over several evenings, as long as you make them at least a mile apart. It will be interesting to discover what you can, and cannot see from different locations.

Information sheets are available at www.windows.ucar.edu/starcount and can be easily downloaded and printed off. Simply go to the online location, download the activity guide, and follow the simple instructions. What could be easier?

Get the whole family involved, get your whole neighborhood involved. It could be a fun thing to do.

There now, that wasn't so hard to write was it? Thank you Mrs. Anderson, where ever you are.

NEXT TIME: More astronomical blathering.