Enjoying Outside, Inside - Stargazing

Nate Lillge • August 21, 2023

Did you catch the peak of the Perseids Meteor Shower this past weekend? The best time to see the shower was after midnight on Saturday night/Sunday morning. You’d be forgiven if you didn’t stay up (or wake up) to catch the peak. Tuleyome hosted a watch party at Conaway Ranch and while the group didn’t see many meteors, the ones that were spotted were beautiful. (And the lightning show over the Sierra made up for the lack of meteors.


The Perseids are still visible at night – in fact there could be meteors entering our atmosphere until August 24. Head out to your backyard or neighborhood park and look to the northeast. However, after the Perseids are done, there is still a lot to see in the night sky.

The first step is finding a location where you can see at least of portion of the open sky. Of course, if there is cloud cover, finding objects will be difficult but if the night is clear and you are able to omit some of the surrounding ambient light, the reward will be worth staying up a little later than normal. You don’t even need a telescope, a pair of 10X50 binoculars will leave you pretty impressed with your view of the night sky.


Doing a little bit of research is helpful before you find yourself sitting in a dark backyard. Here is a great article for beginner stargazers. You can also download one of the many apps designed to help you locate and track objects such as stars, planets, satellites, the International Space Station, phases of the moon, the location of constellations and other phenomena. I like the SkyView app, it shows you where objects are, even though you can’t see them. Like, if you point your phone at your feet, it’ll display space objects that are visible on the other side of the earth. Pretty cool, eh? Your research might also include exploring some websites. For example, NASA’s International Space Station website is fascinating. It’s updated so frequently, you can almost spy on the astronauts. On a side note, 2021 marks 20 consecutive years of humans occupying the space station. Stellarium is also a great website that will show you what to look for and when.


It’s important to let your eyes adapt to the darkness, it can take 20-30 minutes for your eyes to fully accommodate the darkness. If you’re using a flashlight, try covering the lens with a piece of red cellophane or find an app that uses red light such as Sky Walk. The red light won’t cause your pupils to dilate nearly as much as a white light does making it easier for your eyes to adjust between your flashlight or screen and the dark sky.


Now look up. Planets don’t flicker like stars appear to. When visible: satellites move steadily across the sky, Mars actually appears red, Venus is amazingly bright. Keep an eye on the news for meteor showers, passing comets, and eclipses. You can even sign up to receive notifications of when the International Space Station will be passing by your location. You can also join local astronomy clubs to learn when and where to look for things like different constellations.


If you prefer to save your neck muscles, here are some captivating YouTube videos to peruse. 

Relaxing space nebulas


This one gives a short history of space exploration along with some amazing photos and videos of our own solar system.


These videos show images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, which was designed to last only 15 years has actually been orbiting Earth for 30 years!


And, here is a timelapse of Alaska’s Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) and an instructional video on how they are formed and here is a video of the Northern Lights taken from the International Space Station.


Here is a live skycam from the Meadow View Observatory in Chico and another one from the Twin Pines Observatory in Belmont, CA. If you happen to look at them during daylight hours, you can check out the previous night’s action.


-Kristie Ehrhardt (kehrhardt@tuleyome.org)

Tuleyome Land Conservation Program Manager


AND


Nate Lillge (nlillge@tuleyome.org)

Tuleyome Adventures and Engagement Director

Certified California Naturalist


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