An Astronomical Adventure

So, last night was the last night of this year's Orionid meteor shower. For those of you who are very fond of Orion, he's back, but, just pretty late at night, rising at about midnight. And just as an update, for those of you who remember my huge goal-setting kick a few months ago, this is me living them, or at least one of them. I'll have to post an update about the others later. Anyway, back to my big adventure.

My evening started with requesting a subscription of Astronomy Magazine. I checked out the evening's sights and made a list of the things I wanted to see when we went out - Uranus, Neptune, and of course, some meteors. I actually didn't see most of what I set out to see, but what I saw was even better!

First of all, the shower was AWESOME! It is supposed to average 6 -7 meteors an hour, and we were out about a half hour and saw at least 12! That was just so rad! The spot we found was actually perfect for the 1:30-2 time frame that we were there.

However, our awesome stargazing was interrupted when a cop showed up. Actually, he was just doing his job and patrolling the parks up past Vivian in Provo Canyon. He got out and walked up and asked us what was going on, and we honestly told him "We're just watching the Orion meteor shower", then, my roommate, who had jumped up when he pulled up, explained "Sorry, I jumped up because I just watched a scary movie and the villain always drove a truck..." Thanks... But, he assumed we were being honest, which is good, because we were, and said, "Ok, well, just be safe and keep warm." Thanks Mr. Copper-man! Actually, despite the sudden light pollution and freaking my roommate out, it made me feel so much better to know that there was someone patrolling. Those of you acquainted with my over-active imagination will appreciate that fact! Let's all be a little honest. Provo Canyon is possibly one of the darkest, and thus creepiest places to be at night, but that's a different story...

Back to my astronomical adventure. At some point, we broke out my new binoculars. I got to see the Pleiades, "The seven sisters", which was cool. But, my favorite part, by far, was seeing the Orion Nebula through the binoculars!!! This is essentially what it looked like for me:
This is what I was actually looking at, if I had had a powerful telescope to view it through:

Baby stars are born here!!! Hello baby stars! :)

A friend once told me that once you get going in astronomy, you suddenly feel like these planets, stars, and constellations become like friends. I'll be honest, when I see something up there I recognize, I can't help but smile and feel all warm and fuzzy!

After my adventure, my new astronomy goals are:
1. check out the Andromeda Galaxy
2. actually catch Uranus and Neptune in the binoculars
3. start checking out other deep sky objects (nebulae, star clusters, and such) that are in the constellations I know and can pick out easily.
4. eventually get into astrophotography - this one is going to take some time, but it will be oh so worth it, but, it will require a new camera, and some sort of instruction on how to use it, and possibly some more astronomy equipment like a telescope. Wahoo! But that's for later. You know, when student loans are gone and nothing else is eating my money. Besides, with my new geocaching kick, I've got enough outdoor toys to keep me busy when I'm not working.

So friends, the moral of the story is go out and enjoy the stars sometime! They are absolutely awe-inspiring!