Stargazers' guides to the galaxy span millennia

By Stephen Hlawaty
Outdoors Columnist

I first took up stargazing while camping with friends in New York's Ten Mile River Boy Scout camp. We'd grab the old boombox, walk a mile through the Catskill woods to a clearing, and lie on our backs staring into space.

Not much was heard during our stargazing, save for David Gilmour's slashing guitar licks radiating from the boombox. We'd lose ourselves in the moment and magnitude of the celestial bodies overhead, absorbing all that we could from that great gig in the sky. Little did we know that we were participating in an activity that has spanned millennia, an activity designed to capture time by way of ancient calendar systems.

Stonehenge, located on the Salisbury Plain in southern England, was built in stages from 2800 to 1075 B.C. Here, the ancients observed the sun and the moon in an effort to bring regularity to the builder's calendar.

Between 1500 and 1700 A.D., the Plains Indians marked their calendars against the shadows of Big Horn Medicine Wheel--an arrangement resembling a 28-spoke wheel - in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. And the 1,000-year-old Mayan astronomical observatory Caracol Temple on the Yucatan peninsula kept time by capturing the precise angles of the sun's rays through small openings in the Mayan observatory.

While most stargazing occurs after dark, what you may see depends upon your location, the season and the hour of day. You should note that by stargazing before dawn, you will be able to see one season ahead from the one you are in.

When stargazing, try to pick a place with as little light pollution as possible. While binoculars and telescopes are helpful for viewing distant stars and galaxies, it is not necessary. Also, you might want to use a star chart for identification purposes.

With spring in full swing, stargazers can expect to see the following constellations and stars between the hours of 9 and 11 p.m. (early May) and 8 and 10 p.m. (late May). Ursa Major (Big Dipper) will be directly overhead. With its array of "pointer" stars, Ursa Major points to all the major stars and constellations above the horizon.

By drawing a mental extension of the curve of Ursa Major's handle one full "dipper" length, stargazers come upon Arcturus to the east, which is the brightest star in the spring skies. At 37 light-years away, Arcturus is one of the nearest bright stars to Earth. And being 23 times the diameter of our sun, Arcturus radiates over 130 times as much energy.

To the south lie the zodiac constellations Virgo and Leo. Virgo is the second largest constellation (after Hydra) and has been represented by the Egyptian goddess Isis, protector of the living and dead. Leo's head and mane might best be described as a backward question mark, while the star Regulus makes up the beast's heart. Leo more closely resembles its namesake than any other constellation.

To the west lies Cancer. According to mythology, since Cancer (a crab) failed to defeat Hercules, the gods used only the dimmest stars to mark the constellation. As such, spotting Cancer is a challenge to most stargazing novitiates. Most seek out Cancer for the Beehive star cluster (M44) just west of its center. To the naked eye, the Beehive might appear as a pale, fuzzy spot, but with binoculars, it makes for a stargazer's prized target.

On June 25, Venus, Mercury, and Saturn will cluster within 1.5 degrees of each other in the west, and on June 27, Venus and Mercury will be separated by merely 0.1 degree in the west, the closest encounter of these two planets visible from North America since 1965. These planets will be so close to each other that they will appear to be a single, magnificent ball of light. It's no surprise that UFO sightings increase during such clustering.

But perhaps the biggest celestial event to watch out for is the next total solar eclipse (2017), whose course will run through the center of the country from Portland, passing over Wyoming, to Georgia. That means that stargazers in northern Colorado and Wyoming will be treated to front row seats.

Whether its capturing the next passage of the comet Hale-Bopp on high speed film or simply lying on your back staring off into space, nothing beats a good night of stargazing. For me, stargazing is like staring into a limitless floating campfire. As such, it will always be a kind of meditation for me, an opportunity to question without the threat of being answered.