A nice ring to it...

I can not rightly be called any sort of astronomer (not even an amateur) but I certainly consider myself an aficionado of the night sky. For so many years it was mostly admiring Orion or Cassiopeia (of the few constellations I could easily find in a city sky) and enjoying the odd shooting star or two when I was lucky. (Best one ever was once in Kamloops oh so many years ago - we swear we could hear it!) Then we started travelling and found ourselves away from the big city lights on a much more regular basis which meant more chances to marvel at the beauty of the universe.

 

I can still picture the stunning scene I glimpsed during a middle of the night bathroom break in Dunedin. We were staying in a little room away from the main house so had to walk outside to get to the toilet. And despite it being under five degrees in the peak of a Dunedin summer, I made the trek one night and was gobsmacked by how many stars I could see. We were over a hill from the main city and with the next closest light pollution being either Antarctica, South America, or the "bustling metropolis" known as Invercargill, I got to see the sky in what competed with a planetarium-like detail.

 

But to be able to explain how we live within five minutes of an observatory that's open to the public every week, and why last night was the first night we've ever gone is impossible. Boy did we ever get a 'scope with a view! It was one of the best nights in weeks for clear skies and crisp air and our reward was seeing Saturn in all its ringly-glory! You can actually see the ring! We even spotted one of it's many moons. (With a proper refracting or reflecting telescope of course...) Here is a planet I have seen depicted so many times and yet I never realized that actually seeing the rings was possible - which begs the question of how I thought they ever knew there were rings in the first place - but I didn't ever think into it that much. On top of that we ogled a cluster called the Jewel Box and got to see the two stars that make up Alpha Centauri (which doesn't even look like two to the naked eye.)

 

The people were friendly and more than happy to answer any of our very-likely-laughable questions. Watch this space for more astronomical observations on an upcoming Tuesday night soon! Now we're interested to see Jupiter because we've heard you can see the equatorial bands and even the red spot in the best scenario!