Stargazing & Finding Cygnus

All names have been changed. This is a TRUE STORY! All events really happened to the person writing this blog.

It was the night of September 25th, 2020. My gymnastics teammate had invited me over for our second sleepover, and I happily agreed. She was young, just 10 years old, and I was about 5 years older than her. But that never really mattered to us, because she was so mature for her age. She had her face smushed against the huge telescope; her face was full of concentration. I stood in my pajamas, just a short sleeve and shorts, however, I also had my fuzzy blanket wrapped around me. It was an unusually warm night- about 65 degrees fahrenheit. We were having a warm front before the temperature finally went back down to the 50’s, signaling the start of cold fall weather. My feet were freezing, but I really didn’t care. I was stargazing!

Amelia pulls away from the telescope, and I shiver in anticipation. “Did you see it?” I asked.

“Yeah!” She nods and gives me one of her bright as the sun smiles. Her eyes are full of wonder, almost as if they are begging to see more glorious stars in the sky. I look over to the planet that she was observing. Mars. There was severe light pollution from the nearest large city, even though we were twenty miles away from the city. The light pollution was created from all of the big city and suburb lights and it made the lower half of the night sky glow, and no stars were visible.

But, if you looked, clear as day, was a small red speck in the light polluted horizon. I was the first one to notice it and I had immediately aligned the telescope up to the large, red giant. I had been able to look at it for quite a while before Amelia finally came out onto her back porch with me.

“You really think it’s mars?” I ask.

“Probably!” She spun the telescope, much to my dismay, the thing looked like it costed over $1,000, so I wished she would have been more careful. She points the telescope right into the starry sky, and we were now faced below the milky way galaxy. Amelia didn’t know it was there, but I was easily able to spot the thin strip across the starry night sky. “Hey, look! There’s a lowercase t in the sky!”



I gasp and cry out, “Where?! A lowercase t? Like a cross? OH MY GOSH!” My excitement was building. I knew exactly what it was.. But.. I spun around in circles, my eyes glued to the sky. I arched my back so far, I almost fell over. “I DON’T SEE IT!” I strained my eyes, and my mind started connecting lines in the sky.

I knew what I was looking for. I needed to find Deneb, one of the brightest stars in the night sky. Deneb was the very top of the constellation, and from there I would be able to scope out the other stars that formed the constellation Cygnus. My heart raced as I finally found it, and I gasped in surprise.



“That’s Cygnus, the swan, or the northern cross.” I explained. “It is right in the milky way galaxy tonight, since it is early Fall. The brightest star is Deneb, a supergiant!” Amelia oohed while listening to my explanation. Of course, I had memorized all of that, because I was tested on that just earlier that day for an astronomy quiz.

Stargazing with my gymnastics teammate, the girl I like to think of as an extra sister, and who thinks of me as a bigger sister, was really outstanding. We bonded over our apparent love of stargazing. I do think the coolest thing that night was looking at the craters in the moon. We even saw space debris, or moon rocks, something, falling from the moon. It was breathtaking! And I loved explaining what I knew about the constellations.


 

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