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Friday Five
Sep. 22nd, 2022 09:17 pmMe, trying to be "social" by playing ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thefridayfive, Star Stuff Edition:
1. How many stars can you see in the sky at night where you live? (Not looking for an exact number here, just a general description.) During spring and summer, not very many, but that is largely due to tree foliage. When fall truly hits and it's just the pines, and lower humidity, then we can see a lot more and I can usually make out a few constellations. If there's something we are trying to view, though, we usually have to walk down to the end of the drive, or in some cases out to the end of our street, to get to an area with enough open sky to really see things well. Even then it's a bit dodgy on the horizon due to light pollution from the north, though we still live in enough of a "countryside" location that it's not too bad.
2. What is your favorite constellation? Bahh, I don't know. Maybe the Pleiades? Although Cassiopeia is a surefire easy find and probably the first one I taught to my kids. Years ago I was much better at going out of doors with a guide or Stellarium in tow, though I haven't done it in a while.
3. Are you able to see and identify any planets in the sky? Which ones? Usually Venus, Mars, Jupiter, rarely Saturn. We used to have a nice telescope, but it unfortunately got buggered in storage.
4. Have you ever seen a satellite orbiting above the earth? Yes, we used to regularly track the Starlink satellites, as well as the ISS.
5. Have you ever seen a rocket blasted off into space? Not in person, unfortunately, but we regularly get excited over launches and will watch them broadcast if we are able. And of course, we used to build small little rockets (spouse being a high school chemistry/physics teacher) when the kids were younger for fun. Only once or twice did we set the lawn on fire.... That said, I would love to be able to watch a launch "live" (safe distance permitting and all). There has been the rare occasion where a launch has taken itself over a path within our viewing, but it's been a while since I've seen that. It's probably one of the rare things that I still feel childlike excitement about, even knowing that the impacts of the emissions aren't great.
thefridayfive, Star Stuff Edition:1. How many stars can you see in the sky at night where you live? (Not looking for an exact number here, just a general description.) During spring and summer, not very many, but that is largely due to tree foliage. When fall truly hits and it's just the pines, and lower humidity, then we can see a lot more and I can usually make out a few constellations. If there's something we are trying to view, though, we usually have to walk down to the end of the drive, or in some cases out to the end of our street, to get to an area with enough open sky to really see things well. Even then it's a bit dodgy on the horizon due to light pollution from the north, though we still live in enough of a "countryside" location that it's not too bad.
2. What is your favorite constellation? Bahh, I don't know. Maybe the Pleiades? Although Cassiopeia is a surefire easy find and probably the first one I taught to my kids. Years ago I was much better at going out of doors with a guide or Stellarium in tow, though I haven't done it in a while.
3. Are you able to see and identify any planets in the sky? Which ones? Usually Venus, Mars, Jupiter, rarely Saturn. We used to have a nice telescope, but it unfortunately got buggered in storage.
4. Have you ever seen a satellite orbiting above the earth? Yes, we used to regularly track the Starlink satellites, as well as the ISS.
5. Have you ever seen a rocket blasted off into space? Not in person, unfortunately, but we regularly get excited over launches and will watch them broadcast if we are able. And of course, we used to build small little rockets (spouse being a high school chemistry/physics teacher) when the kids were younger for fun. Only once or twice did we set the lawn on fire.... That said, I would love to be able to watch a launch "live" (safe distance permitting and all). There has been the rare occasion where a launch has taken itself over a path within our viewing, but it's been a while since I've seen that. It's probably one of the rare things that I still feel childlike excitement about, even knowing that the impacts of the emissions aren't great.
