The North Star, Polaris, is low in the sky off our starboard side as we are headed pretty close to due west. It's really easy to locate as the last two stars in the cup portion of the Big Dipper point directly at it. I have been hoping to get a glimpse of the southern cross which can be used to locate the South Pole but it may be obscured by some clouds on the horizon or maybe it's not visible at this time of year from this latitude. I've seen it previously from the Caribbean when I sailed to Grenada but I don't recall what time of year that was.
I was just thinking about a science fair project that Paige and I worked on when she was in grade school where we made a display of the night sky and used LED's for the stars with a set of buttons to illuminate about a dozen constellations. We had fun soldering it all together. A great bonding experience. I should have paid more attention to the end product though as I don't recall many of them now. Certainly Orion, which is so distinctive the is three inline stars that comprise Orion's belt. But I don't recall the shape of Draco, Cassiopeia, etc so can't locate those tonight. I'll need to bring a resource to assist on my next trip.
Greg, I'm guessing you know this but just in case, there are some really great constellation apps that you can get on your iphone. I think they download all the data to your phone so it might work on your boat. If you aren't familar with them they are great... the constellations in the app rotate as you move your phone to simulate where they are in the night sky... check out star walk or sky guide apps. -Bud Gill
ReplyDeleteYes, I had the Starwalk app on my ipad but my ipad was wiped sometime between my departure from the Bank and when i cast off my lines for the New World. Starwalk was the least of my worries though as I also was dependent on it for backup navigation, weather and communication software. There is no way to do a restore at sea as Apple requires internet connectivity to initiate a restore so I currently have an ipad-shaped brick :-)
DeleteThis was my fault for not verifying functionality right before I cast off but quite concerning at the time. One of my many errors.
The Southern Cross should be visible all year round, even from your latitude. It may just be obscured by clouds at the moment
ReplyDeleteYes, I eventually saw "the Cross" but I don't think I wrote about it. The only other time I saw it was on my trip from the BVI's to Grenada with John Kretschmer about 4 years ago. That was the beginning of my preparation for this adventure, so quite apropos that I saw it again.
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