The Great World Wide Star Count begins October 1 and continues through the October 15, 2007. It’s free, and anyone can participate. This grand science experiment aims to collect world wide data on light pollution and promote learning in astronomy. More about it at their website.
What you’ll do is look for the constellation Cygnus, the swan, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere or Sagittarius, the archer, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere. Match your sky conditions to ones provided by the Star Count, then race to your computer (at your leisure) and tell the good folks at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research via the Internet.
The Great World Wide Star Count is organized by the Windows to the Universe project at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), in conjunction with planetariums and scientific societies across the country and abroad. Funding is provided by the National Science Foundation.
Well, dang it! You beat me to it. I was going to blog on this in a week or so, but I guess I will have to rearrange my schedule now! {%^{
Sounds like a great program, though, doesn’t it?
LS
I actually have trouble seeing Cygnus (the swan) in my night sky because of light pollution and have only seen it while camping. Sag or at least the tea pot, on the other hand, is a lot easier to find.
When I first started stargazing, I found Cygnus much easier to identify than the “Teapot” in Sagittarius. Something about the shape of the Teapot always eluded me. I guess we each have our own way of perceiving patterns on the sky’s dome.
With my view of the southern sky so restricted at my location in the northernmost part of New York State, I often fantasize about seeing the southern treasures from the dark skies of Texas! Perhaps one of these days . . .
bruce
I remember, many, many years ago, I attended an Astronomical League convention in Omaha, and we took a field trip to an observatory of the University of Nebraska, located some distance outside of Lincoln. I don’t remember exactly where, but it was on an experimental pig farm! Whoo boy, did it smell. But that’s a good thing, I suppose, because it was far out in the boonies and no one wanted to build nearby. By golly it was dark. So dark in fact that I swear I could just barely see the North American nebula (near Deneb) with the unaided eye. But I would doubt that you could do that anymore!
Larry S.
Denver
I need a little information regarding which part of the sky to look in and approximately what time in my area I may see this constellation. I live in Northern California. Can anyone help me out here? Maybe a couple of constellation sign posts so that I know I’m looking at the right thing.
Here’s the link where you can download the activity guide from the Great Worldwide Star Count website, click here.
From Austin, TX at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Cygnus, the swan, is looking to be flying near the zenith of the night sky, or directly overhead. The faint star at the swan’s eye, Albireo, is near the zenth, while the brighter star Deneb (also part of the Summer Triangle), which marks the swan’s fanny, points to the northeast.