Sunday, November 26, 2017

Happy With New, Detailed Star Atlas

When I was seven, back in the spring of 1964, my father sat with me one evening and opened up his own very ancient, tattered boy scout handbook...showing me a series of star maps of the evening sky and explaining the constellations to me.  He pointed out that the sky, along with the positions of the stars, changes over the course of the day as well as throughout the year. I took it all to heart and have been enamored with star-gazing ever since.  I picked up a couple more star guides, one of them that my father and I saw at an outdoor Miami newsstand off Biscayne Boulevard...that was around '65, I believe.  Nowadays, of course, there are many resources and detailed star maps accessible through the World Wide Web, but there's nothing quite like having the paper maps in my hands.  The other day I was shopping at Publix and lo and behold, in the checkout line there was a special issue of Astronomy magazine titled Atlas of the Stars.  Not only do the maps cover all the celestial sphere from the north to south poles in great detail, but there are plenty of interesting accompanying articles.  It makes me want to pay another visit to my local Gainesville planetarium, located at Sante Fe College...and check to see whether there isn't still an astronomy club at the University of Florida...I remember that years ago they used to regularly hold telescope viewings of the night sky...

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