Sleeping with the Stars

If you do a Google search, you can find all sorts of crafty things to do with astronomy as well as astrology. Some creative projects involve quilts, game boards, paintings, and so on. Last night I embroidered the constellations representing our astrological signs on pillowcases.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Mine is Gemini, the twins. Naturally, you don’t see the lines between stars when looking at the night sky, but it works for projects such as this so your eye and mind can make the connection.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

My husband’s sign is Cancer, the crab.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Together we make beautiful constellations.

Birds of Prey and Astronomy Crafts

Here it is August, I’m pretty sure I’ve somehow been teleported to another time zone as summer is spinning by awfully fast. But it’s a fun summer as we’ve been having all sorts of adventures.

Birds of Prey

The Sonora Desert Museum hosts special programs on Saturday nights every summer in the cool (hah!) of the evening. We made dinner reservations and some friends joined us for our expedition.


© Margaret Clifton, All Rights Reserved (used with permission)

We enjoyed a lecture about birds of prey and were able to see the birds up close. In one instance, we watched a Great Horned Owl gobble up a live mouse—kind of icky but fascinating at the same time.

A Harris Hawk has been visiting my yard lately, but I always miss getting a photo of it. I suspect my bird feeders are attracting its interest.

Astronomy Crafting


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

After the birds of prey lecture, we zoomed over to the program celebrating 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Maggie and I joined the children’s hands-on program and crafted things like the Star Wheel I made above. It was fun even if we were the only adults in a group of kids—we’re kids at heart and learn from such activities, too.

I found the same projects we did at the museum online which makes it nice for sharing with you.

If you’d like to make a Star Wheel yourself (okay, maybe also share with your kids), you can download the project here. To use a star wheel, you do the following (from Hands-on Universe)

• Set date and time of night by rotating the Star Wheel in the Star Holder until your desired time of night lines up with the desired date.
• To find a constellation note which horizon it is closest to and orient the Star Holder so that horizon is near is at the bottom, making that part of the sky to look right-side up.
• Constellations higher in the sky (closer to the zenith) are closer to the center of the map.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

This is the Star Clock I made from a Sky & Telescope project. Here’s the link to the PDF and instructions for making your own Star Clock.

Since so many children’s programs are offered during the summer, don’t forget adults can join in the merriment, too. These projects would also work wonderfully well for those of you who home school your children. Summer is a grand time, isn’t it?

Resources

• Sky & Telecope Star Clock
• Hands-on Universe’s Star Wheel project
• Hands-on Universe’s Star Wheel use instructions

Summer’s Gifts of Grace

Summer solstice occurred at 1:46 this morning which means summer is officially here. To me, summer is the epitome of celebrating life.

“Although the June solstice marks the beginning of Northern summer, it is often called midsummer. In traditional Gaelic culture the summer solstice represented the mid-point between the commencement of the Celtic summer on May 1 and autumn on August 1” (source: Science at NASA).

Source: Sky & Telescope

Sky-watching any time of the year is something we enjoy. During the day on solstice, the sun appears to stand still. But the solstice sky that emerges after the sun has graciously nodded to the dark brings another kind of magic. You can view the Milky Way arching over the eastern horizon after twilight, witness the darkening of Saturn's rings as well as the brightening of Venus, and then there’s Jupiter’s tumultuous transition—night’s gifts of grace.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Yesterday afternoon a gorgeous orchid plant arrived at my house, a stunning gift from Sally at Grendelskin. It traveled from Hawaii to me in perfect condition. I’ve been longing to have an orchid plant since my husband and I visited the orchid exhibit last March. Sally’s generosity has graced my life. Thank you, Sally!

It’s Sunday, Father’s Day, summer solstice, and beautiful orchids are growing at my house—what a fantastic weekend. To share my blessings, I’m offering another give-away tomorrow, so please stop by again.

Welcome to summer!

2009—International Year of Astronomy

As a little girl, I yearned to know what invisible worlds existed beyond what my human eyes could see. Are Martians really green like those on TV or do they look just like me but have super powers? While I've still no answers, telescopes offer the ability to see a bit more than my own limited vision. We have Galileo to thank for this.

This year we celebrate 2009: International Year of Astronomy—a commemoration of Galileo’s use of a telescope to study the skies 400 years ago, the birth of modern astronomy. This is a global endeavor sponsored by The International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Source: IAU

The purpose and vision of the International Year of Astronomy is “to help people rediscover their place in the Universe through the sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery. Everyone should realise the impact of astronomy and other fundamental sciences on our daily lives, and understand how scientific knowledge can contribute to a more equitable and peaceful society" (UNESCO).

If there is an observatory or university near you, there may be programs slated to honor astronomy you could attend. A list of observatories around the world may be found here.

At our house, we have a computerized Meade telescope that brings the wonders in the sky a bit closer for us to see.

Each month you can download a free map of the evening sky and calendar so you don’t miss any celestial happenings. Visit Skymaps to find the applicable free map for your hemisphere, be it northern or southern.

The International Year of Astronomy’s official slogan is "The Universe, Yours to Discover". And so it is.

The Living’s Easy

Summertime, time, time,
Child, the living's easy.
Janis Joplin



This week has been full of activities with visits by various family members. Our son-in-law cooked for us one night. He made Chicken Piccata, fresh green beans, and homemade rolls while my husband and my brother-in-law Jim served as sous-chefs de cuisine.



While the men cooked, Lindsay (my daughter), Connie (my sister), and I contributed by engaging in pool quality control efforts, an activity much enhanced by the fresh strawberry daiquiris Jim made for us.



Here’s Philip’s recipe. This was very delicious.


Photo by Dub Scroggin

Since all of our family love anything related to astronomy, I made reservations for us to visit Kitt Peak National Observatory. This was a night program which gave us an opportunity to tour all the different telescope housings as well as look through various telescopes. Amongst the awesome things we saw were a ring nebula, Saturn and even the shadow of a ring on its surface, and (since it was almost full moon) the surface of the moon. Each of us was issued special night-time binoculars, a tiny red-light flashlight, and specific planispheres for our latitude here and taught how to use them.



If you visit Tucson, try to do this activity. It’s a very long program, but they give you a box dinner and you will love this experience. You have to make reservations at least 2 to 4 weeks ahead of time.

Another family group arrives this morning. My husband and I are taking some of our grandchildren to the Tucson Children’s Museum this afternoon.

Light Your Fire

Better Homes and Garden's healthy Christmas countdown item for December 14 is to put a candle on a table nearby at arm’s length and gaze into the glow. Slow your breathing and let all stressful thoughts gently disappear. Simply relax.

I tried this and it works—you just have to sit quietly and focus on the flame.



I think this would also work if you have a fireplace and I’m going to try that, too.

There’s another idea perfect for tonight that you can enjoy—nature’s very own lights display in the form of the annual Geminid meteor shower, one of the best meteor showers of the year.

The following picture shows the Leonid meteor shower, not the Geminids, but it gives you a good idea of the possibilities in the sky. I love the whole idea of possibilities—the word itself is so full of promise.



I have to wake my husband in a little while as we’re going outside to view this wonder. Hot chocolate is at the ready and I’m dropping in some of my homemade marshmallows (I’m so tickled about the marshmallows). Tucson nights are down in the 30s right now so we’ll snuggle under quilts to keep warm as I unfortunately have pneumonia.

As many as 120 to 180 meteors per hour are expected to streak across the sky so we’ll stretch out on our pool chaise lounges to avoid straining our necks as we watch.

For tips on how best to view the Geminids display, here is a link to the Smithsonian’s newsletter.

Want to hear how an actual Geminid meteor echo sounds? NASA has a very short recording you can listen to, click here. In a funny bit of synchronicity, it was also recorded on a Dec. 14th but in 1998.

If you want to see some awesome photos of the Aurora Borealis taken recently, visit Hoganfe’s excellent blog and see her gorgeous photos of the most amazing light show on planet Earth.

Bandage Brigade Update



The fire of generosity has truly been lit by many of you wonderful folks. To this moment, 26 wonderful souls have joined the Bandage Brigade. I’ve made an alphabetical list of participants in the right-hand column with links where applicable. Thank you so much to all of you!

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please read this post. You are welcome to join us in this effort to “Give Unto Others.”

Blessings Friday

It’s important to me to be always mindful of the many blessings I receive. When planning my new blog, I decided Fridays would be dedicated to this. Fiona at Dragonfly-Crafts has joined me and you are welcome, too.

Here are just a few of my blessings this week.

Comments Left at Junie Moon

Thank you to everyone who visits and leaves me a note. If an email link is included, I’m making every effort to send a thank you. For those without the link (depends on how your account is set up and what contact info you’ve mandated), please know I’m grateful.

Seasonal Delights

The owners gave me permission to use their photo.

I first learned about this from Clarice at Storybook Woods. Seasonal Delights is a new online magazine with gracious ideas that live up to its name. You can subscribe for one year free during September—two blessings in one.

Butterflies

Yesterday I was gifted with the sight of a gorgeous adult Tiger Swallowtail flitting about my backyard. It was awesome. Unfortunately I did not get a picture but for amazing photos of a butterfly that just emerged from its cocoon, visit Wren Cottage’s Flickr.

Celestial Celebrations

At the beginning of each month, I download the free sky calendar offered by Skymaps and post it on my fridge door. The calendar provides a guide to celestial happenings and when to view them. There are separate maps for the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Tucson’s low humidity as a result of minimal cloud cover facilitates a remarkable clarity of skies at night. Our Dark Sky ordinances reduce glare and light pollution so nights here are much darker than most cities.

Standing outside under a canopy of stars and watching the night sky awes me. It’s a reminder that although we are essentially tiny little microcosms in the overall scheme of things, we are each a vital stitch in the fabric of the universe—how life affirming!

What are your blessings this week?