My Lucky Stars!!

Stargazing has been one of my passionate habits at the onset of Summer. Today after a serious thunderstorm, I was surprised to see a fairly clear night sky and my surprise heightened when I could spot some stars in the midnight sky from the balcony. Without wasting much time, rushed upstairs around 1 30 Am to reunite with the companions of the night aka the Stars and Constellations.

While I was able to see some stars if not all, the following are the Stars that a novice in me can instantly recognize even today.

Venus – The morning star of the Northern Hemisphere, easily the brightest planet visible even after the onset of bright morning Summer Sun.

Mercury- Little below Venus, not as bright but definitely visible in the morning sky.

Mars- Staying on the eastern side of the night sky, Mars is the reddest star you can see with the naked eye, while the reflection of red light is quite evident.

One basic rule I was told is Stars twinkle and planets do not twinkle. The planets stay constant in light without a flicker or a blink.

Saturn: The second-largest planet is also the second biggest star towards the eastern night sky and is a bright spot of light. The one in little less shape and less than half the brightness and exactly parallel to Saturn is Andres. The distance seems like goal post to goal post or a 22-yard pitch given which game you like to visualize.

Jupiter: The brightest star in the night sky and is as bright and big as Venus is in the morning. You look up any time in the night and the brightest non-twinkling star of the northern hemisphere sky is Jupiter.

Saptarshi Mandalam- or the Bear constellation. The seven-star shaped like a bear with the middle of the three having a twin star which the mythology calls as Arundathi, the only visible wife of sage Vasishta whose form, the wife of lord Agni was not able to take as per the legend.

Parallel to the top two stars of the bear star is the evergreen Pole star or the Dhruva Nakshatra.

While all planets and stars move as the night goes on, the Pole star does not move or shows the least movement given its directly lined up with earth’s axis of rotation. The sailors of the bygone era used to navigate sea routes using polestars at night times.

The three dotted Star or the three wickets star, known as Orion, is another bright set of three stars one cannot miss once we tilt our head 70 degrees upwards into the night sky. This is a part of the bigger constellation but I put a cap on my awe in recognizing this set of Stars alone.

I was not able to add many Stars to the list I already know even as the agenda to visit a planetarium has not been ticked yet.

The only other heavenly body I can recollect now is the moon with the most proximate Star to the moon is his favorite wife, Rohini or Aldebaran.

Feels good to reunite with a lot of childhood and adolescent passions & special thanks to my Brother Bunnu & Sister
Geetha Patri for evoking interest in stargazing from a very young age.

The only thing done to pamper this interest was invest in a 7k worth telescope from Amazon to be duly mocked by the seasoned sky watchers from the fraternity.