Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for February 01, 2024

Nope. My wife prefers to settle in to watch the meteor showers. I have to light up the fire pit and drag out the lawn chairs. A hard cider or a cup of coffee are options. And we settle in for as long as the log lasts.

Not a fan of the nightly skies ?

Ah, now to settle in in front of a warm fire with a glass of Betelgeuse. But she should limit herself to two glasses. You know what happens when you call for a third glass.

My favorite constellation

I see many amazing starlit nights here in northernmost Maine. Makes me sad to think so many people never have that opportunity to see how incredible they can be.

They are lucky to live in a place where they can see the stars.

I was in my teens when I found interest in identifying constellations. When I identified one called Triangulum, my sister thought I was making it up. I wasn’t. There’s actually a constellation with only 3 stars in it.

It’s a great landmark (skymark?) for finding a nebula.

A meteor shower sounds kind of painful, actually.

That’s the general public alright. As an amateur astronomer, you’ll meet all types. I recall having a large telescope out at a public viewing event, and a person looked through the eye piece at a part of the moon. The response was “That is so FAKE! Where is the picture?” When I was a kid, seeing the rings on Saturn, in a way similar to how Leonardo Da Vinci did, was awe inspiring. Discoveries of things in our own solar system and afar were news worthy all night long and on every channel! Now it seems people take it for granted. Carl Sagan once said, “Humankind is a way for the Cosmos to know itself.” If that is the case, I think the Universe is on it’s death bed.

We have so much light pollution you can’t see many stars. I remember when I was a kid in the early 60’s I would stay with my grandmother out in the country. My parents would pick me up at night. I would lay in the back seat and look at the stars as they changed position when the car would turn.

Well Janis, don’t complain when Arlo doesn’t offer to do romantic things! The things that many women say that we don’t do!

I’d have brought lawn chairs and hot coco and stayed awhile. My kind of nothing.

Betelgeuse Betelgeuse Betelgeuse

I saw Orion’s belt the other night. My eyes aren’t good enough to pick out the rest of the constellation.

I’m more of a summer astronomer.

It will be doing something when Betelgeuse finally goes supernova. Astronomers predict that it will happen in the next 100,000 years. It may have already happened, though, as it is about 650 light years distant. We won’t know if it goes supernova until 650 years after it starts!

Chilly willies….

It was nice of her to be certain that she had seen the entire show.

Janis tends to have her phone relay all her information to her. I think I can recall that she once checked the weather for storms on her phone when standing outside in the rain. Somehow I think she would appreciate it more if her phone had pictures of the constellations on it. I’m kinda glad I grew up without the cell phone for the first 3 decades of my life.

When I grew up in Phoenix 40 years ago, before development congested the city’s outer reaches, we would go to the desert on a winter night and Orion would be magnificent. Almost like you could reach up and touch it.

Winter night skys are best observed through a bedroom skylight with wine in one hand, and your honey in the other.

To properly take in a meteor shower, one needs the right shampoo….

Good view of Jupiter these nights, too.

Doesn’t do anything? You burn his heart, to summon up the sun.

One of my cats in the days before Harry Potter was named Bellatrix. Her brother was named Rigel.