enjoy that night sky!

Early winter is a fantastic time for viewing the night sky! It gets dark early enough to view the stars at a reasonable hour (admittedly, some people think midnight and later is still “reasonable":), but it isn’t as bone-chilling cold as those January nights are likely to be. There are many things to watch for, like meteor showers, northern lights (usually visible in mid-Michigan a few times a year), the International Space Station orbiting overhead, and of course, good old “star gazing.”


For some assistance in locating objects in the night sky, check out these links:

1) To find out when the space station will be visible, click on the nearest Michigan city on this NASA website: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/region.cgi?country=United_States®ion=Michigan It will show how many degrees above the horizon the station will be visible, and from which direction it will enter and leave your view.

2) For SERIOUS northern lights enthusiasts, a move to the far north is warranted. But for Michigan folk, this site will let you know when there is a reasonable chance of a local show: http://www.gedds.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/
If the forecast number is “4” or higher, we have a shot at seeing the northern lights even this far south!

3) Both of these sites provide good star and planet gazing information, from general “what’s going on this week” to more detailed astronomical highlights: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/  http://stardate.org/

4) And to find out exactly when it might get dark enough to SEE the stars, the U.S. Navy has this very user-friendly site to find out when the sun and moon rise and set:  http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications