Monday, June 7, 2010

constellations



The last week here, it has rained. No actually that is a gross understatement.
The ocean has gathered itself up and dumped down upon us with such a force and intensity its just ridiculous. We had 82 mm in 24hrs but I swear 80 of those came down in the first hour. Almost every car in the street had somehow got water in it, and at one point, whilst I stupidly drove at night in it, I seriously couldnt tell if i was even on a road or swimming with the stingrays... crazy weather.

But last night, we were given a glimpse of the world outside of the fishbowl... and the stars came out for the first time in a week.

Hubbin has an awesome Application on his phone (ok he rubs it in constantly as I cant get this App on my phone as it doesnt have GPS. Trying to not care) thats called Star Walk. It is really something quite amazing and has totally captured all of us to sit outside and find out whats really up there.

Here is a screen shot of this app.


It really is incredible. And the best thing is, as you move your iPhone around, the constellations and star patterns change to show you esactly what you are looking at. Jumeirah has spent quite a bit of time looking for planets, finding constellations and just gazing at the heavens, slowly gaining an understanding at how vast it all is.
These are our photos of what we can see



When we came inside, she wanted to make her own constellation, so I gave her a piece of black card board and some star stickers and she set to work. Once she had placed the stars randomly on her black card, she joined them together to create her constellation. She named them " Eye Glasses" and "the table bowl".




Jared had a go at this this morning. He enjoyed sticking stars but was just as content trying to see the star he stuck on his forehead. Goose :)



And whilst I dont have the App on my phone, I have my OWN constellation :)

Ok well almost ;)




Carina (Latin for keel) is a southern constellation which forms part of the old constellation of Argo Navis.
It contains Canopus, the second brightest star in the night sky, and the supermassive star eta Carinae
which is embedded in the naked eye visible Carina Nebula NGC 3372.


Seems quite fitting that I am a boat ( of even keel) and contain the brightest star in the night sky, dont you think??

Why not create your own constellations too!!

1 comment:

  1. That is awesome -- that you do such incredibly creative things with your children. Your oldest is really very talented. And I love that you know so much about your "stars." I'm a big fan of the Star Walk app (didn't know until today that they had a Solar Walk app). Thanks for sharing. I hope you get your own iPhone soon.

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