Michelle MacEwan

Globe - our night sky

Sunday 20th July, 2008

Continuing to Create Community

An exciting aspect of the internet is that we can participate in different kinds of communities that are working to make a difference and to educate - and best of all, through these web based communities we get to interact with people from all over the world. Here is something we can be involved in that is fun and will connect you with an ageless activity - linking you to your most ancient ancestors. It is also an important project in awareness on a personal and global level. In my last journal entry I wrote about the night sky here in the southern hemisphere.
Whilst researching for current solar activity as we move into the most powerful solar cycle in human history, I discovered GLOBE At NIGHT.

This worldwide project was initiated in 2006. There is a growing community which contributes to this project, observing our night sky, focusing on Orion. Orion’s Belt, here in Australia affectionately known as the Saucepan, is visible all around the world and is one sure constellation that we all know from childhood. 

To me there is nothing more magical, or mystical, than the night sky. In all the countries I have visited, none have a more spectacular sky than here where I live in Australia which, as a result, has made me appreciate it even more. There is a scientific reason for this ( link to last journal entry ) but there is also another reason - brought home to me by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth - there is so much light pollution in the highly populated areas of the world that we are literally blocking our view of the oldest contact we have have with the rest of creation. The dark velvety night sky and the diamonds that fill it. My clearest moments of connection come when I lay outside on the cliff tops, watching and merging with the stars - they seem to rise out of the horizon - from where Antarctica lays due south,over the Southern Ocean, and arc up above and around me in a spectacular circular embrace. Best of all is when we get the southern lights - Aurora Australis and the northern lights, Aurora Borealis in the northern hemisphere. These lights have had major influence in creation stories everywhere not least with my ancestors in the Highlands of Scotland - who believed that the northern lights were the first daughters of creation. These lights shine through from the Dreamtime bringing the life force through to the earthly plane.

Join GLOBE for email updates and learn more about this inspiring project that draws from people of all ages and all walks of life from all around the world!

GLOBE at Night 2009 will occur in the latter half of March. It will be one of several star - hunting efforts connected to the “dark skies awareness” cornerstone program of the International year of Astronomy ( IYA ) 2009.

Information about the emerging global plans for the IYA 2009 is available at astronomy2009.org. “The classic GLOBE at Night program directs students, families, and the general public how to observe and record the number of stars visible in the constellation Orion, as seen from different locations. Observers report their results online by comparing their view of Orion with a set of template images on the program’s Web site, which shows the number of stars in the constellation for a range of visibilities from bright skies to very dark.”

GLOBE at Night is a collaboration between The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program, Boulder, CO; the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, AZ; Centro de Apoyo a la Didactica de la Astronomia (CADIAS) in Chile; Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI); and the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA).

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