The 1000 Isalnds Cosmic Connection - WhenThe Whole Galaxy Aligns With The River!

    Our solar system location  in our galaxy the Milky Way.

Internet photo

 

 

 

When I was about 10 years old my parents gave me a telescope for Christmas..  Since then I have spent a lot of time observing the sky and the impact of that gift has been with me all my life.  I am lucky to spend 8  months in the desert SW in Flagstaff,AZ at 7000 ft. above sea level where the air is very clear and dry... and very dark at night.  We have spectacular night skies and several important observatories call Flagstaff and AZ home.

The new Discovery Channel telescope is located about 40 miles from Flagstaff.  On my search and rescue team I teach a special navigation course where students have to find their way in the wilderness using only the stars the sun and other natural signs for direction.  So I pay particular attention to how the sky objects night and day align themselves with the cardinal directions like N. S. E. W. and landmarks and how to use that to orient myself.  I love watching the stars progressing through the night and through the seasons. 

On certain nights the  sky here in Cape Vincent and  the 1000 Islands is still  pretty good too, although the light from Kingston Ont. has encroached on the sky since I was a kid.  Dark skies are a treasured resource  that should be preserved as best as possible.  And it should be done through zoning ordinances that reduce unnecessary light scatter and glare.  But since most people retreat indoors at night or have a fear of the dark we don't think about dark skies much as a resource to be preserved. 

Since Flagstaff, and AZ have many observatories, dark skies are a priority and lighting is controlled.  In this case dark skies have an actually economic value.  For example one of my neighbors is a professional astronomer working at the US Naval Observatory which is critical for many military navigational purposes.

For example try this Naval Observatory website for fun.

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php

The night sky tonight ( about midnight, Aug. 28/29 ) in the 1000 Islands and Cape Vincent is bright with stars and the billions of stars that are the Milky Way which is the hazy band across the sky that is actually our galaxy.  The Moon set after sunset as a thin orange crescent over the river and will get larger each night for a couple weeks till it is full.

It is interesting that around this date that the hazy band of our galaxy stretches completely across the sky and directly over head (the zenith) from SW to NE.  It stretches from the constellation Auriga rising in the NE, to Sagittarius (The Teapot) setting  in the SW. The Milky Way is very bright near Sagittarius above the southern or southwest horizon because you are actually looking into the center of our galaxy.

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Just so happens that around this time the direction or plane of our home galaxy the Milky Way aligns almost perfectly with the direction of the St. Lawrence River running through the 1000 Islands and Cape Vincent.

A powerful cosmic connection????  Are there any crop circles out there in those CV corn fields????

And if you would like to get a better feel for how bright the night sky actually is even without the moon, and how many stars are out there, try this astronomers trick.

If you observe the night sky a lot, especially looking for faint objects, use the astronomers trick of averted vision.  In other words don't look directly at the faint object, look slightly off to the  side and it should appear brighter. Averted vision is a handy tool for any night observation of objects in the sky or on land or water.  I use it a lot when out in my boat or kayak at night, or when searching on my SAR team at night.
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So find a dark site on a clear night with no moon. Or course dark sites are getting more rare unfortunately.  It won't work unless you can get a dark spot to observe.  Second, give your eyes about 15 or 20 minutes to adjust to night vision. 

 Now stretch out your hand above your head.  This works even better if you can get the Milky Way behind your hand. Any reflected light on your hand will kill the effect. Now don't stare at the stars but instead stare at the black silhouette of your hand or one of your finger tips yet be aware of the  sky all around your hand at the same time. 

The sky and the stars should suddenly light up and be much brighter and expansive.

Interestingly enough, recently the river has been dead calm, and mirror flat at night.  You could see the Big Dipper completely reflected in the water as well as many other bright stars.

 It was like when the river calms down at night it has another secret deep hidden dimension you can only observe on rare nights.

Like the line from the old movie 2001 a Space Odyssey.

"My God...it is full of stars!"