One of the delights of living in the Southern Hemisphere has to be its dense, dazzling night sky.
Meandering to open spaces where the urban light veil falls away, yields a blaze of stars, the Milky Way (the Galactic Centre and magellanic clouds, a southern sky speciality), even man.made space objects twinkling back at us. In turn they’re scrutinised in ever-crisper definition as each generation of earthlings puzzles out the celestial connect-the-dots.

“Astronomers, like burglars and jazz musicians, operate best at night.“— Miles Kington

 
In the last few days of the International Year of Astronomy: a little homage to the heavens that arc above us all ..and a little nudge for those of you who’ve ever been tickled by the idea of amateur astronomy.
 

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON

The International Year of Astronomy closes out with a blue moon on the 31st December – the 2nd full moon in a month – and the blue moon will also be eclipsed! The eclipse will be very subtle though, with only the tip of the Moon turning pinkish as the Moon skims the Earth’s shadow. The best time to start watching out for it is 21h20 on New Year’s Eve.
 
A nod to the IYA’09 with a Once in a Blue Moon theme for your New Year’s Eve party maybe? Though for the hardcore star-hunter (paparazzi alert: you’ll be setting yourself up for disappointment), may I suggest doing as amateur star-gazers have been doing since King George III started the fad back in the 1700′s.. hit the star party circuit (check with local observatories – SA Astronomical Observatory on Facebook – or Astronomers Without Borders)
 

STAR-STUDDED PARTIES

You’re thinking nerd-fest with everyone packing ‘scopes and planispheres?
Think again, as smart becomes the new sexy these pyjama parties with a brain have become seriously hip.
[Exhibit A: the Obamas hosted one on the South Lawn of the White House. check the vid.]

 
All that organising a bit much? Well if you’re coming through Johannesburg, there’s a really easy way to gather for a celestial celebration: the Observatory Restaurant in the Cradle of Humankind. Head out to the Aloe Ridge game reserve, beware it has curiously high light pollution, but the 25″ Newtonian/Cassegr Bradford telescope – the largest privately owned telescope in South Africa and the largest professional telescope in amateur hands in the Southern Hemisphere – still delivers the marvels. Thanks to Eve Dmochowska we celebrated a very chilly anniversary of the moonwalk at this very special restaurant, and loved it (warning: bundle up if you do the Astronomy with Gastronomy in winter – the telescope is outside).
 

 

THE COOLEST GREEN TOOL for STAR.SPOTTERS

Contributing nothing to the Copenhagen Climate Talk tussles; there’s a very cool green gizmo that WILL elicit gasps of geeky delight (as verified at Geek Retreat ’09). Enter, the green laser.
Naked eye observation is certainly feasible – there were great astronomers before Galileo gifted humanity with the telescope in 1609 – but inevitably astronomy = gadgets. And the green laser pointer is one such covetable gadget. You can’t use it for anything else – ditch the idea of presentation pointer or home laser surgery. This is solely for making the sky your planetarium as it slices through kilometers of night sky with a crisp green blade of light. No fuzzy, squinty haphazard heaven.scouring explanations of what you want to show. All eyes are commanded to exactly the coordinates you want. Ah the power. (Please note that there is etiquette regarding its judicious use at star parties, borne of green-eyed envy I have no doubt).
 
Of course, you could sensibly use it as an educational tool (should you need to justify the expense; who dares fight the education rebuff).
 
Shop around, and stay within the legal parameters, it’s not a good Christmas gift for anyone with a sadistic bent! Check the NightSky Observer or if you have Stoic restraint, the ThinkGeek store.
 
If you live in Johannesburg, you could grab yours from the Telescope Shop where our little after-dinner surpriser hails from.
 
Warning: Green lasers are very powerful. Beaming your light sabre at aircraft could land you in deep deep trouble with the law. Blindness guarantee if you retinal zap an eye. With great power comes great responsibility.
 

WATCH THIS SPACE

If you’ve been toying with the idea of hooking up some lifelong learning, astronomy is a wonderfully easy place to start to reactivate your synapses. Get the passion sparked by getting some of the right stuff on your screen as a gentle 1st step. Some of my favourite movies or doci’s to get all spaced.out >>
 

COSMOS – the Carl Sagan classic! still awesome. promise.

18 minute downloads from the addictive TED conferences >>

“Astronomy’s much more fun when you’re not an astronomer” – - Sir Brian May *

 
Very few of us are cut out for the meticulous patience that being a working astronomer requires. Most of your life spent boggling over mathematical data or finding new ways to capture more data for other astronomers to boggle over. Many a brilliant mind has turned back at the prospect (as The Daily Maverick‘s editor did. Happily for me).
 
As amateur astronomers we can pluck the palatable fruits of their labours, and enjoy the good stuff without the myopia.producing maths! The joy!
 
From the comfort of our computers there are no shortage of ways to get involved, from offering up processing time to SETI or dive into the IYA’09 site (South Africans, check out our local node) and find where fellow stargazers are gathering online and realworld.

“Space isn’t remote at all. It’s only an hour’s drive away if your car could go straight upwards.” – Fred Hoyle

If you really want to go large, there’s always the option of becoming one of Virgin Galactic‘s space tourists, where even the price of your ticket will be astronomical.
 
It all scales happily to what you can afford in time and money and brain capacity. Speaking of scaling ..
 

As my final inducement, just a little more space eyecandy:

2 pics** that take you on little whirl in the total perspective vortex (kids dig ‘em, in grown.ups it may induce existential vertigo, but it’ll soon pass, our brains have time and space limiters beyond which we cannot go, you’ll be safe):

Every so often, I like to stick my head out the window, look up, and smile for a satellite picture. – Steven Wright

 
 
* Yup, THAT Brian May – in case you didn’t know 39th of Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, is a respected astrophysicist (specialising in space dust), also Chancellor of Liverpool University and has an asteroid named in his honour – Asteroid 52665 Brianmay. Lest we stereotype rockstars or astrophysicists.