"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?" -Job 38:31-32
I spent a fairly good amount of time outdoors looking at the January sky over the weekend nights. It was not optimum viewing in that I developed a nagging cough late last week; however, it was necessary in that Saturday and Sunday night offered consecutive cloudless skies, a first for this year, I believe.
My only complaint of our house is that it offers poor visibility of the northern horizon. From the backyard, however, southern, eastern, and western vantages are largely unobscured.
Late last December, I had spent some time observing the constellation of Orion as it is one of the largest in the winter sky and deceptionally larger against the horizon. While some of the key components of this constellation are easily discernible (the belt and the shield), others are not (the hunter's body, limbs, and sword) and must take some imagination to put together.
Regardless, the stars that comprise this constellation are fascinating to observe in themselves. Rich red stars mixed with fiery blue stars; a nebula and some binaries - that always makes for good observing.
I'm not sure why this phenomenon is so interesting to me, but I spent a good part of each evenings with two stars of lesser importance in my binocular's view. They are not anywhere close to each other, in fact separated by some seven-hundred light years, but against the flat surface of the dark sky, appear to be right next to each other.
Regardless, there's something immensely enriching about shutting up, standing outside in the dark, and looking up.
