Presidential stars - 07/03/09 11:53 PM
It's Fourth of July here in Sweden, and I thought we could celebrate with a skyscape over an extremely patriotic American mountain, Mount Rushmore!
Stars over Mount Rushmore
I'm sure you can recognize Mount Rushmore yourselves. Just above and to the right of the Presidents-in-the-mountain, you can see the Big Dipper. In the top right-hand corner of the picture, you can find the Little Dipper with Polaris, the North Star. Follow the "pointers" of the Big Dipper upwards, and your gaze is drawn pretty much straight to Polaris. Not quite so in this picture, however, because here the "pointers" seem to point at a star above and to the left of Polaris. But if you watch the sky from a moderately light-polluted area, that star next to Polaris looks so faint that it's not at all conspicuous, while Polaris will easily draw your eye.
Happy Fourth of July, everybody!
Ann
Stars over Mount Rushmore
I'm sure you can recognize Mount Rushmore yourselves. Just above and to the right of the Presidents-in-the-mountain, you can see the Big Dipper. In the top right-hand corner of the picture, you can find the Little Dipper with Polaris, the North Star. Follow the "pointers" of the Big Dipper upwards, and your gaze is drawn pretty much straight to Polaris. Not quite so in this picture, however, because here the "pointers" seem to point at a star above and to the left of Polaris. But if you watch the sky from a moderately light-polluted area, that star next to Polaris looks so faint that it's not at all conspicuous, while Polaris will easily draw your eye.
Happy Fourth of July, everybody!
Ann