Hints on Stargazing for Spring

We all need hobbies. Here’s one you could learn without spending much money: stargazing! When you can identify a constellation, you can feel like you have a friend in the sky who greets you from time to time.

I developed a set of four worksheets which give some directions and hints for identifying twenty different constellations. There are 48 plus a few modern ones so that is almost half of them. You can download the worksheets here from my website.

A great tool for stargazing is a starwheel. On the cover page of the worksheets are instructions for downloading Uncle Al’s Starwheel.

Let’s look at page 2 of the worksheets called “Spring Evening Constellations” and learn to identify 5 constellations. The first is the Big Dipper, which many people can identify. It is fairly high in the sky. Using the 2 “pointer” stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper to point toward the Little Dipper, you can locate the last star in the Little Dipper; this star is called Polaris and is the North Star.

Now you have found the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. Here’s a neat way to find 2 more constellations. Take the ARC of the Big Dipper and extend the arc until you reach ARCturus, a bright star in the constellation Bootes. Then SPIKE down to SPICA, a bright star in the constellation Virgo. The constellation Virgo shows the symbolism of the predicted Redeemer (Genesis 3:15). Pictures show her with a bunch of grain seed in her hand which is at the position of Spica, which means seed.

Now to find one more constellation look for a backwards question mark and you have found Leo. His tail looks like a triangle.

You can purchase my book, Sacred Strands, the Story of a Redeemer Woven through History on my website here.