Watching the Stars at Night
Getting away from the city to watch the night sky is amazing!
For those of us who have always lived in a big city, looking up to see the stars at night is a whole different experience compared to those who live out away from the city lights. Of course we can see some stars but because of all the light surrounding us it makes it difficult to see much.
Recently we were traveling from Oklahoma up to southern Colorado and we stopped for a night to camp at Trinidad Lake State Park. While this isn’t a designated dark sky area of Colorado, it was dark enough that we could see an incredible number of stars.
My mind was blown as I looked up into the sky and saw how many beautiful stars there were! And the most amazing thing of all — seeing the Milky Way Galaxy! I’d seen pictures but I’d never experienced that in person.
What an incredible sight it was!
I didn’t have a lot of fancy camera equipment with me but even with my iPhone 14 I was able to capture a fairly decent picture of the stars and the Milky Way. Of course pictures like this will never do justice to what you can see in person but it’s a great way to capture a memory and be able to relive that moment in the future.
We also spent some time camping in Big Bend National Park last spring and that was a real treat too. The moon was so bright that it wasn’t quite as dark that night - plus there were lights at the campground that prevented total darkness - but it was still a beautiful night sky with so many stars. We enjoyed using our StarTracker app to check out the stars and see where all the constellations were. It was fun to try to figure out what was what. :) And we were even treated with seeing a whole bunch of bats flying around at sunset. It was an awesome experience!
But one of the most amazing views we’ve been blessed to experience in the night sky was seeing the aurora borealis in southwest Ohio just a little ways outside of Cincinnati. This happened in October when the aurora activity was so high in much of the country. We went out to a park that was really dark and just sat in awe of the colors we saw in the sky. We also discovered that you don’t have to just look to the north either. One of the most amazing views we saw was looking to the east (picture on the right)! This was definitely an experience to remember.
We have some major road tripping planned for this summer with lots of camping, lots of National Park visits, and visiting places off the beaten path. I’m hoping to get to add to this list of experiences and enjoy more beautiful views of the night sky.
How about you? Do you have some favorite memories of seeing a beautiful sky at night?
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