I have always loved the night sky. The array of stars and planets, and even our own moon, make for fun gazing. I remember as a kid driving out in the country and being stunned at how bright the sky can be.
David wrote about this in Psalm 8 …
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers — the moon and the stars you set in place — what are people that you should think about them, mere mortals that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. [Psalm 8:3-5. NLT]
A few years ago my wife bought me a telescope from an on-line auction and I'm just getting into using it a bit more. We live a little further out of town now so the night sky is brighter than what it is in suburbia. You can even see a great deal with the naked eye and even more with a basic pair of binoculars.
There is an excellent computer program called Stellarium for those who like to learn a bit more about the night sky. You can download it here for free. Click here to access a web site which is a good beginner's guide to astronomy.
The Lord counts the stars and calls them all by name. How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension! NLT [Psalm 147:4-5]
Hi Mark,
If you ever wondered “What’s that bright blue star over there?”, and happened to have an iPhone or iPod touch (or can beg, borrow, or, er, temporarily appropriate one and return it nicely), with an excellent app called Star Walk (only 3.99) you can just point your iPhone to the sky, and you can find out!
This is because it knows your precise location on earth (via GPS), the precise angle at which you’re holding up the iPhone to the sky (via accelerometers), and the precise time of day at your location, it provides you with an interactive display of the night sky you’re looking at. Just tap at that star, and it tells you!
One of the most impressive and yet least-expensive of astronomy tools available on the iPhone or otherwise.
Here’s a review: http://www.macworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=66943. And here’s its homepage: http://vitotechnology.com/star-walk.html
Michael