"Craig MacDougal" wrote in message om...
"Steve Little" wrote in message
...

"Laura Halliday" wrote in message
om...
I found myself wide awake at 0530 this morning, and
figured I might as well go out and have a look...

[snip]

The sky was what you would get in the early evening
in January. The Pleides were putting on a great show,
due south. Orion was high in the southeast, with
Sirius sparkling below.

[snip]

Beautiful, isn't it? It's like old friends returning for a visit.

Stepped outside about 11:00pm and heard myself saying, "Why, hello there
Capella!" as it twinkled wildly.

At this latitude (49 north) Capella is circumpolar.
Vega is circumpolar at my Mom's place.

I find I have a much stronger "old friends are back"
reaction to the winter constellations than to the
summer ones. I suspect because the summer ones just
aren't very observable when dusk is at 0030, and for
6 weeks it doesn't get astronomically dark at all.

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Que les nuages soient notre
Grid: CN89mg pied a terre..."
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Hospital/Shafte