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Adopt a Star

There are skygazers who dedicate themselves to finding new objects in the sky, especially comets. To discover a comet, you need a very large pair of binoculars, for example 20 x 120, up to 300 hours of spare time, and very extensive knowledge of the sky. There are many objects in the sky that look similar to comets and the better one knows the sky, the less one has to constantly re-look up things in a star atlas to determine if something new has been found. Few of us will ever learn the sky as well as the top comet hunters have, but we can “adopt” a small section of the sky for our very own. The idea is to choose a very small area of the sky. You might be drawn to a particular spot because it contains a red star or a galaxy, or because its star pattern is pleasing or it is on the ecliptic. If you pick an area of the sky near Polaris and it is circumpolar, you can observe it all year around. Once you have picked your area, learn it. Get to know it as well as your own bedroom and if any intruder does wander into it, such as a comet, your can report it to a skygazing society. Even if you never find a new comet, you will have gained a special intimacy with part of the sky. In a very real sense it will belong to you.


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