It is the month of June again and, once more, here in New Zealand, we celebrate the Maori New Year, Matariki.
The sky of June – The Rising of the Galaxy
Out I went and nothing prepared me for what I saw that night. On the pitch dark sky of Wairarapa, with luscious hills that hold the horizon in sweet curves that rest the eye, a luminous whirlpool of stars was erupting from the east. Silver river of stars, one of its arms was meandering the eastern horizon in oval arched loops like an octopus’s arm that passed a Southern Cross marking the 12 o’clock position on the celestial time keeper of the south. The galactic arm was thinning down towards the western horizon and righteously so as the further we go from Scorpius and Sagittarius, we are actually looking towards the outskirts of our galaxy, where fewer stars venture. I stood there in silence watching the slow rising of the Galaxy and I realised that it was for the first time in my life when I was truly seeing it with my eyes.
What is life? …really
via What is life? The Universe | Astrobiology – Documentary HD – ASTROBIOLOGY.NZ
Bronze leaves lying low,/ (5) Stormed up by today's harvest/ (7) is my stollen heart./ (5)
The sky of May – Tahi, Rua, Toru
In Maori, tahi, rua, toru means one, two, three. So Atu-tahi – One, Taku-rua – Two, Tau-toru – Three,
or you can count Sirius (1) / Canopus (2) / Alpha Centauri (3) / Arcturus (4) No matter what you prefer, these stars will be there in the evening of May.
PhotoPills: imagine, plan, shoot – an astrophotography planning tool.
“Any photographer that has a question that needs an answer can use PhotoPills. Beginners use it to find sunrise and set times, golden hour and blue hour times…” (my favourite is actually all the crepuscular information) “and for basic calculations like depth of field. Then we have the photographers that plan their Sun, Moon and Milky Way shots… it all depends on your needs.”
The sky of April – a rope of stars
Lower down on the path of the Milky Way the two pointers look now as if they are hanging from the Southern Cross. First comes Beta Centauri (the genitive for Centaurus, the name of the constellation) then the famous Alpha Centauri. For Maori they are also known in a different time of the year as the rope of an anchor and I can’t stop but thinking that this is the end of my rope of stars. If I let it go now, I will fall into the center of the galaxy which is slowly and majestically climbing on the Eastern Horizon.
The sky of March – The Shining Ones
At the fringe of our milky city of stars, on the north-western horizon, the Pleiades, the Shining Ones (Te Tawhiti) are preparing for the journey to the underworld. They are to disappear shortly behind the Sun and will stay there for a while.
And the explanation goes that since people of old did not really have an explanation about space, in trying to figure out where exactly the Pleiades went, they invented a underworld. This is probably one of the reasons why this group of stars is so linked to stories of death, rebirth, and ancestors, and used to mark the beginning of the year in some cultures.
The sky of February – only the brightest!
Getting to know the southern sky is for ever a wonderfully strange experience. In any new place that I visit I always feel grateful for landmarks. On Earth, I am looking for trees and buildings and mountains, in the sky I always look for the brightest stars. Here in New Zealand, there are places and times when the light of the individual stars is lost in the haze of the Milky Way as if a blanket of tiny lights is covering the Earth at night.
Me being me... I'm feeling rather energised after this (loooong) drive ... because driving always makes me feel fluid and relaxed. I’m melting into the black asphalt in the darkness of the night at 100 kms/hour with zero stars above, less distracting anyway and I’m haunted no more by thoughts, I’m a fugitive - running from civilisation.
