Gazin’ at Yer Starrrrrs!!!!

Arrr!!! Avast ye lads and lasses, ’tis Talk Like a Pirate Day! All in good fun and silliness, because as the old chumbuckets over at Talk Like a Pirate Day say, we all know that real pirates are scurvy bilge rats and no fun at all. We’re not here to celebrate the evil ways of real pirates. We just want to be a little silly, sling around some piratey lingo and exhibit some swashbuckling pirattitude. And, so today we’re Stargazin’ like a Pirate here at Ye Olde Spacewriter’s Blogge.

In days of old, honest sailors and pirates alike used the stars for navigatin’ the briney deeps. Today, us modern travelers at sea AND on land depend on things like computers and cell phones and GPS units to do our navigatin’ for us. So we can just go out and enjoy the night sky for the sheer beauty of it all and celebrate a cosmic version of Talk Like a Pirate Day!

To get started, dress fer the weather! If it’s cold in yer part of the world, put on yer warmest piratey britches and overcoats. While yer still inside, get yerself some star charts here. They’ll come in handy when yer sailin’ the starry seas!

Aside from that, ye won’t need anything else but yer own two eyes and a safe place to stargaze from! If yer really in the piratey mood, however, take along some grog! This can be a spiritous beverage (if yer of legal age) or a hot chocolate or warm chai or whatever shivers yer piratey timbers!

Next, get yerself outside as soon as the Sun has set in old Davey Jones’s locker in the sky. (When it’s dark.) Lay down on a nice chaise longue chair, or a blanket or sleepin’ bag, anything to keep yer piratey stargazin’ hiney warm and dry. Then, ye just look up!

There, stretched above ye will be the glory o’ the cosmos. Stars, planets, our galaxy, plus a few others, clouds o’ gas and dust, and much, much more. If ye have a piratey spyglass (or binoculars or a telescope) drag it out and focus on the lovelies above ye!

That’s all there is to it. While yer at it, spice up yer language and talk like a piratey astronomer! Use such swashbuckling lingo as:

“Aye, that’s a lovely treasure chest o’ stars up there, matey!”

“Shiver me timbers, I’ve never seen such a bright planet as that one!”

“Arrr Matey, check out that Lagoon Nebula afore she sets!!!”

“Well, blow me down, matey! We’ll be sailing Carina over the horizon tonight!!

“Avast ye, the Moon is over the yardarm!”

“Look smartly, me lovelies! There went a meteor!”

‘Tis a new way to get yer starrrrry fix, and a great way to celebrate the Piratey Silliness. So, have fun and don’t forget—talk like a pirate!

Arrrrrrr!!! Check out the starrrs!!!

The first step you take to space is the one you take when you go outside and look up at the stars. A lot of questions crowd your mind. How far away are those stars? is a good one. Another one that you eventually get to is: How did they form?

Astronomy, the science that studies the stars and planets and galaxies, is a rigorous way of looking at the stars and explaining how they came to be. It applies physics, which is another science that we all learn at some point in our lives. The laws of physics describe motions, actions, and reactions. Pretty simple, really. Something happens, a law of physics describes that happening. If you can observe it, you can describe it. If it happens often enough in the same or similar ways, the laws of physics describe it. That’s the essence of science, and the application of physical laws. Clear thinking is required and it’s not hard to do once you get the hang of it.

So, the stars are out there, and over centuries of study, we’ve figured out how they work, where they came from, and what they’re going to do throughout their lives. Same with planets and galaxies and nebulae.

But, the first step is to go out there and gaze.

There’s a project going on in the first two weeks of October called the Great World Wide Star Count. It’s aimed at anybody who wants to go outside, look up at the stars, and then share what they see with others. It’s a science project, and as such things go, it’s pretty easy. You go outside, look for specific constellations and then come inside and write up what you see in a form on the World Wide Web. Visit the link to find out more. It’s time to step outside to the stars! Start practicing for the Star Count tonight!