The beauty of the night sky as it was meant to be seen Story by Jennifer Shea Photography by Cindy Conlin It seems there are increasingly more celestial events encouraging us to look up to the night sky. At the end of January, sky watchers were treated to a Blue Moon (second full moon in a month), a Blood Moon (total lunar eclipse) and a Supermoon, (when the moon is at the closest point to Earth in its orbit). The lunar event was promoted as a Super Blue Blood Moon, a rare event not seen in North America for more than 150 years. Terence Dickinson is a Yarker-based astronomy expert who has been watching, photographing, teaching, and writing about the night sky for 50 years. Ask him about these seemingly increasing celestial phenomena and he chuckles. “Media more and more are
latching on to these celestial events that seem to be of public interest. They do get people out to look, but they’re based on astrological mumbo-jumbo.” In fact, many of the recent events featured in the media are regular occurrences in the night sky. A Supermoon, for example, appears once every year. That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t take the time to look up at the night sky. Unfortunately, for a large part of the population, light pollution from highly populated areas prevents a clear look at the sky at night. “The light-pollutionfree night sky is now something that 80 per cent of the population of Canada has never properly seen,” said Terence. “Because they don’t know where to go; they don’t know what to look for.”