First, Carolina and I went star-gazing Saturday night. We had a blast. We took a couple of folding chairs out to a dirt field at Ave L and 90th West. The weather was perfect, with a mild breeze at times. There was more traffic than I expected and we were bothered with headlights for a while, but it got quieter. There was significant light pollution looking back toward Lancaster (east) but the rest of the sky was very good.
I could identify lots of constellations and Carolina learned a lot of them. We also identified many bright stars and a couple of planets. Even with the light pollution I found the Andromeda Galaxy again with my binoculars and with my telescope. Carolina learned how to find the Andromeda Galaxy with the binoculars. I even guessed at four constellations (Aries, Triangulum, Aquarius and Capricorn) I had only seen on charts. I checked Google sky when I got home and found out I was right on all four! The night was great for the astronomy and also for a very relaxing and enjoyable time together.
Second, a little more on Hercules. I forgot I had already put together pictures from http://www.acmecompany.com/stock_thumbnails to try to understand Hercules. I took that picture and updated it with my new-found knowledge of the more modern Hercules. Here is the composite.
The traditional Hercules is the drawing. I traced the new Hercules with green lines. The new right leg uses faint stars not in the traditional picture. The other constellations give reference. Their position and size is not exact, but I tried to get close to help visualize this part of the sky. Below Hercules is Ophiuchus holding Serpens. To the right of Hercules is Corona Borealis, Boötes and the Big Dipper (Ursa Major or Big Bear). At the right-bottom is Virgo. Not in the picture, the bright star Vega (in Lyra) is to the left of Hercules. Looking at Vega on the charts and in the sky helped me orient Hercules (both pictures) correctly.
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