Breathtaking stars

As a child I already had a fascination for stars. I think I was about nine years old when my brother in law pointed out the Big Dipper to me for the first time, and from that moment I was hooked. Although I already owned a book about astronomy when I still lived in the Netherlands and had looked up to the breathtaking sky of the southern hemisphere during our travels, the real fascination came when I came to live here in South Africa. Especially in winter the sky here is so clear that you can see the Milky Way beautifully.

Corné also got interested and together we watched the beautiful stars that we knew so little about at that stage. We learned some basic knowledge about the Southern Cross

and Scorpion from friends who were guides. I knew Orion from when I lived in the Netherlands although the constellation is upside down here on the southern hemisphere. Slowly our knowledge grew and my best friend gave me a star map of the southern hemisphere for my birthday. Coincidentally she had started to do volunteer work at the observatory Mercurius in Dordrecht.  During a holiday in the Netherlands we visited there and got a private tour. That stimulated us even more and we bought books about astronomy, watched all the documentaries and Corné bought his own telescope. Now we know quite a bit about it and, with our guests, we watch planets, star clusters and nebulas through our telescope. We even build a special deck from which we can watch the stars and called it Mercury, after the observatory Mercurius in the Netherlands where it all started. They even gave us a laser pen to point out the stars and constellations.

It is almost autumn here in South Africa and the constellations Taurus and Orion can be seen more in the west now. In the south we can see the Southern Cross rising and in the northeast we can see Leo. The raining season is coming to an end, which means that we will get clear skies in which we can enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the southern stars.

Regards from the bush

Miriam