Journal Entry 13
We attended a Night Wonders Ranger talk near one of the commercial campgrounds in Flamingo tonight! This was one of the most educational parts of the trip for me. Again, as I am being totally honest in this journal, I will confess that I have NEVER been familiar with stars. It is one of the realms of science that I had never explored and it has bothered me for quite some time that I have never taken the time to learn much. Well tonight changed that for me!
During the talk we learned about all the constellations visible to us at that moment. We learned the locations and mythology behind the constellations Orion, Sirius, Betelgeuse, Polaris, Gemini, Leo, Venus, Mars, Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Perseus, and The Seven Sisters!
The ranger presenting was using a laser pointer to show us the constellations. It was absolutely pitch black in the area, I had never seen that many stars in my life! The term light pollution has an entirely new meaning and significance for me now. It is sad that the bright lights of the cities mask the light of the stars above us. Again being completely honest, I feel quite cheated that I live in such a densely populated area of Florida and have been deprived of this incredible sight for so long!
Again, as if this couldn’t get anymore awe-inspiring, we saw fireflies (or lightning bugs) in the bushes surrounding the benches in which we sat. It felt like there were stars all around us as they flew closer to the benches. Almost as if the lines between land, sea, and sky had blurred. I had never felt so small. Again, words escaped me. It felt like there was so much I could say or write about, but at that moment in time, I didn’t want to puncture the stillness of the night with my thoughts or my words.
I did attempt to capture the stars in photos while we were there. But even the photos I have included here don’t come close to doing justice to what we saw that night. I have included marked and unmarked photos of the most visible constellations we saw that night.
(Little Dipper image taken by another colleague on trip in Flamingo, Everglades National Park)
(Orion’s Belt image taken by Viviana Moreno in Flamingo, Everglades National Park)
