Love among the Haystacks - stargazing

Under the stars

I love seeing stars.  When I was a high school student, I was a member of astronomy club. The most interesting activity of our club was to see a star shower.  There are two big chances to see the star shower in a year.  One is Aquarius meteor in May and the other is Perseid meteor in August.  There is a good camping site for our activity in Ikeda-machi.  We went up to the hill and had a camp.  When sun goes down, we started the preparation of observation.  Ten members went into each sleeping bag and lie on the ground in a circle.  In the center of circle, one member sat down on ground and took note how much shooting stars we could count in each direction.  We took turns watching all the night.  All of us tried hard not to sleep, but some members went to sleep during the observation.  The member in the center of circle called over the name every ten minute, but some member didn’t reply.  The midnight was the hardest time for us, but it was the best time for seeing stars.  More and more shooting stars can be seen in the midnight toward morning.  It was silent night and stars were very beautiful in the dark.  We felt the sky was nearer to us. 

Posted by Reko on behalf of Tomoko