Day 6: The Night Sky

I mentioned that one of my wishes in New Zealand was to see the night sky. As my first trip south of the equator, I wanted to see the Southern cross and whatever else there was to be seen.  Christchurch and Wellington  had too many lights and it had been cloudy in Picton so I hadn't had a real chance yet.

Elder Carter knew the perfect place and we headed out there after the gathering.  The Church owns a camp outside of town and we parked in the road into that property. The world around us was dark and made viewing the gorgeous night sky perfect.  Parts of the Milky Way crossed through the sky.  Kevin was able to show us the Southern Cross and how to determine where south was.  I didn't know this--but there isn't something like the north star in the south.  Sailors and travelers had to use points from the Southern Cross and another star below it and triangulate the position of south in the sky.  You can see Orien on the low horizon.  It was amazing!

From the internet--how it works

Here is my one poor attempt to document the night sky....This is the Southern Cross and the lower pointer stars which help determine south.

It looked just black in my picture gallery so I didn't try to take another one showing the swirl of a portion of the Milky Way.  Now I wish that I had since I was actually able to capture some stars.

This definitely was one of the highlights of the trip for me!