Southern hemisphere astronomy

Liz mentioned that she thought she saw Orion a few weeks back. So, when we were on Bruny Island, we took advantage of the total darkness and took a star gazing walk. Turns out, you can see Orion here. Upside down (according to a northern hemisphere orientation). We looked closely and sure enough, the 'sword' is hanging upwards in the sky.

I went looking for more info and found a ton. Some really cool links to photos of auroras, like northern lights. And, folks talk about seeing satellites with binoculars. I'll have to head up to the roof more often when it's clear. Not long after we first arrived, I saw a mammoth shooting star out of our kitchen window. Read reports from Germany, Scandinavia, and Japan of similar sightings. Apparently a meteor shower with some big debris was passing by. Don't get me started about UFO's.

And, I have to mention that each time we speak of Orion, we recall a story that we heard a long way back from Jay Goldspinner, the chorus of which goes "Hippolyte - Queen of the Amazons!" Heralding back to the days when the constellation that is known as Orion nowadays went by a different name. So, we pointed to the sky and chanted her name that in the dark night on Bruny Island, but I pretended to stand on my head.

:-)