Our first attempt at stargazing. Cold and uncomfortable but my daughter (age 9) loved it. I learnt a lot about how to do it better next time.
Saturday 25 January, Clear skies, 5°C
It’s a beautiful cold sunny day today but B doesn’t want to move. We’ve both got the low energy January blues. With the benefit of hindsight, I should probably have made her get out into the beautiful sunshine. Later I find out it’s the RSPB’s birdwatching weekend. It would have been perfect. Instead, I suggest a more extreme option.
Me: “Let’s go stargazing.”
B is keen. I knew she would be, which is why I went for it. There are several things that make it attractive. First off, it’s going out at night, which she loves (both because it’s exciting and because it means she can have a later bedtime). Also, she is really keen on the stars. They did a session in brownies a few months ago and she has remembered a lot of the constellations. Plus, it means she doesn’t have to go out in the daytime and can veg on the sofa all day, which is what she wants to do. I’m tired too so putting it off means we can both have a quietish day and do little.
This definitely works better for B than me. B is full of energy by dusk, ready to run for miles. I’m feeling sleepy and getting out is a challenge. We had a plan to do about an hours drive to get to a really good spot but I’ve decided by this point it’s too much. We’ll do a smaller practice session instead. There’s a beach about fifteen minutes drive from us which should be dark enough to see and which we know well.
I’m determined to prepare for this better than the sunrise trip a few weeks ago (see challenge 357). I’m not planning a fire, I don’t think we’ll be there long enough for it to be worth it, so instead settle for taking a picnic blanket to sit on, B’s sleeping bag to keep her warm, hot drinks and snacks. Also, the big torch. Packing everything into a big ikea bag I stagger out to the car.
B is really enjoying already. She starts looking for stars in the car and is very opinionated about which she thinks is which. I’ve googled star maps and advice blogs beforehand and drawn out a map but am not confident I’m going to spot any more than Orions belt. We park and stagger round towards a particularly dark bit of beach and I realise this is going to be trickier than I’d anticipated.
It’s a stony beach and hard to walk on in daylight. B takes over the torch and guides me well, heading off like a mountain goat to a place she thinks will be good. It’s pitch black and very quiet. No one’s about. We put down our blanket and try sitting on it. B pushes me off so she can get cosy, taking off her shoes and coat and snuggling happily into her sleeping bag. I’m wishing I’d brought one for me too! The stones under the blanket are not in good places and I spend five minutes moving them round in the dark to try and make a good seating area. By the time I sit down I’m freezing. I try lying down. It’s not as comfy as B is making it look! I feel very wary and vulnerable, out in the pitch dark with no one about. Logically I think it’s fine. There are houses around and there really isn’t anyone there. But my instincts are not happy and I feel like a dog with it’s heckles up, wary of everything.
That said, the stars are amazing. There’s a light glow of course from the other side of the channel and the distant pub but there’s no cloud and, lying down, we can see so many stars and different constellations. I see Orion’s arrow and sword as well as his belt. I’m really pleased with myself. B meanwhile is rattling off all the different ones she can see and pointing them out. I’m fairly certain she’s talking rubbish but she’s enjoying herself and who knows, she might be right. She sees patterns everywhere. I find it better to sit up in the end. I feel safer that way and enjoy listening to the water.
We’ve been there about thirty minutes and I’m ready to go home but B would stay there for hours if she could. I’m pondering getting her up when suddenly a car drives down the road, stops and 4 shadowy male figures get out chatting. I freeze, aware that we look odd and then, panicking, tell B that we should go. With hindsight we’d have been fine staying I think but I was cold and stiff and it all began to feel outside my control a bit. B caught my panic too and get scared and we packed everything up quickly and hurried back to the car. We passed the men as we did who were very nice and I felt very silly. I wasn’t sorry to get back in the car though. B was. She wanted to stay much longer.
So lessons learned? Next time we’ll definitely think more about where we are going to go, if we’re going to feel safe and where we’re going to sit. The stony beach was the biggest mistake, I think. Given the cold and how hard it was to carry stuff anyway next time I’d try for somewhere that was easier to enter and exit and more comfortable when we are there! That said, we’ll definitely try it again. It’s working out the logistics of when (too cold in the winter, too late in the summer) and where. I’m hoping to work out a dream scenario where we can stay long, stay warm and both be comfy and happy.
We’re left with the issue of the 341 picture. It’s so dark we have very few options bar more stones. I tentatively think we could do it with the picnic blanket and things but it’s too cold and damp to be sensible. B sorts it out.
“I’ll do a picture. When we get home. With stars on it”.
That works. She hides Orion’s belt in the bottom of the three for people to spot and asks when we can go again.
Leave a Reply