The stories the skies tell...

"Did you know... that the ancient Greeks called stars aster (which is where we get the word astronomy). The Romans said 'stella'. Our word star comes from the Old German word for star, 'sterno'."

My fascination with a night sky filled with stars began in 1998 when I was in Germany. I remember being on a walk with my host family after Christmas Eve dinner. My host mother Eva was home playing the angel who arrives with all the presents. It was a cold night but the sky was really clear. I was missing my family. Out of nowhere my host brother Frank points and shows me 'the hunter.' He makes some comment about how amazing it is that all around the world everybody looks at the same beautiful sky. From that night on whenever I am missing home I just go out and spend a few minutes looking at the same night sky my family and friends around the world see.

"Did you know... that as you explore the different cultures and peoples from around the world you will find that they all see different objects, gods and creatures in the same night sky."

There are two places in Michigan where I have seen the most gorgeous star filled skies. One, Brock's parents house. They live in this log cabin out on a lake. There are no city lights whatsoever. So many nights we go down to the lake and just stand their starring up. The stars are literally around us like a dome - just gorgeous- millions of twinkling smiles.

Two, Nordhouse sand dunes in Ludington Michigan. This summer my last weekend in Michigan I organized a camping weekend with my fellow AIESECers and Delphi trainees. We hiked out to these deserted Michigan lake shore dunes, set up a few tents, made a fire, cooked some food and enjoyed a glorious evening together. Where we were camping the dunes were like giant ski moguls- we were in this little crater with walls of sand around us. At one point Li'er, Ming, Jorge and some others are missing. Turns out they are in the next crater watching shooting stars. The sky was just glorious and they had never seen stars like that before. I saw two shooting stars that night. And my AIESEC friends experienced the beauty of Northern Michigan and slept under a star filled sky billions of miles away.

"Did you know... that it takes eight minutes for light from the sun to travel to the Earth. Light from the sun takes over four years to travel to the nearest star."

In NYC I hardly ever see the stars and when I do it is maybe 1 star. In September at Scott's rooftop party I saw like 10 stars and was so excited! Incredible. Now when I try I can see one or two from my apartment steps. To compensate Brock and I created our own constellations on my ceiling. At night before I go to sleep I love looking at them. My mom and aunt have been the only ones to sleep in my bed since their creation - they couldn't really guess what they were. We'll see what the next person lucky enough to sleep over thinks :)

"Did you know...stars are formed over millions of years in low density clouds of gas called nebulae."

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered about the stories behind the constellations?

Great bear little bear

Perseus and Andromeda - Cassiopeia

Orion the hunter

"Did you know...Ancient poets identified the Milky Way as the 'road of the gods'."