And this is how we did it

[Watchful]

Wound up doing some tree trimming yesterday. And like every time, a couple of minutes of light tree trimming turns into a massive forestry operation as you begin to notice--and address--more and more dead limbs.

So a two-minute job wound up, two hours later, filling a portion of my backyard with dead limbs (some quite large). Although I hadn't planned on it, we wound up having a bonfire.

The neighbors came over--bearing wine and beer--and gathered. I wound up giving an impromptu demonstration of how to feed long longs into a fire (star fire) so that they don't need a lot of cutting. We wound up with a gorgeously hot fire that went from 5:30 - 9:30pm. And all the scrap was gone.

As the fire stabilized, the stars came out. And I pointed out to the kids in the group Venus (beautifully suspended over the crescent moon), Mars (high overhead and orange), and cool, blue Saturn to the left of Mars in Leo. Castor and Pollux, Arcturus, and Regulus and Denebola were quite clear in the slightly cloudy skies. Then I pointed straight overhead and the kids got excited when one of them recognized what I was aiming it. The Big Dipper.

Using the pointer stars, we found Polaris easily. The adults now got excited when I explained you can not only find North reliably this way, but could even work out your approximate latitude by how many degrees above the horizon the star is.

You don't have to travel far from home to teach and share some outdoor skills. I'm not sure, though, how I'll top it next time.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

You don't have to travel far from home to teach and share some outdoor skills. I'm not sure, though, how I'll top it next time.

Do it all again -- as soon as a neighbor needs a tree trimmed.

(I edited your title because this is not off-topic!)

 

[Mistwalker]

Wound up doing some tree trimming yesterday. And like every time, a couple of minutes of light tree trimming turns into a massive forestry operation as you begin to notice--and address--more and more dead limbs.

So a two-minute job wound up, two hours later, filling a portion of my backyard with dead limbs (some quite large). Although I hadn't planned on it, we wound up having a bonfire.

The neighbors came over--bearing wine and beer--and gathered. I wound up giving an impromptu demonstration of how to feed long longs into a fire (star fire) so that they don't need a lot of cutting. We wound up with a gorgeously hot fire that went from 5:30 - 9:30pm. And all the scrap was gone.

As the fire stabilized, the stars came out. And I pointed out to the kids in the group Venus (beautifully suspended over the crescent moon), Mars (high overhead and orange), and cool, blue Saturn to the left of Mars in Leo. Castor and Pollux, Arcturus, and Regulus and Denebola were quite clear in the slightly cloudy skies. Then I pointed straight overhead and the kids got excited when one of them recognized what I was aiming it. The Big Dipper.

Using the pointer stars, we found Polaris easily. The adults now got excited when I explained you can not only find North reliably this way, but could even work out your approximate latitude by how many degrees above the horizon the star is.

You don't have to travel far from home to teach and share some outdoor skills. I'm not sure, though, how I'll top it next time.

Sounds like an awesome turn of events! Gotta love it when work transends into fun. I teach a lot of different skills in my back yard, but being between two ridges finding polaris is about the extent of the night-time navigation lesson and that's not even visible from the fire pit area.

 

[Watchful]

I *did* top it, Esav!

I went out this morning to dispose of the ashes, and my neighbors were all out gardening, etc. I'm the late morning guy: they're all up early.

Anyway, as I stirred the ashes, I found a chunk of coal still warm to the touch from last night.

So I cracked it slightly, and a tiny curl of smoke came out of it.

I quickly gathered some tinder and sprinkled it around the coal. I blew on it from a slight height, and got a definite wisp of smoke. I turned and grabbed a plastic cover from this tupperware-like container the kids keep their sidewalk chalk in and fanned it.

About thirty seconds later, foof! Flame. I threw on more tinder and added kindling. I had a roaring fire back. The neighbors' reaction was total disbelief (I did this same trick in the past and wrote about it here, some of you may recall). One neighbor: "We voted; you're back in the tribe."

Thus: bringing a fire back from the dead is more impressive than astronomy. It's still burning strong right now as I write this.

 

[Watchful]

Sounds like an awesome turn of events! Gotta love it when work transends into fun. I teach a lot of different skills in my back yard, but being between two ridges finding polaris is about the extent of the night-time navigation lesson and that's not even visible from the fire pit area.

Thanks, bud!

You don't need Polaris to navigate by the stars, of course: but once you learn all the stars that point to it, you can navigate North even when Polaris is behind a cloud or below the horizon. For those interested in this trick, note the constellations of Cassiopeia and Orion: stars within both point to Polaris. There is no place on the Northern horizon...or just below the Equator...where one of these constellations (UMi, UMj, Cas, Ori) are not visible under clear skies at night.

Here's some more comments on it for the Northern Hemisphere dwellers.

And don't think I wouldn't take care of my friends South of the Equator as well!

 

[TheGame]

That is cool. I honestly never paid attention to the stars, as I usually can't see them from anywhere in my yard with all of the trees that are overhead blocking my view. Thanks for sharing :thumbup: