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The skies have always fascinated me. The stars, planets, meteors, satellites. All of these objects orbiting over our heads. The skies we see on one side of the world, are they the same on the other? I never thought about it until I moved to Guam and looked up at the night sky and saw nothing familiar. Oh the moon was there all right. But even the moon played tricks on me. When the moon was a crescent, it didn't stand up straight and tall like in the Canadian skies. No, on Guam, the crescent moon lounged on its back, looking very much like a banana. Well that fit, considering banana must be the national fruit of Guam. Or at least it should be. I'll have to share my banana leather post in another blog. But I was talking about the moon...and the stars. It took me several months on Guam before I found the big dipper. I had just assumed that my favorite constellation couldn't be seen from this side of the world. But one day I was looking up at the stars and by turning my head I found the big dipper! The problem was the angle. Like the moon, the big dipper does not look like a frying pan ready to cook, but is tipped over on its side. I will try to find pictures to illustrate this point as it's hard to describe in words. The point is, the big dipper can be seen from Guam, and so could other more familiar stars and planets as I learned my way around Guam's night skies.  Big dipper as seen in the Canadian Skies Big Dipper as seen from GuamTonight we were blessed with a unique phenomenon that could never be duplicated back in Canada. First you need to know the background. My husband had the two littlest kids and made the big mistake of trying to go pick up a couple of items at the grocery store. On the first day of the month. Not a good idea around here. Typically the beginning of the month is food stamp and WIC day and if it corresponds with a gov't payday, well, let's just say the grocery store is NOT the place you want to be. So poor Les was just trying to buy some french bread and barbecue sauce so that we could have Barbecue Turkey for dinner (recipe will be posted soon). However, the crowd did him in and he put the items aside and hustled the kids out of the store. I imagine his mood was a tad dark. Anyway, as they drove out of the parking lot, he happened to look up into the sky and saw the following sight. Jupiter and Venus were side by side in the night sky , brightly opposing each other, with Venus being slightly brighter. And under these two bright planets was the crescent moon. Lounging on its back. SMILING down on Guam. Remember the banana moon? Les showed this to the kids, laughing as he pointed to the sky. "Did God make that?" asked Cassie. "Yup, God sure did" Les replied. "Guess God knew you needed a smile tonight"  (photo courtesy of Jean Olech, Guam http://theochronicles.blogspot.com/)Yes indeed. God smiled down on us tonight on Guam. |
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Posted by Kandy
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