Tuesday, July 28, 2020
There is nothing like sitting out by a campfire under the evening sky. This article comes to you from my annual cottage adventure to Tobermory where I visit my good friends to soak in all the goodness and beauty that they have to offer. Our days our filled with paddling trips to various locations. The water is vast and deep and the colours of blue change depending on where we paddle. Deep blues, aquamarines, and the light underneath us moves in magical ways. We paddle and then we stop, swim and eat really good food and talk about our lives and our futures and we just soak in the energy. Even though the Tobermory area is very busy we don’t see anyone on our paddles. We return to the cottage and we do some yoga (we all need to stretch more these days) and we read our books and nap and even indulge in the odd glass of wine! By night we build a campfire and we watch the spectacular sunsets and the evening sky. All the colours ebb and flow and dance in the sky. It is quiet, peaceful, there is no virus in the sky and no one needs a tv or lap top to pass the time. The show is the sky. This year we’ve been watching the comet Neowise. It is the brightest comet to be in the sky in the past 7 years. We have seen it with just our eyes, but binoculars and a scope really help. Neowise can be found in the northwestern sky below, and to the right of the big dipper. I know there is an app that can help you locate it and it is called the “star walk 2 app” and you just enter Neowise and you will get the help you you need. We didn’t need the app because the comet is still bright enough to find, but as we move more into August and the Neowise moves further away from the earth the app might help. The comet became visible to us around 10:30 pm, so about an hour after sunset. You need it to be very dark. The moon is very small right now and so that also helps because it is giving off less light, making it easier to see the comet. The name Neowise comes because the comet was discovered using the Neowise space telescope. “C” obviously stands for comet and the year it was discovered is its name. “F” indicates that the comet was discovered in the second half of March; and number “3” designates that it was the third comet identified in that half month. The beauty of being out at night to look for the comet, is that even if you can’t find it the milk way and the whole evening sky is spectacular. It fills the soul. Those of us that live and and cottage in Haliburton County have this opportunity at our finger tips. As my friend Janine regularly reminds me, we are so very lucky. The next time you will be able to see this comet is in the year 8786, so it’s worth getting out to see it this year! Rumi says “let the water settle, you will see the moon and stars mirrored in your own being.”