Look up
...And then look up what you see
At this time of year the fields near my house are filled with geese. On my dog walks, I enjoy watching them plodding about, feeding from the ground, occasionally flapping at one another. I stop digging at the allotment the moment I hear them honking from the skies, and stand still to marvel at them flying over my head in impressive formations. I catch glimpses of them from the corner of my eye out of my office window while I work. But beyond figuring out that I’m seeing at least three species - Canada, greylag, Egyptian - I don’t know much about them and I can’t quite figure out their habits. So that’s my mission for next week. If you have any top secret goose information, or you’re a waterfowl expert, please kindly slide into my DMs!
With this in mind, your task for this week is to look up. What do you see?
When I looked up on my walk yesterday morning, not only did I see the geese flying over, but I squinted at the rising sun, cooed at the pink-hued clouds and smiled at Venus hanging out with the crescent Moon. What a treat!
If, like me, anything you see makes you curious, do some research into it. Here are a few prompts in case you need some inspiration…
Look up the cloud types
What kind of clouds do you see? I always think it’d be really cool to be able to just point at a cloud and confidently reel off its cloud type and what it means… But the only way I’ll be able to do that is to actually do some learning.
Did you know….
Apparently the phrase ‘on cloud nine’ has origins in cloud classification! Back in the 1800s, a number from 0 to 9 was assigned to each of the ten cloud groups. Zero represented the lowest clouds (stratus), and nine represented the tallest clouds (cumulonimbus). So if you’re on cloud nine, you’ll be the highest you can be!
Look up rainbows
If I had a pound for every time I said “Looks like rainbow weather to me” and then a rainbow magically appeared before me, I’d have, well, at least a fiver I reckon! There seems to be a particular shade of grey sky that brings rainbows, but despite my rainbow premonition skills, I really don’t know much about them. So, I’m going to take myself back to school, and learn about rainbows (when I Googled this, almost every resource was intended for kids!).
Did you know…
All rainbows are actually full circles, but unless you are on an aircraft, or standing on a very tall building, you’re likely to only see a semicircle.
Look up something Astronomical
This week, not only have I noticed Venus and Jupiter in the night sky, but I discovered the Rosette Nebula too (which, despite only looking like a tiny pink dot, made me very excited)!
It’s a new Moon on Monday, so now is a great time to look at stars, as the sky is at its darkest. I use an app called Star Tracker to help me ID what I am seeing in the sky, but there are loads of apps out there now. Play around and find one that works for you, or go old school with a book of constellations. I also love to look at the full Moon with my binoculars, which is the closest to a telescope I’m gonna get.
Why not spend some time getting to know the Moon, Sun, planets and stars this weekend? Here are some ideas to get your brain whirring…
Did you know…
Every atom in your body - the iron in your blood, the calcium in your bones, the oxygen in your lungs - was formed in a star. These elements essential for life didn’t exist during the Big Bang, they haven’t been around forever, they were forged in the fiery furnaces of stars. Stars shine because they are powered by a process called nuclear fusion. In the dense cores of stars like our Sun, huge amounts of energy are released when less massive elements (like hydrogen) are combined into more massive ones (like helium). This takes incredibly high temperatures and dense concentrations of hydrogen molecules, which is exactly what the cores of stars are made of. Stars constantly fuse hydrogen into helium until they run out, and then they start to fuse progressively heavier elements (like carbon and oxygen). But to create the heaviest elements, a star has to explode or go supernova. It has to die. In fact, it’s completely possible that the iron and calcium and oxygen in your body are from more than one star. Multiple stars may have died long ago in order for you to be alive today.
(Huge shout out to Sarah Barker for sending me this fact! Learn more from Sarah in her book, 50 Things to See in the Sky)
Look up that bird
Maybe there’s a bird you see or hear all the time but you still can’t figure out what it is. Or maybe you know what the bird is, but you don’t know anything about it (like me and my geese!). This is your prompt to download the birdsong app, look in the bird book, visit a bird reserve… get to know that bird!
Last Friday’s email referenced a Mary Oliver poem, Invitation, which prompted us to take a moment to linger, particularly for goldfinches going about their business. After hitting send on the newsletter, I headed out on my morning walk, only to be greeted by a charm of goldfinches in a spot I’ve never noticed them (but where they probably are often!) - that’s what the video above is.
So keep looking up… you never know what you might spot!
You might also like…
Look to the moon
Did you know that each full moon has a name? Most of these moon names originate from Native Americans, as tribes used the lunar phases as a method of timekeeping. Different tribes had different names for the full moons which were then adopted by colonial Americans and are now part of many people’s vernacular.
Follow your curiosity
Following my curiosity is what led me to start this newsletter. I got curious about one thing and it led me to learn so much more. I’d like to encourage you to do the same.
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Cloud types! This sounds like such a fun thing to learn. Will be my next thing to research. :)