My Gifts Galore

Stargazing is quite possibly the oldest hobby of mankind.  It is also easy to do and can be fun with little knowhow of astronomy.  Here are a few tips for stargazing that should make your experience more enjoyable.

~Check the weather; you won’t be able to see much of anything if it’s cloudy or there is any kind of precipitation.  

~Leave metropolitan areas; you’ll have to travel about thirty minutes outside of major urban centers to find an area suitable for viewing the stars.  Consider asking a local Astronomy Club or Astronomy Professor where best to view the stars. 

~Learn a little about the cosmos; being able to find various entities in the sky will be more enjoyable than just guessing.  Consider a stargazing chart or simply searching around online beforehand. 

~Bring tools of the trade; telescopes or binoculars will allow you to view much more of the night sky, and appreciate the beauty of the stars.

In 1629 a Bavarian nobleman named Philipp Hainhofer described a mechanical organ-like device with automated features, and a mechanical cuckoo bird owned by Prince Flector August von Sachsen.  Hainhofer’s book (where this description was from) contained words and pictures of how the device worked, and this became the first known appearance of the mechanical cuckoo.  Decades later, the first cuckoo clocks were conceived in a region of Germany called the Black Forest, where the mechanical cuckoo was made famous. 

Over the years, cuckoo clocks have become a part of various societies, and are still prized today for their traditional and Bavarian heritage.  In addition, there are contemporary versions of cuckoo clocks with avant-garde designs using geometric shapes, and bereft of the ornate carvings standard on the traditional clocks.