Come · away, · O · human · child! · · To · the · waters · and · the · wild.

Ok, so I'm bored and on my way home last night I was star gazing, so I thought I would follow up my previous post and yabber on about some of the things we can see in our night sky at the moment..... 

The Milky Way galaxy is the spiral galaxy we call home, as do roughly 100 billion other stars. It looks very much like other spiral galaxies when viewed from above. There are spiral arms and a bright central part. The Sun is far from the center of the Galaxy, halfway to the edge of the Galaxy along the Orion spiral arm. 

Aquila - The celestial eagle is one of the three constellations which have bright stars forming the Summer Triangle. A nearly perfectly straight line of three stars symbolizes part of the wings. The center and brightest of these three stars is Altair. The tips of the wings extend further to the southeast and northwest. The head of the eagle stretches off to the southwest.

Cygnus - the Swan, is also known as the Northern Cross because of it's shape. The tail of the swan is marked by the bright star Deneb, Arabic for "tail". Three fainter stars cross the line between Deneb and the head of the swan, Albireo. Cygnus flies southward along the summer Milky Way, and into the Summer Triangle. 

Hercules - the great Greek warrior, can be seen kneeling in the sky for northern latitudes throughout the Spring months. Hercules first becomes visible in the east in April, and works his way high across the night sky through October. From the southern hemisphere, he appears low in the north. Four relatively bright stars form what is commonly known as the Keystone. Hercules' arms and legs extend from this central square. 

Lyra - the Lyre, is a type of small harp held in the player's lap. The brightest star in Lyra, Vega, is placed in the handle of the harp. A small parallelogram of four faint stars just to the southeast of Vega outline the harp itself. Lyra is one of three constellations whose brightest stars form the Summer Triangle. 

Ophiuchus - the Serpent Bearer. This large constellation can be seen in the night sky from June through October. Although most of the stars are dim, Ophiuchus' teapot shape makes it easy to find. 

Sagittarius - the centaur, with the torso of a man atop the body of a horse. Unlike the wise and peaceful centaur Chiron (Centauron), Sagittarius is aiming his giant bow at his neighbor, Scorpius. While this is a very large constellation, its stars are relatively faint and most people easily recognize just the central figure which resembles a teapot with a lid, handle, and spout. 

Scorpius - the scorpion.  More than any other constellation, Scorpius resembles its given name. If you live in the northern hemisphere of the Earth, Scorpius crawls across the southern sky, close to the horizon. But if you live in the southern hemisphere, it passes high in the sky. The bright star Antares marks the heart of the arachnid, and its long curving tail trails to the south. The scorpion once had claws, but they were cut off by Julius Ceasar to form the constellation Libra. 

I am feeling:

nerdy

The masters students that I'm supervising are back. *mutters obsenities under breath*

I have enough work to be doing without running around cleaning up their mess.  One day they will learn to read instructions!  One of them said to me today that he has applied for a job in a lab.  I nearly died laughing.  I dread to think what his reference from Stuart (my supervisor) will look like!

Oh well, only one (major) mishap today.  Idiot tried to kill us all by boiling paraformeldehyde out on the bench.  I think I should have locked him in there with it. I am now distinctly light headed and we have a doctor type person coming over to make sure we all ok. Fun!!

On a merrier note, me 'n'ikkleruby are going to look at our potential flat tonight.  I hope it all works out ok.

I am feeling:	F***ing students!
I can hear:	Allergic (to thoughts of mother Earth) - Placebo