Stargazing: Leo: Fairbanks, AK, USA: 2024-03-01 (publ. 2024-03-06)

I enjoyed a brief stargazing session last Friday morning, around 5am. I only did naked-eye stargazing, mostly studying Leo. Here are Stellarium screenshots trying to reproduce what I saw:

Leo

Leo (with labels)

Aside from all the main stars covered by the purple lines, I remember being able to see ι, σ, ο, β, ρ, λ Leo as well as ν Vir. I seem to recall seeing 93 and κ Leo also but don't want to swear to it.

I noticed the interesting area north of Leo as well:

area north of Leo

area north of Leo (with labels)

The beautifully arranged pairs and triplets of stars there seemed like they might be one constellation, but I realized later they are parts of multiple constellations. I like to say "arranged" here to emphasize that it is God who put the stars in their particular locations for our enjoyment and his glory. While I don't want to advocate for a "gospel in the stars" position, which might be going too far, we certainly need to abandon the atheistic notion that the arrangement and relative brightness of the stars is essential random, due to nothing more than the happenstance forming of the stars and galaxies after the supposed big bang.

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