Spending the night outside during the hot summer months is really clever to cool down and let the day wind down. Here, in Austria, I have always had a pretty clear view up to the stars. When we were kids we had a bonfire in our garden and we spend hours watching the stars and here and there we claimed to have seen shooting stars. “Duuuude, what’s that blinking light up there, a UFO?” Just before I knew what a UFO was, I always wondered who was in charge of switching up all these lights? I knew it had something to do with Star Trek and all those space ships, but never really had time to elaborate on it in a scientific fashion. Too bad, right?

The dark sky and the little dots have always had a lot of fascination in store for us when we were young and, to be honest, never lost any of its glamour.

Don’t know much about astronomy, but that’s not the point of contemplating about life and its meaning when watching the sky all night, right? · photo by jahdakinebrah

On 4th of July and the 5th of July there is a really nice alignment of stars, planets and the moon that you should check out. Mars Phoenix whispered into my ear that Mars, Saturn and the Moon align beautifully after twilight. You shouldn’t miss that.

Read the Nasa entry on Planets Align for 4th of July. See the sky maps to help you navigate through the endless see of stars.

Happy Fourth of July to all my American visitors!