Cruisers are unusually fortunate when it comes to astronomical opportunities. We enjoy dark skies and quiet evenings with few distractions. If we’re sailing offshore, we’ll stand watches through the night. Add in a clear sky, and you’ve got all the ingredients you need for a rewarding stargazing session.

Some of the original stargazers were mariners, of course. Nautical astronomy is a specialized discipline in its own right, concerned with precise predictions and complicated mathematics, all aimed at determining a vessel’s position. Although I’ve dabbled with celestial navigation (I can take a noon sight and work out a position from it), that’s not really what I want to discuss.

No, I mean “stargazing”, pure and simple. When you’re cruising, amateur astronomy makes for great entertainment. While sailing from Honolulu to Seattle, we used the masthead windex to steer. For two hours every night, I stared at the windex, reclining athwartships across the back of the cockpit, steering with one hand and one foot. I got to watch, and watch, and just watch some more, the darkest skies imaginable, and I learned a lot.

Mostly, I learned that the sky is really very busy! There is an awful lot going on up there. For one thing, there’s just a lot to see, much of which we either can’t see (because we live in light-polluted human settlements) or just never bother to look at. For another, there’s more action than you would think! Satelites and shooting stars punctuate the night at regular intervals. There was almost never a time when there wasn’t something moving up there, in addition to the vast multitude of (apparently) stationary objects, and the rich band of the Milky Way running right through it all.

But even if you never go offshore, and are never underway at night, on your boat you’ll encounter stargazing opportunities that would be the envy of your city-bound astronomical brethren. Take advantage of them.

Over the next several days, I’ll discuss equipment, resources, and techniques that you can use to make simple “gee-whiz” stargazing an even more rewarding experience, maybe even an educational one. Stay tuned!

(Skip ahead to part 2, part 3, or part 4.)