Summer Stars and the Compass Rose

Mary Stewart Adams, Star Lore Historian, and founding member of the team that established Michigan’s only internationally-designated dark sky park, will share the celestial highlights of the coming season, with its meteor showers, twinkling planets and brilliant stars. In addition, participants will create a compass rose of wind and stars.

On historical navigation maps, a “compass rose” usually appears as an 8-pointed star used to indicate the cardinal and ordinal directions. On a ship’s compass, these points were named for the wind that came from that direction.

The sidereal compass rose, or “rose of stars” on the other hand, marked 32 compass points based on certain stars as they rose and set in the sky. This type of compass originated with the nomadic desert tribes, who traveled through their lands gleaning direction from the stars, rather than as sailors did, by making best use of prevailing winds.

Joining the roses of wind and stars is a beautiful way to celebrate the season artistically and contemplatively!

Immediately following Mary Stewart Adams’s presentation, Paul Nelson of Creator’ Hand Photography will display some of his amazing works of astro photography and explain basic techniques behind the art.

Delta Astronomical Society invites you outside to look at the celestial bodies after 9:30 p.m. – as soon as it gets dark – weather permitting.