Today we have something a bit different.  One of your fellow readers – William – went on a trip to Zimbabwe and I gave him a couple of star charts.  He provided the following story about the trip.  It is VERY interesting and brings up something I never would have dreamed.   So a great big THANK YOU to William for this excellent write up!!

My First Glimpse of the Southern Sky

Viewing the night sky wasn’t my primary reason for going to Zimbabwe.  But this was my first trip to Africa and I wanted to see, and experience as much as I could. My trip would not be complete without several nights of star gazing. Since this was my first time south of the equator I knew there would be stars and constellations visible that I couldn’t see from my home in North America. So I did a little research, and made my “wish list”. I even emailed Tom for his help with star charts and his suggestions of what I just couldn’t leave Africa without seeing.

We flew into Harare (S17 49’ 57” by E31 4’ 9”) on September 19 and as we walked through the parking lot to our car I was already checking out the night sky. The moon was high over head. It looked very bright and the surface features were really easy to make out. There were two planets, one on each side of the moon, that were visible as well; but I could only make out a few stars. Well, I thought, this is Harare, the capital and one of the three largest cities in Zimbabwe. It’s just light pollution ruining my view. I’m sure I’ll be totally blown away by the night sky once we get to Mashoko.

Mashoko (S20 25’ 37” by E30 49’ 39”) was four hundred fifty-four kilometers to the south and it took us six hours to travel there. The last fifty-four kilometers were over unimproved dirt roads in such poor shape that it was impossible to travel over 25 KM/h. We arrived at sunset and after we unloaded the cars and unpacked the suitcases I took a quick peek at the sky. The moon was up and I could see Jupiter, and one or two stars; but that was it. The next night I made sure to get outside before the moonrise. I could see a few more stars than the night before, but only those directly overhead. Then when the moon came up it was like someone flipped a switch and all the stars blinked out of view.

Each night was the same story. I could see a few stars directly overhead before the moonrise but then nothing once the moon was up. I had come to Zimbabwe with a group from my church to volunteer at the Mashoko Christian Hospital. The hospital is situated inside a compound and there are security lights around so I was convinced that even in rural Mashoko light pollution was stealing the show. So I asked my friend Munya (pronounced Moon-ya) where I could go where it was dark enough to really see the stars. “You can’t see any stars, it hasn’t rained”. That statement made no sense to me at all. To me rain means clouds and clouds mean no visibility, no stars, and no way to see the night sky. Munya went on to explain that we were at the end of the dry season. And because it hadn’t rained in over two months the air was filled with dust and smoke from grass fires that had sprung up all over the countryside. This dust and smoke reflected light and made seeing any stars next to impossible. He said that until the rains came and “washed” the dust and smoke out of the atmosphere there was nowhere to go and nothing to see in the night sky. I was devastated!  I knew that it was the end of their winter and that where as we were going into fall they were starting into spring but I never would’ve thought it would affect my star gazing.

I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to see any of the “new” stars and constellations in the southern hemisphere. We finished our week working at the hospital and I’d go out each night and look up into the heavens and only see what few stars were directly overhead hoping and wishing for some rain before we had to head back to the states.

We had planned to spend the last two and a half days of our trip doing some sightseeing and we traveled west and north from Mashoko to Victoria Falls ( S18 25’ 1.4” by E26 39’49”) and we spent one day and two nights at a Safari Camp. So here I am the day before I have to head back home and I still haven’t seen what I wanted to see. I did notice that the moon was rising later in the evening giving me more time to look at what star were visible. So I pulled our host / guide aside at the Safari Camp and I told him my story. I explained that I didn’t want to be late night snack for a hungry lioness but I did want to see stars. Was there anywhere I could go where it was dark enough to see what I wanted to see? So later that day the owner told me that he was going to have one of the guides take me out away from all the artificial light and give me some time to see what I could see. My guide’s name was Gary and after dinner he and I jumped into one of the pickup trucks and we headed out into the bush. Gary took me to a clearing where just a few hours before I had seen a pride of 6 lions resting in the high grass. Gary steers the truck to the center of this clearing and then pulls a 360 shining the headlights into the bush to see if there were any “critters” lying in wait. He then turns off the headlights shuts off the engine and says “hop out!”

So we hopped out. Here I am in Africa, with someone I’ve only just met, standing in a clearing, in the dark, waiting for my eyes to adjust and the only thing going through my head is my mother saying “now Bill when you go to Africa, remember to stay with the group!” After about twenty minutes the sky started to light up. I could see the Milky Way. I hadn’t seen the Milky Way that bright since I was a teenager. Then I made out the Southern Cross, and I saw some stars and constellations that I couldn’t identify from memory. I had some trouble keeping my compass directions straight, I’m used to looking south to see the elliptical and now it was more overhead and a little bit north. All the stars that I could see seemed very close like I could almost reach out and touch them. But even here I couldn’t see anything down close to the horizon. The dust and smoke in the atmosphere still blocked our view.

After an hour or so Gary said he knew of another place we could go that might afford an even better view. So we jumped into the truck and headed across the field. We hadn’t traveled more than 300-400 meters when a herd of Impalas ran in front of the truck frightened out of their resting place. Obviously something was out hunting. Unfortunately the second location wasn’t any better than the first. Objects directly over head were bright and brilliant but we couldn’t see anything else.

There were several things on my wish list that I didn’t get to see, but what I did see was beautiful. What did I learn from my experience? I learned that if I’m ever going to travel eight thousand miles and hope to gaze at the night sky I’ve really got to do my homework. I’m not just going to research to see what stars and constellations should be visible I’m going to take time to learn about the climate, season, and atmospheric conditions for the time of year that I’m visiting. I’m going to know about anything that could potentially hinder my viewing pleasure. Even more importantly I was reminded how beautiful the stars can be, and that even if I didn’t see everything that I had hoped to see it was still fun and well worth the effort.

William