Answers to today’s questions at The Friday Five @ Dreamwidth.

1. How many stars can you see in the sky at night where you live? (Not looking for an exact number here, just a general description.)

Too many to count! On a typical clear winter night, the sky is full of stars!

In the fall when it starts to get dark earlier and then in the winter when the nights are long, you can see lots and lots of stars as long if it’s cloudless. The skies are often cloudy though.

Even in the biggest cities the light pollution isn’t so bad that you can’t see the stars if it’s dark out and clear weather. I love that! Most of the summer, the midnight sun night makes the night skies too bright so if you’re looking to stargaze in Finland make sure to come here between September and April or thereabouts. Northern Finland/Lapland is probably the best place for stargazing because all the bigger cities are in the south of Finland but even in our biggest city starry skies are normal due to less light pollution than in say New York or Paris and unpolluted air! Because our biggest combined cities, the Helsinki Metropolitan Area only has about 1 million inhabitants so even our big cities are tiny compared to metropolies of the world (and our entire country has only about 5,5 million people) so our skies are much clearer pollution and light pollution wise. As an example, I live about 20 minute bus ride from Turku city center (about 5 minutes by car), one of t ihe biggest cities in the country, and only have to step out my front door and see all the stars just by looking up if the sky is clear! In the mid-winter a day’s dark time is about 20 hours so plenty of time to observe the sky.

My favorite time of day is in the late fall and winter, when it’s at least almost freezing and the air is crisp and clear and it’s dark and quiet because it’s late, or early, and people are in their homes so the traffic is less than during the day, and you can see all the stars. That’s my favorite time to go for a walk, it’s so peaceful!

2. What is your favorite constellation?

I don’t care about the constellations. But my favorite nebular is Carina Nebula and this is one of my favorite photos of it that I’ve found:

I have so may images of Carina Nebula that I use as my laptop wallpaper!

3. Are you able to see and identify any planets in the sky? Which ones?

I think they can be seen here, but I can’t identify them.

4. Have you ever seen a satellite orbiting above the earth?

As far as I know, only on TV!

5. Have you ever seen a rocket blasted off into space?

Nope, only on TV! It’s my understanding rockets in general including the Finnish rockets, satellites etc. and ones Finland is involved in the creation and use of are blasted off into space by NASA in USA and/or ESA in French Guiana? In locations that are always in the Southern Hemisphere while we are almost at the top of Northern Hemisphere. I’ve never visited those places.