玩美手札: 皇家島國家公園(Isle Royale National Park)

2012.08.11

吃完晚餐後大家都累癱了，雖然我也累到全身痠痛，但還是要堅持我旅遊的原則：能看日出就要早起，能看星空就要晚睡! 休息到天黑就到碼頭邊看星星，最近很希望能拍到處女座，而且它最近也很好認，因為土星和火星都在上面，雖然很快就找到了，但是天空還不夠暗，沒辦法拍得很清楚，覺得好可惜。
After dinner, everyone was exhausted. Though my whole body felt sore, I still insisted I follow my traveling principle of getting up early to see the sunrise and going to bed late to see all the stars! I took a rest till the sky became dark and then I went to the dock for star-gazing. Recently, I hope I can take the picture of the Virgo. It's beautiful because the Saturn and Mars were on it lately. Though I found it very quickly, it's a pity that I could not take the photo very clearly due to the remaining of the sunlight.

剛到碼頭時，一個也在那邊拍星星的老先生(其實也才55)，教我怎麼用相機拍銀河，我以為他有赤道儀，沒想到他不用赤道儀就可以拍出漂亮的銀河。後來我也成功拍到銀河了，不過有些模糊。應該是他的相機比我好，他有ISO6400, 我的相機最高只到3200, 希望以後開始賺錢可以有機會換台好相機，也買個赤道儀，拍到銀河和星團也是我一生的夢想。
As I arrived at the dock, an old man was there, taking the photos of the beautiful night sky. He taught me how to take the photo of the milky way. At first, I thought he might have equatorial mount so that he could take the photo of the milky way but he didn't. I used his method with my camera and took a photo of the milky way the first time I tried. Though it's a little blur due to the quality of the camera. (He has ISO 6400 but I only have ISO 3200) I hope I can buy a better camera and an equatorial mount after I earn more money in the future. It has been a dream my whole life to take beautiful pictures of the milky way and clusters.

銀河(Milky Way)

這輩子從沒見過這麼完美的星空，沒月亮、沒雲、沒光害。我就靜靜的躺在碼頭上，拍我認識的星座，偶而瞥見劃過夜空的流星，伴隨著潛鳥的叫聲和狼嚎，四周環繞著蘇必略湖的湖水。這寧靜又漂亮的晚上讓我忘記所有早上健行的疲憊。

There was no moon, no cloud and no light that night! I have never seen such a perfect condition for star-gazing before the night! I then laid down on the dock, taking photos of constellations, hearing loon whistling and wolf hauling, seeing shooting stars cut through the night sky with the water of the Lake Superior around. The tranquil and beautiful night let me forget all the sore and pain due to the 17 miles hiking in the day time.

我知道每年八月多都有英仙座流星雨，但早在大三在中央第一次被教看星座的那天，就是在流星雨的極大期被教的，想想這也是個很有趣的機緣，本來對星空沒興趣的我，第一次看星星就是看流星雨，因而愛上了觀星這個活動。所以我並沒有注意今年哪天是流星雨級大期，我以為是八月底但老先生告訴我就是今天，雖然被告知但我的目的是拍所有我認得的星座，所以也沒很認真看流星雨。就這樣邊拍也看到了將近30顆的流星。老先生還教我怎麼分辨在天空跑的衛星哪些是GPS衛星，那些是軍事的，有看到一個特亮的，他告訴我是太空站，真酷!!我第一次看到國際太空站在天空跑!

I knew there is a Perseid meteor shower in the end of August every year. The first time I was taught to recognize the constellations about 6 years ago, my friend took me to see the Perseid meteor shower. Thus, I didn't really care about when was the meteor shower this year. However, I was very lucky because the old man told me that night was the best night to see the perseid meteor shower this year. Even though I didn't concentrate on seeing shooting stars because I came to the Isle Royale for taking the photos of constellations I know, I still saw almost 30 shooting stars. The old man also taught me how to recognize different satellites running in the night sky. Some were for GPS, some for military and we saw one which was very bright, he told me it was the International Space Station(ISS). It's so cool and it was the first time I saw a ISS running in the night sky!

這次旅程看到4顆行星(金星、火星、木星和土星)、大約30顆的流星、畫過整個夜空的銀河、拍到26個星座、無數個衛星和一個國際太空站，而且是我第一次拍到自己的星座!!(因為水瓶座太暗肉眼看不到)，實在是太美好的一個夜晚了!

This trip I saw 4 planets (Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), about 30 shooting stars, the whole milky way, 26 constellations, several satellites and one International Space Station! Moreover, it was the first time that I took the photo of my sign! (The Aquarius is too dark to be seen by naked eye) What a wonderful night!