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CNN Live At Daybreak

Star Gazing Visions

Aired September 07, 2001 - 07:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
VINCE CELLINI, CNN ANCHOR: Well, this is Friday, a good time to stay up late and catch the stars in the sky or whatever falls from the sky. Some New York and New Jersey residents spotting sparks and a smoky trail across the sky, but it turned out to be space junk. But anyway, another reason to look up at the stars.

And here to talk about our star gazing right now is CNN's Daniel Sieberg. And this is what people saw, but actually just some space junk.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. So in this case we're going to look at some star gazing sites for looking at constellations and maybe people who would want to get into some amateur astronomy and just don't know where to start on the way. So we'll start off with this site. It's called the Astronomical League. And if you go to this site, they've got links to clubs that may be in your particular city. You can get information about where the constellations are in the sky. It's a very comprehensive list that helps you get started maybe meeting people who know more about the subject matter than you do.

The next one we're going to go to is very popular. This is the Web site for the magazine "Sky and Telescope," which is quite a popular magazine in the star and astronomy world. And they've got a really good site, actually. They've got not only a list of where the constellations are but some things to look at, the moon phases, asteroids, message boards and chats and that sort of thing so people can communicate and find out, you know, what they want to look at, what's popular and what's out there.

The next one we'll go to is called Stardate Online. Now, this is a really great site.

CELLINI: It looks like a good site.

SIEBERG: They've got some great stuff. Again, they've got the moon phase and they've got some detailed places on where to look up in the sky. You know, you look up, you just see lots of stars. It's hard to tell where the best place is to look.

CELLINI: So this can actually be a guide? I mean if you go onto the site here and then walk outside and look up, it's almost like a little map?

SIEBERG: Yes, exactly. It is like a little map online.

CELLINI: OK.

SIEBERG: And some of the language on these sites can be a bit technical, so they give you some pictures like we all like to have a better illustration of where to look.

Now, NASA also contributes to amateur astronomy and star gazing. They have this site called Space Calendar, which is a huge, comprehensive list of places to look, constellations that may be out there, even groups of people who might get together on a particular weekend and look. They've got it broken down by month and even by the day. They'll give you a really detailed description of where to look.

And now finally, I know this is a huge list of sites for people to remember and if they're online, they can just go to cnn.com/tech and we've got the whole list of sites here, where they can go to get more information. And as well, of course, if you want more space information, you can go to cnn.com/space.

CELLINI: Wow. That was a great tour. Thank you very much, Daniel Sieberg.

SIEBERG: Thanks, Vince.

CELLINI: Good to see you.

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