• stars and mountain image by Dmitriy Lesnyak from Fotolia.com
  
  Star watching is considered a romantic past-time but the activity has purpose beyond dreaming, hobbyists, astrophysicists and idle gazing. Studying the stars can give a person the history of the planets, the Earth and the galaxies. Star-gazing teaches how to protect and defend our celestial environment from light pollution. Insight into how other cultures perceive the galaxies and incorporate stars into their mythologies can also be derived from star-gazing.
  
  

Astronomy

• Learning about our galaxies and the galaxies beyond ours is important to understand how our world evolved, how it is continually changing in the order of the Universe, and what the fate of our world will be in the future. For example, the sun is halfway through its life cycle. This star, at 4.5 billion years old, has about 5 billion years until it balloons into a red giant. The sun, as it heats up and expands, will engulf the inner planets including Earth. The sun's growth will swallow the inner planets, including Earth. This red star will eventually cool down and become a white star. However, the waters on the Earth will be boiled away and the world will be lifeless rock.
  
  

Star-gazing and Mythology

• Star-gazing is an interesting way to learn about other cultures. For example, the Tsects Chasma on Venus is named for the Haida narnuk (nature spirit) of justice and harmony.Tsects, or Grandmother White Mouse, helps children and young people who are in trouble.
  
  

Light Pollution

• Star-gazing can foster an appreciation of the natural world and how delicate the balance of life is. Artificial night lighting, street and security lighting, makes seeing planets, stars and galaxies difficult. The negative effects of night lighting on wildlife are as important as not seeing the stars. Night lights attract insects who are mesmerized with the illumination and die from starvation. A dearth of insects means that predators, such as other insects and birds, do not eat and perish.