On a clear Friday night, I spent an evening of star watching with Mike Hale. He is our resident astronomer and star educator extraordinaire. With his state of the art telescope he can be found any clear Friday night at Brickyard Beach. Mike encourages anyone to join him on the beach to learn how to read the planets, solar systems, galaxies and more.

I had packed a large thermos of coffee and a bag of Oreos in a backpack and headed for Brickyard Beach. I got to the beach around 10pm and coasted into a parking spot with the headlights out, which is the polite thing to do.

The protocol when attending a star gazing evening is simple. Keep quiet, douse the lights, respect the peace and simply become part of the experience. I pulled my lawn chair into the theatre type seating and left my backpack on the sand beside me.

My canine friend Sarge found me and after an affectionate lick he settled down by my feet and checked out the backpack. He knows I love Oreos and so does he so I had carefully opened the package and let him have two. The bag opening was quiet, but the dog cookie snarfing and chop smacking was definitely not. He just has no manners at all. Sarge and I were shushed, and when we seemed to have been forgotten, I asked Mike for a look in the telescope.

My heart stopped at the vastness of this glittering universe and how brilliant just one star can be. Mike said I was looking at Polaris, or more commonly known as the North Star. It can be seen all year round unlike the great majority of stars. In our Northern Hemisphere and at this time of the year you can see the stars that make up several constellations. The better know ones are Aquarius, Pegasus, Andromeda, Aries, Perseus, and Cassiopeia. I could pick out stars making up these clusters that were blue, white, or red. Surprisingly enough, red is the coolest with blue being the hottest. The constellations were named by the ancient Greeks and each has its own myth. Many were tales of warriors, fantastic creatures or of a romance. Andromeda, for instance, was a princess who was rescued from a monster by Perseus, a Greek hero.

Galaxies are huge collections of stars. Earth is part of the Milky Way. It's about 100,000 light years away, and believe it or not it has a spiral shape. Like constellations, galaxies are also given names. I found many legends of the Milky Way from China, the Middle East, Cherokee, Egyptian and East India. These legends reflect a country or culture, but none of them are close to our own so I decided to make one up for us. So here goes....

Find a seat on the sofa, grab a blanket and a little one to cuddle, and I will tell you my humble creation of the 'Gabriola Legend of the Milky Way'.

"Long, long ago, the Spaniards sent a fleet of ships to discover the New World. When they reached our west coast one small ship became lost in a storm and sank. No one knew what had happened to that little ship, and so it was forgotten and lay on the bottom of the ocean for 100 years. Mystical dolphins played around her and one day the carved wooden woman on the bow spoke to them. She said she was lonely and wanted to sail again above the ocean. The dolphins knew this was impossible but in their kindness they agreed to grant her wish. On a very dark night the dolphins swam beside the ship and lifted her out of the water and into the sky. The bow of the ship cut into the vast indigo and parted the clouds on either side. Her sails opened with new freedom, filled with air, and billowed white in the dark sky. As she sailed towards the heavens, drops of water that had cling to the keel fell away as sparkling crystals. The ship sailed on into the universe but the band of sparkles stayed suspended in the sky."

This is the story of how the Milky Way came to be over Gabriola. I know it is true because although we cannot see the ship, the band of crystals are still there. The dolphins still play in the deep ocean and divers are still finding gold coins off our shores.

"So goodnight, my little ones. Dream of dolphins and ships and the pathway of stars that lead to the heavens. And never be afraid to swing high and follow your own star!"

Galaxy photo by Philip Akers, with kind permission