 What's That In The Night Sky?
by yautja_warrior
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Have you ever just looked up at the night sky and watched the stars twinkle? Enjoyed the light they radiated from so far away that it seems like an impossible distance? I've always loved how big the night sky was and how beautiful it was lit up on an evening with no clouds! There are the super, super bright stars and the really dim stars that you can barely see... And did you know that light was from a long, long, long time ago? Let's do an experiment! I promise it will only take you a few seconds of your time. The Light Experiment: Go over to your wall where the light switch is. Is the light already on? Turn the light off. See how fast your world went dark? Now flick the light back on... Or on if it wasn't before. See how fast that light flooded the room? Go ahead and do it once or twice, but no more than that, please! Now sit there and think: That's the speed of light right there! You just did a simple experiment and saw the speed of light at work! Now think of the stars outside and think of just how far away those lights must be if it takes them years to actually reach our Earth! Are you in awe of the stars yet? The people who sit down and study the stars are called astronomers! The study of the stars themselves? That's astrology! Maybe you even remember going through Altador and helping the Neopians there with the Astronomy Club? If you take a trip to Altador, you can still visit the Altadorian Archives! Go ahead, go in and visit the building! It's really cool inside, I promise! There's an elderly Lenny off to the right who goes by Archivist and if you're as confused about that as I am, let me go ahead and clear that up! An archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over and provides access to records that may have long-term value! Which means that elderly Lenny there collects all the information he can and keeps it safe so that future Neopians can enjoy it in the future! If you took part in an activity, the Archivist actually gives you an option to look at the information you provided (sounds like something he would do, doesn't it?) If you can check it out, go for it! It'll bring you to a page so you can see all the constellations that you may or may not have collected while doing the event! It's really neat and worth the look! There's a lot of really cool things to see in Altador, so if you haven't taken a look around this beautiful city, please do so before we continue! I said a new word above that I haven't explained yet though, a constellation! A constellation is a group of stars that form a pattern in the sky! If you were able to look at the clues the Lenny kept on record (if you did the event, anyway. If not, sorry!) then you'll be able to see some constellations! Neopets has a LOT of constellations in the night sky! Why not take a look at some of them, if you have the time? Here's a list of some of the known Neopian Constellations: 1.) Sleeper 2.) Dreamer 3.) First to Rise 4.) Farmer 5.) Dancer 6.) Wave 7.) Gladiator 8.) Collector 9.) Thief 10.) Gatherer 11.) Protector 12.) Hunter There might even be more, but why don't you go and speak to the elderly Lenny for deeper information on these constellations of Neopia? There are other things in the night sky other than constellations! In fact, we can take a look at some of these places right here on Neopia because we're so lucky to live here! For instance, did you know that you can go to the moon? No really, we can go to the moon! On Neopia, we call our moon Kreludor and it's so neat! There's a sneaky little Mining Corp there that won't let us see what they're doing on it. It has Dr. Sloth on there, so maybe we better just leave that alone? But there are some homes up here (yeah! We can live on the moon?!) And there's a cafe with yummy space food, so go ahead and try some if you've never had any. If you're feely lucky, someone even left a Neocola Machine floating around up here. Don't forget to visit the book store too, since everyone should have a souvenir of their trip to the moon. I've heard some of these books can be really good for your Neopet to read, too! If that wasn't enough fun for you, there's one more place we can check out in Neopia about our galaxy! That's a new word too, isn't it? A galaxy is a gravitational bound system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust and dark matter. I'm sure you've heard of gravity, but if you haven't? Gravity is an invisible force that keeps us held down to the surface. Want another super cool experiment? The gravity experiment: Pick something up, something light and preferably NOT breakable! Drop it! See it drop to the floor? That's an example of gravity! So now that we've learned all about gravity and the galaxy, lets zip over to another cool world we can visit: The Virtupets Space Station! There are three levels to this space station! 1.) Recreation Deck 2.) Supply Deck 3.) The Hangar There's a lot of things to do on the space station, feel free to explore at your leisure! There are some petpets and food and I've heard a rumour you can even adopt a space Neopet to bring home!! Curious? They're called Grundos! I'm not sure if it costs anything, but you can go to the Space Adoption Agency on the Supply Deck of the Virtupets Space Station and adopt your very own alien! I went in and talked to the receptionist and the kindly Neopian told me that they even come in seven colours! I've also been told that you can purchase paint brushes like you can with your other Neopets and paint them any colour you like! That's an awful lot about space! I hope you enjoyed our trip through our very own Galaxy! Even if you found it boring, at least you got to stop and get some cool souvenirs on our trip, right? No? Ah well, I tried.
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