My Dean & I so enjoyed our stay at Valhalla Resort on Island Lake outside of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.  It was a peaceful vacation, time to slow down our pace.  Our stay included meals with friends, walks, swims, and fireside chats with tales of old.   Friends shared stories of our childhood sparking laughter one after the other.  One evening turned into a 1:00am departure from the dwindling campfire.  A night owl called to us, or maybe he was talking to the rabbit hiding in the bushes.  Bugs chirped.  All dogs and cats had long since retired to their favorite beds.  As Dean & I walked to our lakeside cabin, we saw the Milky Way.  The Big Dipper shone so brightly in the clear northern sky.  It brought to memory my father sitting a boat nestled near the dock for that particular summer night, telling a young audience how to tell time from The Big Dipper.  My friends recalled this, too.  It seemed like yesterday …  Dad seemed to explain it so easily that we understood it. Here are a few web links on telling time with the stars: http://www.johnpratt.com/items/astronomy/telltime.html, http://www.av8n.com/physics/star-time.htm,  http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~huffman/dtime.html