I stumbled across a cool sky observation activity to do with your family that is going on now through March 8.

Many people have never seen a sky full of stars because of the increase in light pollution. The website GLOBE at Night is asking people all over the world to sign up as an observer to help create a map to record what stars are being seen in different places around the globe.

You don't have to know all your stars/constellations to join the observation team (just Orion). The website presents a series of sky images and you choose the map that most closely resembles what you can see in the sky on the night you make your observation.

It does take a little effort on the part of the observer to find their lat/long coordinates for their observing location (i.e., your house) but the rest is pretty easy. No GPS is required (Google Earth can help find your coordinates as well as other mapping websites that are listed on GLOBE's site).

The observation recording started yesterday and continues through March 8. You can sign up at any time before that date to record your observation. You can do it once or multiple nights, it's up to you.

They had 60 countries participate in the observation project last year and the results were pretty interesting.

GLOBE at Night