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: The Stars
Nov 18, 2006

There is nothing like looking up into the sky on a dark night to gaze at the stars, then magically more and more of them appear as your eyes adjust.

“The Big Dipper” that most all of us are familiar with and often look for up in the sky is actually not a constellation. It is an asterism, which is a small recognizable group of stars that are often part of a constellation. As Wally said, the Big Dipper is a part of the Ursa Major constellation, which is Latin for Great Bear. It is located near Ursa Minor, the small bear, whose tail ends with Polaris, the North Star, which is very near the north celestial pole. So Wally could have seen these constellations year round up near the north pole but not so easily down on the other side of the globe.

Interesting too, the Greeks could not see the sky over the south pole and did not assign those stars to constellations. Twelve of those constellations would not be named until the 16th century by Dutch navigators.

I guess “five months until dark” is now officially a recurring gag.

Leonid Meteor Shower

Speaking of looking up into the night sky, the Leonid Meteors are here and are suppose to peak November 19th, 2006, I believe in a couple hours from this post. Look them up and see if you will be able to watch them in your part of the world.

50 Comments

  1. drivel says:

    Awwws, so cute. ^_^

  2. WeirdLurker says:

    Lol. Very funny and original…but where did he get the box?

  3. Phill says:

    They’d be able to see the Southern Cross! And maybe Orion’s Belt… and that just about concludes my knowledge of constellations.

  4. {GiGi} says:

    Adoreble ^^

  5. Flux says:

    Where did he get the box you ask? Just browse back until you get to the box stories ^^

    Very sweet and adorable comic indeed, you gotta love Tyler’s imagination 🙂

    I have little to no idea where to look for any constellation, the only one I recognize at almost any time given is Orion’s Belt, and I only know how that one looks because I saw it in Men In Black 😉

  6. Ishmael says:

    Where they get the box?

  7. THAT WAS LOLOLOLLOLOL HILARIOUS! HA HA HA HA HA! nothin’ like a good laf once in a while POKEMON WIL RULE THE WORLD!! BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA Deoxys! Psychic Beam! *a beam blasts everything in its path*

  8. Tux says:

    Really great comic, Tyler. Keep it up 🙂

  9. ostrich girl says:

    i would probalbly do the same if i had to wait 5 months till it got dark!!!

  10. SportyBlonde! says:

    How cute! I love it! But why would it take 5 months to get dark?

  11. Cristina says:

    Wally is so easily pleased, that’s what i love about him!

  12. Sev says:

    Yeah, I drove out to the country to look at the stars last night. Gorgeous.

  13. Ferrety Penguin says:

    thats a pretty sweet idea if its light out 24-7

  14. Cristina says:

    Yeah, they’re very creative.

  15. Ishmael says:

    what time would the Meteor Shower be shown in the east coasts

  16. MrMoon says:

    Great comic. In fact I recently learned in my Sattelites class that many centuries ago, when people didn’t know what those bright things in the night sky were, one of their ideas was that the stars were small holes in a dark sphere that surrounded the entire Earth.

  17. purple people eater says:

    Haha I’ve done that before.
    Ok here is another Orca fact
    Orcas are among the most contaminated
    marine animals in the world.
    That is sad.
    As you can all tell I am an animal lover.
    But I eat meat, sorry Tyler.
    I don’t know how you do it!

  18. Sheena says:

    🙂

  19. izzieluv says:

    nice

  20. Bluey says:

    Saturday comic, yea! =)

    I myself enjoyed seeing a comet pass through our solar system early this morning.

  21. Becka says:

    Hey, the other day Emily said something about funbrain.com. I noticed that too. The comics are repeating from the beginning rather than being updated. What is up?!? I used to read everyday when it was on that site. Has this issue been cleared up already? Just curious. The comic is great, by the way. My whole family is addicted as well as one of my friends that read all of the archive in a few days. We love it! Thanks Tyler!

  22. Simon says:

    Really liked this one, another good one.

  23. BriaN says:

    This makes me wonder are you ever going to actually have night time comics? In april I expect to see some… thats about 5 months…

  24. Cpt. Stubble says:

    How did Wally get into a box that small anyway?

  25. Flux says:

    About the box, just browse back, you’ll get to the box episodes eventually.

    About nightfall, on the north and south pole, you don’t have night and days like we do here, you have half a year that the sun doesn’t descend, at the lowest point it’s still above the horizon, and the other half of the year, the sun doesn’t ascend, at the highest point it’s still underneath the horizon.

    If you want to know more about the details etc, just google for it 😉

  26. BriGuy says:

    Hillarious. Great strip. 😀

    What do you know, Wally found another box. 🙂

  27. Penguin Boy says:

    I know everything about astronomy,I think.

  28. Carlyneese??? says:

    I WANT A STARRRRRR

  29. Jonah says:

    Cool.But when will they return to the house?

  30. Anonymous says:

    very nice comic Tyler

  31. PG-13 says:

    just kidding

  32. Zack says:

    lol nice comic. Hey Tyler, wanna know some comics that might be welcomed, WATER BALLOONS. XD. its novemebr and i still throw them 🙂 or maybe a juvies comic where they are selling i dunno, u think it up tyler 🙂

  33. Jonah says:

    Yah I would love the Juvies!!!

  34. Yo Mamma says:

    Funny Comic 🙂

  35. Sheena says:

    Hey, has anyone seen Hannah?

    Hey, Tyler should combine the juvies and the water balloons into one comics, like maybe they’re selling water balloons. 🙂 Oh well, let Tyler do the thinking. That’s what cartoonists are for. 🙂

  36. io says:

    good comic, they should sell balloons in a strip.

  37. JoEy BoB says:

    SO CUTE! OMG! I CAN BARELY STAND IT!

  38. Flux says:

    Well, returning to the house?

    As far as I understood Tyler correctly, he’s doing random comics now, so they might return to the house, but I guess we don’t have to expect them to do that on a regular basis.

    And about breathing in the box? With all those holes, it should be rather simple, not?

  39. Peinguin Master says:

    so cute and funny ya i havent seen hannah we miss here facts

  40. Penguin Guru says:

    Funny Tyler. That’s a good one!

  41. Penguin Guru says:

    I love playing in a box! It’s one of my favorite past times. BTW, in Europe Happy Feet hasn’t come out yet, so if you could be polite and try not to give too much away. It comes out here in a week! I know, outragous!

  42. Cat says:

    That was hella cute. I loved wally’s face in the second panel! Look at his little puddem!

  43. Penguin Guru says:

    Happy Feet is on Wikipedia! Wow that was fast.

  44. zeel says:

    this one was ok but I rely want a buloon gag mabe the buloon cold have nitrogin in it thes time it wald not flote and it wald not freez

  45. zeel says:

    wate is he pokeing the hols with

  46. Jamie (I looove penguins) says:

    I LOOOVE THIS!

  47. Hannah says:

    hey people
    im right here

  48. One time I went 2 the beach my brother made a sand castle with walls and everything and i made one too. we started throwing sandballs at each others sandcastles.i looked up and the sky was purple and black with millions of stars! its not purple in cities cause of the lights.

  49. steve-o says:

    that is one BIG box considering they can both fit in it standing up and th still have room to spare

  50. Jenny says:

    Just WHERE did they get the box, anyway?

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