Describe A Time When You Observed The Stars: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

Great question. Well, for past three weeks I was preparing for an exam and I was inside my room for very long. I decided to take a break and went to my friend's apartment. It was around 11pm at night and we were talking about stuff and updated each other about what's happening in our life. And there was a moment of silence and we observed crescent of the moon and stars blinking. It was a clear night. It was after let's say one year when I observed stars. I was definitely able to identify constellations like Orion. I have a knack for stars because of my interests in cosmos. I used to watch documentary when I was a kid. So, it reminded me about how this universe is very big and in this whole cosmic play, we are nothing but an actor in this huge stage. At the same time, it made me feel small. I felt like a speck of dust in this blink of the universe, the time I spent here. At the same time, it gave me a hint of what things a human can achieve, the dreams that it imparts on us. And it also gave me a connection with all the animals and all the species, all the life around me. Because at the end of the day, we are created from this stardust.

A time when I spent gazing at the stars was about a few months back when I had gone to visit my hometown near Varanasi. I was visiting for my brother's wedding which happened in the month of May 2024. I had gone up to the terrace of my village home and I was lying down on the terrace with my friends and with my brothers. It was a clear June sky. The stars were easily visible because it was a clear sky. The experience was breathtaking. I had never seen so many stars at one time ever before in my life. They were twinkling and shining like sugar on a plate. The unbelievable view that I was getting really helped me soothe my nerves. I had been having a tough time lately at work as well as during my studies and that moment of peace and serenity really helped me understand how I am such a small speck in this big universe and how my small problems do not really matter as much as I think they do. I would definitely like to visit again so that I can get that view once more in my life but it seems less likely because I am getting very burdened by my work and my studies which doesn't let me visit my hometown as much. I definitely would want to go in the near future but it seems a little less likely. I have always been a star gazer. When in my childhood I used to go to the terrace of my own home in Kolkata and look at the stars but now since I don't get the time I had forgotten how important and how significant that experience was.

Well, I am a kind of person who would prefer to watch a sunset rather than a moon or a star. Well, for the first few years when I shifted to Pune, there was a time when I was having a huge group of friends. And they made a plan of visiting Lonavala and watching a stargaze. And they have planned everything in that journey. And I thought what a boring plan it is to go and just watch stars. I would rather sleep in my couch rather than doing that thing and spending a lot of money on it. So they forced me that it's our first year, let's do something thrilling and adventurous. So I went with them. We were really enjoying in car. And the time came when we actually have to go for a stargazing. We all were under the night, under the beautiful sky of moon and stars. And we realized that it's so peaceful around. There was literally like pin drop silence. And I could hear the sound of insects and beautiful birds. And everyone was so focused on watching the beautiful star that we stopped talking to each other and we were just focused. And after few minutes, I realized that it's so peaceful. Well, it's different when it comes to watching a sunset. It was totally different.

My hometown is a very isolated place and not much of the pollution is there. For example, there is no light pollution, so you can see the sky pretty clear. And since childhood, I have been observing the night sky and I enjoy looking at the celestial objects and bodies in the sky. For me, when I first learned about the constellations, I would usually at night go and try to find those constellations in the sky, though that was my source of entertainment back when I was a kid and to this day I enjoy looking at the sky. And since there is no light pollution, you can easily see the Milky Way galaxy passing through the sky, which was a very fascinating thing and that made me into cosmology and study of stars. Two years back, we went on a college trip and we went to this park called Kanha National Park. It's located in the Madhya Pradesh state of India and we went there for the jungle safari and to do some research work and the park offers this stargazing session. So at night we were laid in the open field with mosquito nets and we were asked to watch the sky and since the area has no light pollution, it was completely dark and you can hear all kinds of insects and everything, but the sky was mesmerizing. I haven't seen anything like that and I have observed few constellations in the sky which I have studied and I was so impressed by myself to find these constellations in the sky. We also got to see the Milky Way galaxy which was passing through the sky. Me and my friends were completely amazed by the beauty of it, how surreal the feeling of being there at night with no disturbance and to enjoy the scenery in complete isolation. The sky is somehow printed in my mind and I sometimes whenever I am agitated or irritated, I try to think about those peaceful times when I observed the night sky in the national park. And next day we got to see the lions also which was also amazing. So it was overall an amazing experience.

Some stars are the most beautiful celestial bodies. They shine bright in the dark sky. There are many heavenly bodies in the sky like moon and other planets but stars have their different edge. I enjoy seeing stars in the dark sky because stars indicate us that no matter how dark the clouds are, no matter how dark the sky is, there is something beautiful shining behind them. So we should wait and put self confidence on ourselves so that we can see that through our eyes. I just want to say that stars are really a beautiful piece of art made by God.