By Kim O’Connell | December 21, 2020 Waterside stargazing at Assateague Island National Seashore. Photo by Getty Images The rhythmic trills of the evening cicadas had faded, and I’d just fallen into a deep sleep when I heard the unmistakable sound of a tent flap being unzipped. In the darkness, my teenage son crunched away from our campsite, presumably to answer the call of nature. But when he didn’t come back right away, I sat up and called his name. “Mom, come out here,” he whispered. “The stars are amazing.”I stepped out of my tent, let my eyes adjust and followed the sound of his voice to a clearing near our campsite. Together we looked up at a black sky full of hundreds of twinkling stars, a glittering sugar bowl dumping out over our heads. “That’s the Milky Way,” my son pointed out. Together we spotted the Big Dipper, the North Star, the bright orange star Arcturus. In the quiet Virginia woods, far from the bright urban night we’re used to, the stars held us, spellbound.