Do you have freckles that look like constellations of the night sky? Send an image to frecklestarphotos@gmail.com

A while ago I stayed at a farmhouse in a part of the US where the night sky is still pitch black. Stars overhead shone out like beacons and yet no one sitting around the burning embers of a fire could identify more than a couple constellations.

That struck me as peculiar to our time: that while we easily navigate enormous volumes of data at work or use GPS navigation in our cars, there is little relevance to the stars and constellations in normal life. Also, as an artificial light-using city dweller most of the time, I hardly get to see them. But they are beautiful, of course.

I have a lot of freckles. A while later when I looked at a list of constellations I realized that I literally had a constellation on me. I had the Northern Cross, also known as Cygnus the Swan, spanning my hands. This constellation and others, formerly visible to those around the world, formerly known and useful to many, but lost due to artificial light and technology, may be preserved as a personal thing. That's why I'm asking you to look at your own freckles.

I want to collect photos of your freckle constellations for this website. Please take a look at images of well-known constellations and contact me if one of them is on you. Please send a picture to frecklestarphotos@gmail.com. I will follow up with some questions to get to know the person behind the freckle constellation. I'll upload the best pictures and a story about each person (if it's ok with you). If you can't send a picture, I may be able to photograph your constellation for you if you are in the Los Angeles area.

Thanks.