Winter watching

With the onset of winter, we usually prefer to be inside in the warmth as soon as the sun goes down. The downside is that we miss the time when the skies give us the very best things to see.

The Southern Hemisphere night sky contains a far greater range of interesting features than does the Northern.

As mentioned in this column last month, we get to see the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds – the two galaxies visible to the naked eye, as well as the amazing Omega Centauri globular cluster.

We also get to see three of the brightest stars: Sirius, Canopus, and Alpha Centauri.
The third brightest star in the night sky is Alpha Centauri, which is just 4.37 light-years away. It’s actually a two star system – Alpha Centauri A, a massive, bright star, and its much dimmer companion, Alpha Centauri B. We can see A pretty easily, but need a good telescope to see B.

All your need to do to find it, is to look for the Southern Cross. Now look down to the pointers. The first pointer is Hadar. The second is Alpha Centauri.

While Orion is the ruler of the night skies during summer, the constellation that heralds the start of winter and rules the winter sky is Scorpio. You can see it begin to rise around 10pm in the east. The easiest way to find it is to look for the bright red star. This is Antares, also known as ‘The Heart of the Scorpion’.

Looking through a telescope we can see the awesome Jewel Box Cluster near the Southern Cross. The Eta Carina Nebula which is one of the most beautiful and brightest nebula can also be seen. It pairs well with the amazing detail that can be seen in the Tarantula Nebula, which is found in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Coming up on April 23, the Moon and Jupiter meet in the sky and travel together for most of the night. This is one of the beautiful celestial pairings. Spectacular with the naked eye – but something truly special when viewed with good binoculars. Look for the Galilean moons, the four largest moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. If you are lucky, you will get to see five moons in the sky at the same time!

Early in the morning of May 6, you will be able to see one of the most spectacular meteor showers in the Southern Hemisphere – Eta Aquarids. This shower occurs when the Earth passes through the debris left behind from the famous Haley’s Comet. At the peak you can expect up to 60 meteors an hour.

One of the other benefits of a winter sky, is that the cold air tends to make the skies look a lot clearer. This makes viewing fainter objects easier. So wrap yourself up warmy, grab a hot drink and get out and explore our awesome winter sky.

The Hibiscus Coast Astronomical Society meets every first and third Thursday of the month at the Faithfull Funeral Services Hall, 35 Red Beach Road at 7.30pm. All are welcome.