Astronomy – Spring star gazing

As we enter the summer months, the weather starts clearing and the evenings get warmer. This gives us the perfect opportunity to do some stargazing. I like going out around 10pm as the sky is dark and it is not too late.

We begin by looking towards the south south-west where Alpha Centauri (also known as Rigel Kent) and Hadar sit a little above the horizon. They are both bright stars and should be easy to spot. You may know them as the ‘pointers’ from the Southern Cross, which will just be popping up over the southern horizon. As we swing around towards the west, we see another reddish, bright star. This is Antares – sometimes called The Heart of the Scorpion, as it sits in the middle of the constellation of Scorpio. Slightly above it and to the right is another bright object. This is not a star, but the planet Jupiter. If you observe Jupiter through a good pair of binoculars, you should be able to see the four largest moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. There are a few apps out there that can show you which moons you are looking at.

If you draw an imaginary line from Jupiter to the moon, about a third of the way from Jupiter, is another bright object. This is Saturn. To see the rings around Saturn, you will need a fairly good, small telescope. Moving over to the north-west, we come across another bright star. This is Altair, one of the closest stars to Earth. Altair is in the constellation of Aquila and rotates once on its axis every nine hours!

Moving to the north-east, we find the home of various meteor showers. From October to January, we have a few showers due and all appear to come from this portion of our night sky. So if you want to see a shooting star, this is the place to look.

In the south south-east, we see a bright star just above the horizon. This is Canopus. Quite a way above it and more to the south-east is Achenar. While these stars are interesting, it is what is near them that is even more interesting.

About halfway between them, you may see what looks like a wispy cloud. This is the Large Magellanic Cloud. And just to the right of Achenar is another wispy cloud – the Small Magellanic Cloud. These are dwarf galaxies which orbit the Milky Way. Try looking at them through a good pair of binoculars, or a telescope. If the evening is particularly clear, and you are in a pretty dark spot, the Milky Way will be visible as a band of stars and dust, stretching from north to south. The Milky Way is a good choice if you would like to begin experimenting with astrophotography. All you will need is a good camera and a tripod. Come along to one of our meetings, to find out more about doing this.

One exciting event will be coming up on October 30, around 8.15pm, when Mercury, Venus and the Moon all meet up in the west, just after sunset. Mercury and Venus will be just under three degrees apart and the waxing crescent Moon will be just eight degrees away from the planets. Almost directly above the Moon, but further away, Jupiter also makes an appearance. Through a telescope you’ll see the three different phases of the different objects, with the Moon being just a slither, Mercury being about 35 percent illuminated and Venus, nearly full at 94 percent.

Please be careful when using binoculars or telescopes for this observation. Make sure that the sun is completely below the horizon as you can permanently damage your eyes if you accidentally view the sun. The best way to find these objects is by using an astronomy app on your mobile phone. Skymap is fantastic to use on an Android device and StarWalk2 is a great choice for your iPhone, although there are many other options. If you have never done it before, go out on a clear evening, look up to the heavens and explore the universe around us.