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Stargazing in February

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It CAN Be Done!

The first month of the year is behind us now, leaving 11 more months of sky sights to check out. February for many northern hemisphere observers is still the winter season, so of course you have to dress warmly unless you live in relative sunny climes. For southern hemisphere viewers it’s late summer, so the dress code’s a little different. No matter what you wear, though, there ARE some great sky sights to check out.  I outline a few of them in my monthly video called Our Night Sky, produced for Astrocast.TV. You watch it here.

A chart view of Orion, showing Betelgeuse in the shoulder of the giant. The three belt stars run through the middle, and just below them is the Orion Nebula starbirth region. Courtesy Zwergelstern on Wikimedia Commons.

I always come back to Orion for my sky gazing this time of year. It’s just a gorgeous star pattern.  What I like most about Orion: it provides a lot of interesting stuff to look at. There’s Betelgeuse, for example. It’s a red supergiant star in his shoulder, and it’s likely to pop off as a supernova anytime (well, “anytime” is relative — it could be in the next million years).

Notice the three stars across Orion’s middle. Just beneath them lies a spectacular star birth region called the Orion Nebula. It’s about 1,500 light-years away from us and it just blazes with hot young stars, set among clouds of gas and dust that are still forming stars.

I’ve been stargazing since I was a kid. I didn’t always know what I was looking at, but over time (and using star charts and taking a few astronomy classes and teaching in the planetarium) I got to know the sky pretty well. You don’t have to do all that to explore the sky. You can start very simply: take it one constellation at a time.  Look at it with your naked eye, then scan it with binoculars or a small telescope.  Chances are, you’ll find something cool and interesting to check out each time you look.

People often ask me what star charts they should get. I always recommend they check out Sky&Telescope.com or Astronomy.com. Those two sites (and their associated magazines) have very useful star charts that you can customize for your location. If you have an iPhone or an iPad, you can get a wonderful app called Starmap. (Disclosure: I’m working on a project for these guys, but I was using their sky maps (free of charge on their site) long before they contacted me to work with them.)  I also very much like Skymaps, which provides both northern and southern hemisphere charts.  I also wrote about some good astronomy books and apps just before Christmas — check them out  here and here if you’re looking for some more extensive, tree-based information about where to look during your sky gazing sessions.  Now, get out there and check out the sky!  (Just be sure and dress for the weather!)

 

 

astronomy, star charts, stargazing

Been Stargazing Lately?

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Looking Up: It’s Worth It, so Give it a Try

The lunar eclipse adventure the other night had a lot of people looking up at the sky. It’s probably safe to say that for many, it was probably the first time ever, or at least the first time in a long time.  Granted, the weather this time of year isn’t always conducive to stargazing, particularly so for those of us in the northern hemisphere where cold temps are a constant. But, what’s the excuse of those who aren’t in the cold climates?  Too much light pollution?  Not safe to go out after dark?  If so, that’s sad.

Other reasons are more interesting, like the one I heard from a store clerk the other day:  “The night sky scares me.” I asked him why and he said that he likes to look at the stars, but he stays close to the house because it feels like he’ll fall into the sky.  That blew me away because I had that same experience once — feeling like I’d fall up into the sky.  It happened on Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawai’i.  I was  observing using one of the big telescopes up there, and I stepped outside onto a catwalk that circled the dome.  It was absolutely pitch-dark out and the sky was so clear that it really DID look like velvet with diamonds scattered on it.  Suddenly I felt like I was about to float up there and out of sight, and I did find myself sort of grabbing for the side of the building. But, it wasn’t scary. Just kind of exhilirating.  Still, I did know how the guy felt, in a way.

The night sky isn’t scary, but I imagine our human-reptilian brains are programmed to find dark places somewhat disturbing. And, there is this feeling that you get of being a small thing in a very big cosmos. THAT can also be disconcerting, at first.

However, the night sky is actually rather like a puzzle. You see all these stars up there and, at first, they seem to be randomly scattered across the darkness. Then, after a while, you start to see patterns in the star distribution. Shapes leap out at you, and before you know it, you’re recognizing the Big Dipper, Orion, the northern or southern cross, and other well-known shapes.  It’s rewarding and visually links you with the universe you’re a part of.  No matter where you are.

So, give it a try.  Here’s a star map that I sent out with my holiday cards this year. It’s northern-hemisphere oriented, but Orion is visible fairly far south, as are most  of the other labeled objects. It’s set for December 25, around 9:30 p.m., but will be good for a few days before and after that date, so give it a try.

Star chart for late December, 2010. Click to embiggen.