Category Archives: stargazing

Looking Up

There’s a Bear Up There!

The constellation of Ursa Major, with the Big Dipper outlined in red.

The other night we decided to do a little late spring stargazing. The sky was fairly dark and clear, and the stars were bright.  We went out on the deck and looked up. There, almost directly overhead was the Big Dipper.

Back when I used to give star lectures in the planetarium, I’d always start the audience out at the Big Dipper and work my way around the sky from there. For northern hemisphere stargazers, it’s one of the most recognizable star patterns.

The Big Dipper is really an asterism — that’s because it’s part of a larger constellation called Ursa Major, the Greater Bear. The figure here sort of looks like a bear striding across the sky and the dipper is on his back. In other parts of the world, people call the Dipper by the name of “the Plough. Other cultures throughout time have assigned meaning to the stars, from the Greeks to various Asian cultures and even throughout the native groups living in North America.

There are a couple of useful things you can do with the Dipper — well, three actually. The first thing you can do is admire it. It’s a pretty striking shape that our human brains have assigned to it.  The second thing you can do with it is test your eyesight. After you’ve gotten good and dark-adapted to the night sky (which takes around 10-2o minutes, look up at the bend in the handle of the Dipper. There are two stars there, and if your eyesight is good, you should be able to make them out. They’re called Alcor and Mizar.  There are actually six stars in that little region of space, but they’re too faint to make out with the naked eye.  Try checking out this pair with binoculars or a telescope.

The third thing you can do is find north. The way to do this is to locate the end stars in the cup. These are called Mirak and Dubhe.  If you start at Merak and trace a line through Dubhe and continue it on out, you will eventually run into the North Star, also known as Polaris.  That’s the star that our north pole appears to point to and indicates true north.

The Big Dipper is often the first star pattern that people learn (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) when they begin stargazing. It’s not a bad start. Once you learn it, you can branch your way out to other constellations pretty easily.  Over the next few entries, I’ll share a few more with you! In the meantime, point your browser here if you want to know more about Ursa Major and the Big Dipper.

Stargazing for the Holidays

Get Acquainted with the Night Sky

One of our yearly traditions at TheSpacewriter’s place is to send out holiday letters bringing our family and friends up to date on our lives. In keeping with our love of astronomy, we always include a little star chart on the back of the letter so that our BFFs can participate in what we always think of as the “Great Annual Family (and Friends) Star Party.”  This year is no different — the letters went out last week and we’re hoping that sometime in the next week or so, all our buds can go out and check out the sky.  I thought that I’d share it with all of my blog readers, too.  Whether you’re a grizzled stargazing veteran or a first-timer, there’s something here for you to look at.

First, here’s the chart. Feel free to download it and look at it on your computer. I made it using  TheSky, by Software Bisque.

The Great Star Party star chart (click to embiggen).  Oriented for northern hemisphere users, although southerners can use it, too.
The Great Star Party star chart (click to embiggen). Oriented for northern hemisphere users, although southerners can use it, too.

Next, the tour.  To see this scene, go out around 9:30 p.m. (2130 hours) and face south.  (Be sure and dress warmly even if you live somewhere warm — nights can get chilly anywhere!) You should be able to see the stars of the constellation Orion, the Hunter. The star Betelgeuse makes his upper left shoulder, and the bright star Rigel is his lower right knee.  There are three bright stars slanting through the middle of the constellation. These are the Belt Stars. If you draw an imaginary line down through the Belt Stars in a southeasterly direction, you’ll come to the bright star Sirius.  It’s the brightest star in our night-time sky.

Just below the Belt Stars you can — if you have a fairly dark skygazing site — be able to make out a fuzzy patch. That’s the Orion Nebula — a starbirth region that lies about 1,500 light-years away from us.  The light you see left that region around 1,500 years ago!

Now, next to Orion (the constellation) is another one called Taurus, the Bull. His face (or horns, depending on how you look at it) are traced out by V-shaped cluster of stars called the Hyades.  The bright star called Aldebaran is not really part of the Hyades — it just happens to be in our line of sight between Earth and the cluster.

Not far from the Hyades, look for a smaller cluster called the Pleiades. This little cluster really has several hundred stars, plus some x-ray and radio sources, and a few brown dwarfs!  Think about all that as you gaze on this little glittery cluster.

If you have a pair of binoculars, take them along with you to enhance your gazing. They may help you see a few more stars and details in the nebula and clusters. If you have a telescope — well, you can have a great time seeing these objects in greater detail for the first time — or through a revisit if you’re an old fan. Whatever you do — enjoy your stargazing and have a wonderful holiday season!