Category Archives: ‘Casts

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'Casts, amateur astronomy, astrocast.tv, astronomy, Orion, Orion Nebula, our night sky, star charts, stargazing

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!)

 

 

'Casts, eclipses, transit of venus, venus, Venus Express

Things that Block Light

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Eclipses and Transits and More Eclipses, Oh My

A partial phase of the annular eclipse, shot through solar filter material using a Sony Cybershot. Copyright 2012 Carolyn Collins Petersen.

It’s been a banner couple of weeks for interesting celestial events. First, like many folks, I got to see the annular eclipse of the Sun on May 20th.  We went to southern Utah to get a clear view of the Moon slipping between Earth and the Sun and almost (but  not quite) blocking out all the sunlight. What we saw was a pretty amazing “ring” of light.  I took a few pictures, like the one here, but mostly I just sat and watched it.

We’ve chased a few eclipses now (we’re four for six), so instead of running around and trying to get the best pictures and video, we like to sit and watch. Oh, we did do some automated photography — just let the camera and timer do all the work.  But, mostly we watched. And were rewarded with a cool view that doesn’t come along very often.

In the national park where we viewed (Kolob Canyon, part of Zion National Park), we talked with various people who had driven over from California or Las Vegas or Colorado, and everyone seemed excited about the eclipse.  There were a few telescopes and cameras with solar filters set up, and a fair number of people using the pinhole projection method of viewing the eclipse. So, I was gratified to see that the campaign of “NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN WITHOUT PROTECTION” was paying off.  It’s common sense, but still, in the heat of an eclipse sometimes even seasoned veterans forget the rule and take a peek, risking their eyesight forever.

The next big event is the Transit of Venus, which occurs June 5/6 (date depends on where you live), when Venus’s orbit will take it across the face of the Sun for several hours.  These don’t occur very often; they happen in pairs every hundred or so years, so the next one after this one will be in the year 2117.  If you’re inclined to take a look, the same rules apply: don’t look directly at the Sun, use proper filters (NOT SUNGLASSES), and enjoy!  There’s a ton of information out there about the transit, so if you want to know more about it, go here, or  here. I even talk about it in my monthly edition of “Our Night Sky” for Astrocast.TV, which you can watch below.

Finally, there’s a little bit of a lunar eclipse occurring tomorrow June 4th.  The best places for viewing this eclipse will be in and near the Pacific Ocean, according to the folks at eclipse.nasa.gov.  However, people in the Americas will see part of it, as will people in eastern Asia.  If you want to watch as part of the Moon slips through Earth’s shadow, get more information at the link above.

It’s kinda cool that three events that are the result of sunlight being blocked by celestial objects are occurring so close together. There’s nothing magical about it, but there is something fascinating to watch, so check out the transit and the eclipse (if they’re visible where you live).  Participate in observing!  That’s what astronomy’s all about!