HOW CLEAR IS YOUR STARLIGHT?
T HIS MONTH SEES countryside charity CPRE launching its annual Star Count: a bid to map the state of light pollution around the UK by asking people to step outside after dark on a cloudless BETELGEUSE night, look up, and note down how many stars they can see inside the constellation Orion.
As well as being an important bit of citizen science, it’s also a chance to hone your stargazing skills, so we asked CPRE’s Jamie Wyver to run through five of the most exciting constellations you might see in your winter night’s sky…
CAMELOPARDALIS
This constellation was named at a time when the word for giraffe was a combination of camel, due to its long neck, and leopard, after the pattern on its skin: thus, camelopardis. Voyager 1, the space probe launched in 1977 to explore the outer solar system, is heading towards this constellation and in 40,000 years will pass 1.7 light years from its stars (a close call in galactic terms).
▲ CASSIOPEIA
The mythological queen of Ethiopia is immortalised in a distinctive W-shaped constellation. It seems this mythical ruler was cast into the stars as a punishment for her vanity, suffering the additional indignity of being seated upside down for half of each night. The constellation representing her husband, King Cepheus, is nearby.
▲ LEO ORION
Orion the Hunter is the centrepiece of the Star Count because he’s so distinctive, with his broad shoulders and distinctive belt of three stars. In some versions of the Orion myth, he got rather carried away with killing animals, so the goddess Artemis sent the giant scorpion Scorpio to chase him off. Sure enough, when Scorpio rises in the night sky, Orion begins to drop out of sight.
The Lion is familiar as a star sign but not everyone knows the story behind this celestial beast. When Hercules was set 12 tasks (or ‘labours’), the first of these was to slay a terrible beast, the Nemean lion. This monstrous animal had been killing locals and no mortal had been able to despatch it. Its golden skin was too thick for weapons to penetrate, but Hercules managed to strangle it with his bare hands.