Plethora of constellations in view
LAST weekend I spoke at the Canterbury Astronomical Society’s annual retreat, at a ‘‘dark sky’’ campsite in Staveley, between Mount Somers and Mount Hutt. After presenting my talks, and with complete overcast forecast, I decided to break camp on Saturday evening and start the long drive back to Portobello. Fortunately, after three hours driving under clouds, just after midnight and south of Moeraki the clouds parted and I was treated to a stunning view of the centre of our galaxy rising in the southeast.
If you venture outside after midnight this week, the southern sky contains a plethora of lesserknown constellations. With the new moon occurring next Monday, any clear night in the next few days will be the perfect time to find a dark viewing spot and start exploring.
Jupiter will be the brightest object in the sky, appearing roughly a handspan at arm’s length above the eastern horizon. Close by is Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. Directly above Spica, even citydwellers should be able to pick out the constellations Corvus (the Crow) and Crater (the Cup). To the right of Crater and Corvus is Hydra (the female water snake). I’ve always found it somewhat confusing that at this time of year there are actually two cosmic snakes on show; the other, Hydrus (the male water snake), is a relatively indistinct group of stars wrapping itself around the small Magellanic Cloud.
The pointers and the
Southern Cross are high in the southeastern sky, and as your eyes adjust to the darkness, you should easily be able to see the rich starclouds of the Milky Way forming a distinctive band that stretches down to the horizon. This fuzzy band passes through a number of constellations, the easiest of which to find is probably Lupus (the Wolf)
Below Lupus the constellation Scorpius is parallel to the horizon, its distinctive hook bounding the upper part of the beautiful core of our galactic home.
Our star map shows the many constellations gracing the southern sky this time of year. I would be interested to hear how many of them you can spot.