August Skies
Useful info for visitors from New Zealand, South Africa and South America.
August 1-5, Jupiter forms a second eye for Taurus the Bull. August 12; morning, Jupiter very close to the crescent Moon (early morning occulation in Darwin). August 13; morning, cresecent moon directly between Jupiter and Venus. August 14; morning, Venus close to the crescent Moon, daytime Venus observation possible. August 14, Mars, the bright Start Spica and Saturn close, forming a straight line. August 16; morning, thin crescent Moon close to Mercury. August 22; Waxing Moon close to Mars, Spica and Saturn. Late August; Variable star Mira at maximum. August 31, Blue Moon (second Full Moon in a month).
Looking up at the stars is still a rewarding pursuit, despite the increasing light pollution in our major cities. The southern sky is full of interesting objects, many of which go unseen in the northern hemisphere. All you need for a good nights viewing is yourself, a good idea of where south and east are, and your hands. Optional extras are a small pair of binoculars, a torch with red cellophane taped over the business end and a note book. A great many tips for backyard astronomy may be found here, although many of them are more relevant to the northern hemisphere. A general article on amateur astronomy from New Scientist is here (May require subscription otherwise see the TASS site.).This page is designed to give people a simple guide to the naked eye sky. In the descriptions of planet and star positions, distances in the sky are given as "fingers width" and "hand span". This is the width of your hand (with all the fingers together as in making a "stop" sign, not bunched as a fist) or finger when extended a full arms length from you.
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Clear crisp Winter nights are often the best for star gazing, with the broad sweep of the Milky Way arching across the sky. However, it gets very cold, so don't forget to rug up before doing any extended star watching. Dew formation can also mean some dampness, so a blanket or rug to sit on is a good idea, as well as a thermos of your favorite hot beverage. Winter sees our night skies dominated by the Southern Cross, sprawling Scorpio and Sagittarius, in which the heart of our galaxy hides, so it's well worth stepping out into the chill for an astronomical thrill.
While these pages are primarily intended for the use of people observing in Australia, non-Australian Southern Hemisphere observers will find most of the information here applies to them. The star information will be most helpful, when you correct your location for latitude (see the Stars section for appropriate location information). Most Moon phase, planet, comet and asteroid information will be very similar to what will be seen in New Zealand, South Africa and South America. Countries close to the equator (eg Indonesia) will have somewhat different southern and northern views, but the eastern and western views should be similar enough to get a good idea of what is going on.Occultations, eclipses and aurora are highly location dependent, and it would be best to get a local almanac for these events. If there is no local almanac available, email me and I might be able to help you. I do try and give general info for occultations and eclipses in the Oceania area of the Southern Hemisphere.
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Aurora Alert UPDATED 18/06/12: A completely unexpected auroral event occured as far north as South Australia, with some really nice events in Tasmania, and here are some more images from an event in July. The Sun is still climbing towrds solar maximum, so we may see more auroa in the near future.Auroral images and descriptions from past geomagnetic storms are now at the auroral image web page.
We are slowly heading towards solar maxmum in 2013, and we can expect to see an increasing frequency of aurora. Tasmania, King Island and Southern Victoria are the most likely places to see aurora. However, on August 24, 2005 there was a massive auroral storm seen as far as northern NSW. Naturally, the best views of any aurora will be away from the city and bright lights. Aurora occur when charged particles from the solar wind enter Earths outer atmosphere and interact with the oxygen and nitrogen atoms producing eerie displays of coloured lights. During solar maximum, which occurs every 11 years, the number and speed of the particles are higher, allowing them to penetrate the Earth's magnetic field at lower latitudes than normal. Observers in Tasmania are likely to see green glows or sheets of light in the southern sky. Observers in Southern Victoria are more likely to see a red glow in the southern sky, although more spectacular displays are possible.
The Astronomical Society of Tasmania has a webpage devoted to this phenomenon. The Australian IPS radio and space services covers Aurora and related phenomena in very great detail (too much if you don't know much about them) but has a nice education page. Flinders Uni also has real time magnetometer readings, however, this will probably not mean much to most people.
Aurora will generally follow solar flares by about 2 days, and a number of instruments are watching the sun for these outbursts. The solar miniumin occured in 2006 and persisted for some time. While sunspot numbers, and hence flare rates are increasing, sometimes months will go by without an alert, then you have three in a week. The space weather site at http://www.spaceweather.com gives notice of when solar winds likely to cause aurora will arrive. Alternatively, send an email to reynella@mira.net with "subscribe aurora alert" as the subject and I will send you an email alert of any likely auroral event (or other interesting sky phenomena). However, even a strong solar flare is no guarantee that you will be able to see aurora, but it does increase the probability. Still more alternatively, there are the facebook pages Aurora Australis Tasmania, Aurora Australis Tasmania NOW! and Aurora Australis all do discussions and alerts.
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Email alerts I try to update this page fairly regularly outside of the monthly postings. However sometimes things happen which I can't get in fast enough, or you forget to mark your calendar. If you would like to be alerted to or reminded of interesting astronomical or sky phenomena, send an email to reynella@mira.net with "subscribe aurora alert" as the subject. This is the old aurora alert list, but with auroras rare as we climb out solar minimum (except for the occasional humdinger, like the August 2005 auroral event), it is doing double duty. Astroblog will have images when possible of these events soon after.
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Coming events2 January 2012; Moon Near Jupiter
14 January 2012; Moon Near Mars
17 January 2012; Moon Near Saturn and Spica
27 January 2012; Crescent Moon Near Venus
10 February 2012; Moon close to Mars
12 February 2012; Moon close to Spica and Saturn
26 February 2012; Crescent Moon close to Venus
27 February 2012; Crescent Moon close to Jupiter
4 March 2012; Mars is at Opposition
8 March 2012; Moon close to Mars
11 March 2012; Moon close to Saturn
14 March 2012; Jupiter and Venus close together
26 March 2012; Crescent Moon close to Jupiter and Venus
3 April 2012, Moon close to Mars
7 April 2012, Moon close to Spica and Saturn
16 April 2012, Saturn at opposition
19 April 2012, Mercury and Crescent Moon close
23 April 2012, Jupiter close to crescent Moon
25 April 2012, Venus close to crescent Moon
1 May 2012, Moon and Mars close together.
4 May 2012, Moon, Spica and Saturn close together.
5 May 2012 Eta Aquarid meter shower.
23 May 2012, Venus and crescent Moon close together.
1 June 2012, Moon, Spica and Saturn close together.
4 June 2012, Partial Eclipse of the Moon.
6 June 2012, Transit of Venus.
17-18 June 2012, Jupiter and Venus close to thin crescent Moon, Venus forms an "eye" of the constellation of Taurus.
21 June 2012, Mercury and Crescent Moon close.
26 June 2012, Mars close to the Moon.
28 June 2012, Spica and Saturn close to Moon.
1-9 July 2012, Venus and Jupiter close to Aldebaran.
2-4 July 2012, Mercury close to Beehive cluster.
15 July 2012, Jupiter and crescent Moon close.
16 July 2012, Venus and crescent Moon close.
20 July 2012, Mercury and thin crescent Moon close.
24 July 2012, Mars and crescent Moon close.
12 August 2012, Jupiter and thin crescent Moon close.
14 August 2012, Venus and thin crescent Moon close.
14 August 2012, Saturn, Mars and Spica form a line.
16 August 2012, Thin crescent Moon and Mercury close.
22 August 2012, Crescent Moon, Saturn, Spica and Mars close.
31 August 2012, "Blue" Moon.
9 September 2012, Moon close to Jupiter.
13 September 2012, Moon close to Venus.
18 September 2012, Saturn and the thin crescent Moon close.
20 September 2012, Mars and the crescent Moon close.
4 October 2012, Venus and Regulus close.
6 October 2012, (morning) Occultation/Graze of Jupiter and Moon.
13 October 2012, Venus close to crescent Moon.
15-25 October 2012, Mars close to Antares.
17 October 2012, Mercury close to crescent Moon.
18 October 2012, Mars close to crescent Moon.
22 October 2012, Orionid meteor shower.
11 November 2012, Leonid Meteor Shower.
12 November 2012, Crescent Moon close to Venus.
13 November 2012, Crescent Moon close to Saturn.
14 November 2012, Total Solar Eclipse.
18 November 2012, Venus, Spica and Saturn close.
16 November 2012, Crescent Moon close to Mars.
27 November 2012, Saturn close to Venus.
28 November 2012, Moon close to Jupiter.
3 December 2012, Opposition of Jupiter.
11 December 2012, Crescent Moon close to Saturn.
12 December 2012, Crescent Moon close to Venus and Mercury.
14 December 2012, Geminid Meteor shower.
15 December 2012, Mars and Crescent Moon close.
25 December 2012, Jupiter and Moon close.
Out in SpaceCassini sees stunning ring shadows.
Mars Curiosity Rover set to land on August 5.
The Mars Reconaissance Orbiter watches dunes blowing in the wind.
Mercury MESSENGER finds volcanic vents on Mercury.
The Dawn mission produces a video of Vesta in colour.
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The Moon:
Current Phase of the Moon.
This is a JavaScript applet kindly supplied by Darren Osbourne. It shows the Moon as Southern Hemisphere viewers see it, and is upside down from the Northern Hemisphere perspective.
Full moon on the 2nd
Last quarter on the 10th
New Moon is on the 17th
First quarter on the 24th
There is a Blue Moon this month. August 12; morning, Jupiter close to the crescent Moon (early morning occulation in Darwin). August 13; the creascent Moon between Jupiter and Venus. August 14; morning, Venus close to the crescent Moon. August 16; morning, thin crescent Moon close to Mercury. August 22; Waxing Moon close to Mars, Spica and Saturn.An interactive calendar of the Moon's phases.
A view of the phase of the Moon for any date from 1800 A.D. to 2199, US based, so that the Moon is upside down with respect to us. The image above is from this source.
The phases of the Moon have been linked in the popular imagination to activities as diverse as madness and menstruation. However, careful study has shown that there are no such links. This web page outlines how the Moon is unconnected with a wide range of human activities.
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Planets:Finding planets, even with the directions below, can sometimes be difficult if you are unfamiliar with the sky. However, the Moon is very obvious, and can be a guide to location planets. Not only that, the combination of the Moon and bright planet(s) is often very beautiful. Thus the guide below gives the dates when the planets and the Moon are close together.
The morning sky facing east in Darwin on August 12 at 4:00 am ACST showing the the eastern horizon with Crescent Moon just covering Jupiter (in telescopes Jupiter will still be just clear of the Moon, but this will be hard to see with the unaided eye), and Venus and the Hyades nearby. (similar views will be seen from other cities at the equivalent local time eg 4:00 am ACST Adelaide, but The Moon will not cover Jupiter from these sites, but will be very close.
The evening sky facing west in Melbourne on August 14 at 9:00 pm AEST showing the bright star SPica, Mars and Saturn forming a straight line. (similar views will be seen from other cities at the equivalent local time eg 8:00 pm ACST Adelaide).Mercury returns to the morning sky this month. However, it never really clears the horizon by much and will be extraordinarily difficult to see, unless your horizon is the ocean. Venus is easily visible in the morning sky, in the constellation of Gemini. On August 1 Venus is three handspans above the eastern horizon an hour before sunrise, not far from Jupiter and forming a broad triangle with the bright red stars Aldebaran and Betelgeuse. On August 13 the crescent Moon is between Jupiter and Venus. On August 14 Venus is less than a fingerwidth below the crescent moon. This is a great time to try an see Venus in the daylight. On August 15 Venus is just over three handspans above the eastern horizon an hour before sunrise. Venus is a distinct "Half-Moon" shape in even small telescopes. On August 31 Venus is still just over three handspans above the eastern horizon an hour before sunrise.
Mars was at opposition on March 4th, when it was at its biggest and brightest as seen from Earth. It is now rather unpreposessing telescopically, but can still be reasonably easily seen as the bright red object in Virgo. Red (well, sort of orange) Mars starts the month not too far from yellow Saturn and the bright blue/white star Spica, forming a diistinct triangle with them. Over the month the triangle becomes narrower and narrower. On August 1 Mars is around six handspans above the western horizon at 8:00 pm (local time). On August 14 Mars, Spica and Saturn from a straight line. By August 15th Mars is just over five handspans above the western horizon an horizon at 8:00 pm (local time). On the 21st the cerscent Moon, Mars, Spica and Saturn make a broad triangle in the sky. On the 22nd Mars is two fingerwidths from the crescent Moon, with Spica and Saturn close by this make an interesting cluster in the sky. By the 31st, Mars is just under five handspans above the western horizon at 8:00 pm (local time). Mars is quite small in all but the most serious telescopes, due to this being a poor opposition.
Jupiter is readlily visible in the morning sky. In the first half of the Month it is close to the Hyades cluster, and in the first week forms a second "eye" for Taurus the Bull with the red star Aldebaran. On August 1 Jupiter is over four handspans above the north-eastern horizon an hour before sunrise. On August 12th the morning sky is rather spectacular with Jupiter much less than a fingerwith from the crescent Moon from most of Australia. In Darwin, Jupiter is occulted at 4:07 am. This is also an excellent time to try and see Jupiter in the daylight, using the crescent Moon as your guide. On August 13 the crescent Moon is between Jupiter and Venus. On August 15 Jupiter is five handspans above the north-eastern horizon an hour before sunrise. On August 31 Jupiter is over five handspans above the north eastern horizon an hour before sunrise.
In either binoculars or a telescope Jupiters Moons are always interesting, on August 3, 12 and 19 are a series of eccelent eclipses and transits of Jupiters Moons.
This table was created using The Planets 2.02 a free program available from http://www.cpac.org.uk Times are AEDST, subtract 30 minutes for ACDST and 3 hours for AWST.Subtract 1 hour for standard time. GRS = Great Red Spot. S = Shadow Transit, T = Transit Wed 1 Aug 7:13 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 3 Aug 4:11 Eur: Disappears into Eclipse Fri 3 Aug 4:27 Gan: Reappears from Eclipse Fri 3 Aug 5:09 Io : Shadow Transit Begins S Fri 3 Aug 6:20 Io : Transit Begins ST Fri 3 Aug 7:18 Io : Shadow Transit Ends T Sat 4 Aug 4:43 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 4 Aug 5:45 Io : Reappears from Occultation Sun 5 Aug 3:39 Eur: Transit Ends Mon 6 Aug 6:22 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Thu 9 Aug 3:52 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 10 Aug 6:35 Gan: Disappears into Eclipse Fri 10 Aug 6:45 Eur: Disappears into Eclipse Fri 10 Aug 7:02 Io : Shadow Transit Begins S Sat 11 Aug 4:16 Io : Disappears into Eclipse Sat 11 Aug 5:30 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 12 Aug 3:40 Io : Shadow Transit Ends ST Sun 12 Aug 3:47 Eur: Shadow Transit Ends T Sun 12 Aug 4:00 Eur: Transit Begins TT Sun 12 Aug 4:56 Io : Transit Ends T Sun 12 Aug 6:23 Eur: Transit Ends Mon 13 Aug 7:09 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Tue 14 Aug 3:01 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Tue 14 Aug 3:50 Gan: Transit Ends Thu 16 Aug 4:39 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 18 Aug 6:10 Io : Disappears into Eclipse Sat 18 Aug 6:18 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 19 Aug 3:24 Io : Shadow Transit Begins S Sun 19 Aug 4:01 Eur: Shadow Transit Begins SS Sun 19 Aug 4:42 Io : Transit Begins SST Sun 19 Aug 5:34 Io : Shadow Transit Ends ST Sun 19 Aug 6:24 Eur: Shadow Transit Ends T Sun 19 Aug 6:43 Eur: Transit Begins TT Sun 19 Aug 6:52 Io : Transit Ends T Mon 20 Aug 4:09 Io : Reappears from Occultation Tue 21 Aug 2:39 Gan: Shadow Transit Ends Tue 21 Aug 3:34 Eur: Reappears from Occultation Tue 21 Aug 3:48 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Tue 21 Aug 6:07 Gan: Transit Begins T Thu 23 Aug 5:26 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 26 Aug 2:56 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sun 26 Aug 5:18 Io : Shadow Transit Begins S Sun 26 Aug 6:38 Eur: Shadow Transit Begins SST Sun 26 Aug 6:38 Io : Transit Begins SST Mon 27 Aug 2:33 Io : Disappears into Eclipse Mon 27 Aug 6:05 Io : Reappears from Occultation Tue 28 Aug 3:16 Io : Transit Ends Tue 28 Aug 3:32 Eur: Reappears from Eclipse Tue 28 Aug 3:50 Eur: Disappears into Occultation Tue 28 Aug 4:35 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Tue 28 Aug 4:45 Gan: Shadow Transit Begins S Tue 28 Aug 6:11 Eur: Reappears from Occultation S Tue 28 Aug 6:39 Gan: Shadow Transit Ends Thu 30 Aug 6:13 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 31 Aug 2:05 GRS: Crosses Central MeridianSaturn is well past opposition, when it was biggest and brightest as seen from Earth. It is still prominent, and a reasonable telescopic object in the early evening hours of this month. Saturn is still close to the bright star Spica, and Mars is rapidly coming close to it in the first half of the month. On August 1 Saturn is just under seven handspans above the western horizon, at 8pm local time, a handspan to the right of Spica. On August 14 Spica, Mars and Saturn form a straight line. On August 15 Saturn is just over five handspans above the western horizon at 8 pm local time, in line with Spica. On the 21st the crescent Moon, Saturn, Spica and Mars make a broad triangle in the sky. On the 22nd Saturn is handspan from the crescent Moon, with Spica and Mars close by this make an interesting cluster in the sky. On August 31st, Saturn is just over three handspans above the western horizon, at 8pm local time, a handspan to the right of Spica.
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Iridium Flares, the International Space Station and other satellitesSee this amazing site for images of the space station taken through a telescope.
Iridium flares add a bit of spectacle to the night sky. The Iridium satellite network was set up to give global phone coverage, so an Iridium satellite is almost always over head. Occasionally, one of the antenna of the satellites is aligned so that it reflects the sun towards an observer, giving a brilliant flare, often out-shining Venus. However, the visibility of Iridium flares is VERY dependent on observer position, so you need a prediction for your spot within about 30 km. Hence I'm referring you to a web site for predictions rather than doing it myself.
- Heavens above, an excellent site. You need to choose your location or manually enter a longitude and latitude (once done the site remembers this). Predicts Iridium Flare occurrence, and gives the visibility the space shuttle, the International space station and heaps of other satellites. I find this the most useful site.
Or type in Your Latitude and Longitude in decimal format eg Darwin is -12.461 130.840 , to find your Lat Long go to this site.
See the International Space Station at your Location. Courtesy of Heavens above. Choose your location from the drop down boxOr type in Your Latitude and Longitude in decimal format eg Darwin is -12.461 130.840 , to find your Lat Long go to this site.
Another site, JPASS, doesn't do Iridium flares, but is very cool and does the International Space Station, and many other satellites. However, although the output is flashy, it's harder to use than heavens above.
- The JPASS site from NASA.
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Meteor showers:
Date Meteor Shower ZHR Illumination 2/08/2012 alpha-Capricornids 5 0.9 6/08/2012 iota-Aquarids 8 0.75 12/08/2012 Perseids 100 0.5 21/08/2012 alpha-Cygnids 5 0.25The figure ZHR is zenithal hourly rate. This is the number of meteors that a single observer would see per hour if the shower's "point of origin", or radiant, were at the zenith and the sky were dark enough for 6.5-magnitude stars to be visible to the naked eye. Illumination gives an idea of how dark the sky is, the lower the figure, the darker the sky.
Sadly, the Perseids are very low on the horizon in Australia and for all of us south of Brisbane, the radiant (where the meteors appear to originate in the sky) will be below the horizon. While the ZHR is around 100, Australian observers in the North should expect to see 6-7 meteors per hour under clear conditions. On August the 12th and 13th, between around 3.30 am and 5.30 am (yes, that's right, bleeding cold morning time), go out and face North. The meteor shower will be between two to three handspans from the horizon. A map showing the location of the meteor radiant as seen facing north from Brisbane at 4.00 am is here. (also useful for Alice Springs and Darwin, Townsville etc. where the radiant is higher). The waning Moon is in the noth-western horizon, and this will reduce meteor rates.
The Perseids are associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle, which has a 135 year orbit around the sun. The best Perseid showers were in 1991 and 1992, when Swift Tuttle was at perihelion (the closest approach to the sun) at 1 AU from the Sun, around 400 meteors per hour were seen. Swift Tuttle is now much further out.
Outside of the showers, you can still see sporadic meteors. Rates seen from the Southern Hemisphere are around 12 random meteors being seen per hour during the late morning hours and 2-4 per hour during the evening. The evening rates will be reduced during the times around the full Moon due to interference by the Moons light.
A good page describing meteor watching is at the Sky Publications site.The Meteor Section of the Astronomical Society of Victoria has some good information on meteor watching too.
Learn how to take a meteor shower photograph.
A Cool Fact about meteor speeds
A good page on detecting meteors using home made radiotelescopes is here.
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Comets:There are currently no comets observable with the unaided eye. A list of current comet ephemerides is at the MPC.
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Occultations:Occultation of Jupiter by the Moon August 12.
The Moon at $:04 am ACST in Darwin on August 12 just before the Moon covers Jupiter.
The crescent Moon will occult the planet Jupiter in the early morning hours of August 12 from Darwin. All other cities and locations south of Darwin will see Jupiter very close (less than half a fingerwidth) to the Moon. While this event is easily seen with the unaided eye, binoculars (best mounted on a tripod) or a small telescope will make this a spectacular sight, and you can watch the Moons being occulted as well.
Jupiter will disappear behind the bright limb of the Moon at 4:07 am local time, followed by Ganymede. Io and Europa reappear from behind the dark limb at 4:40 am, followed by Jupiter at 4:41, then Callisto and Ganymede (4:47 and 4:51 respectively). Astronomical twilight begins at 5:50 am in Darwin, so it should be sufficently dark for good viewing.
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Eclipse:No significant eclipses this month.
Find local sunrise/sunset and twilight times for your city or location (courtesy of Heavens Above).
Use either the drop down box for the listed cities, or type in your latitude, longitude and city in the boxes below.
Type in Your Latitude and Longitude in decimal format eg -12.461 130.840 , to find your Lat Long go to this site.
Variable Stars:
Cetus at 1:00 pm AEDST on 1 August, Mira is indicated by the circle.
Mira (omicron ceti), a star in the constellation of Cetus the whale, is a long period pulsating red giant and changes brightness from below naked eye visibility to a peak of round magnitude 2 (roughly as bright as beta Crucis in the Southern Cross) in around 330 days. Mira will peak in brightness in late August and is visible to the unaided eye. Mira will fade over the following months to below unaided eye visibility. Mira may be seen above the eastern horizon around 1 am local time (see above diagram).
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Stars:
The southern evening sky at 10:00 pm AEST in Melbourne on August 1 (similar views will be seen from other cities at the equivalent local time eg 10:00 pm ACST Adelaide).
All descriptions here are based on the view from Melbourne at 10.00 pm AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on 1 August and assumes a fairly level horizon. Starset occurs progressively earlier each day, so these descriptions are valid for 9.00 pm on the 15th and 8.00pm on the 30th. Readers fom other time zones should see roughly the same views at 10.00 pm local time. Corrections for cities other than Melbourne are given below.
How do I find east, west, north and south?
- Readers in Adelaide and Auckland should see roughly the same views at the local equivalent of 10.00 pm AEST.
- Readers in Hobart and Christchurch must decrease descriptions to the North by about five finger widths and increase those to the south by the same amount.
- Readers in Sydney, Fremantle, Perth, Santiago and Capetown should add 3 finger widths to the northern descriptions, and subtract 3 finger widths to the south.
- Readers in Brisbane, Alice Springs, Rio deJanerio and Johannesburg must adjust North/South descriptions by two hand spans.
- Readers in Darwin, Cairns, Brazilia, La Paz, Lusaka and Lima must adjust North/South descriptions by about 4-5 hand spans.
At the begining of August, the Milky Way is a spectacular sight as it arches across the sky in the early evening.
Facing east, the constellation of Cetus, the Whale, is just coming over the horizon. Five handspans up from the eastern horizon and one handspan to the left is the faint but rambling constellation of Aquarius. Six handspans up and one to the right is bright Fomalhaut, Alpha star of Piscis Austrinus.
Eight handspans above the horizon and one to the left of east is the battered triangle of Capricornius, the Water Goat, currently hosting Uranus and Neptune. Of interest as well is alpha Capricorni, the brightish star at top left hand corner of the triangle that is Capricorn. This is a naked eye double star.
Straddling the Zenith is the distinctive "teapot" shape of Sagitarius, the archer. The "teapots" spout is pointing east, its handle west, and its lid points to the left (north). This constellations panalopy of clusters and nebula reach full prominence. M24, an open cluster about two fingerwidths to the right and slightly down from the "lid" of the teapot should be visible to the naked eye, just above this and slightly to the left by about a hand span is a number of open clustes and a patch of luminosity that marks the lagoon nebula. M22, a globular cluster, is close to the lid (between and about a fingerwidths left of the two stars that make the bottom of the lid), should be visible as a dim, fuzzy star on a dark night. Between these clusters and the "lid" itself runs the Great Sagitarius Starcloud. The center of our galaxy lies in Sagitarius, and on a dark night, the traceries of the Milky Way and its dust clouds are particularly beautiful. A high definition map of Sagitarius can be found here.
From the Zenith continuing on west, the distinctive "hook" shape of Scorpio, the scorpion, streches down towards the western horizon. Going up from the western horizon by about twelve handspans (or down from the zenith by 5) you will see six bright stars forming a T, with the tail of the "T" nearly perpendicular to the horizon and a curved "tail" of stars. The bright red giant star Antares (Alpha Scorpius, the middle star in the three stars forming the tail of the T) is quite prominent. The area around Scorpio is quite rewarding in binoculars, and there is a small but pretty globular cluster about one fingerwidth above and to the north of Antares (between Antares and the leading star of the tail of the T). It can be hard to see in city conditions. A high definition map of Scorpio is here. Just before the point where the tail curves around is a series of star clusters that make up the so-called false comet. The illusion of a comet is quite strong in small binoculars as well, but in stronger binoculars the clusters are quite clear.
Directly below the "T" of Scorpio by one handspan is a broad triangle of stars that marks Libra, the balance. Alpha librae (with the amazing name Zubenelgenubi) is the brightest star and apex of the triangle pointed at Spica, is almost midway between Spica and Antares. This star is a wide binary, and those with good eye sight and dark skies can usual see both components. Beta Librae (Zubeneschamali) is the next brightezst star in the triangle and closest to the horizon. Four fingerwidths to the left of Beta Librae is delta librae, this dim star (magnitude 4.9) is an eclipsing variable, where a dim star orbiting a brighter star eclipses the brighter star, causing a fall in precieved brigtness. Delta librae dims and brightens by one whole magnitude every 2.3 days, and is a good (if dim) naked eye variable. Libra also hosts the star HD 141569 (roughly a handspan below beta Librae, but at 7th magnitude invisible to the naked eye), which has a dust disk with dark lanes which may indicate planets.
Underneath alpha Librae by around four handspans and to the left by one handspan is bright white Spica, the brightest start in the contstellation of Virgo. Spica marks the top righthand corner of a rectangular group of stars that marks out the body of Virgo, the virgin. Virgo is now grazing the western horizon.
Six handspans to the right of spica is bright orange Arcturus, alpha star of the constellation of Bootes, the herdsman.
Directly to the left of Virgo by three handspans is the kite shape of Corvus the crow,
Returning to the Zenith and working towards the Northern horizon. Ten hanspans down from the Zenith (and 8 above the northern horizon) and two to the left is Rasalhague, alpha star of Ophiuchus, a large rambling constellation. A similar distance from the Zenith and 5 handspans to the right is the three bright stars that mark Aquilla, the Eagle, with the brightest, white Altair, being in the center.
Continuing down towards the northern horizon, the next bright star is white Vega, alpha Lyrae (the Lyre), three handspans from the horizon. Below and to the right of Vega, just above the horizon is bright Deneb, alpha star of Cygnus, the swan. In the norther hemisphere, Vega, Altair and Deneb make a prominent triangle in the night sky. Here their closeness to the horizon dims the splendor somewhat.
Between Altair, Arcturus, and Spica are a number of dim constellations, including Hercules. Hercules is almost mid way between Altair and Arcturus, and a reasonably prominent box shape just to the left of Vega marks the centre of the constellation.
Now return to the Zenith and go South. Directly south of the teapot of Sagitarius by about two fingerwidths, is the a delicate arc of stars, Corona Australis, the Southern Crown. About three handspans away from the Zenith and between due south and the curved tail of Scorpio is a small squarish constellation Ara. Another handspan south again brings you to the edge of the large, but dim, constellation of Pavo the Peacock. Peacock, alpha Pavonis, is a reasonably bright magnitude 2 star and lies three handspans left of due south. Delta Pavonis, about two handspans below and two handspans to the right of alpha Pavonis, is one of the handful of sunlike stars within 20 lightyears of Earth that might have terrestrial planets in its habitable zone.
To the right of Pavo by about 5 handspans is alpha and beta Centauri, the so called "pointers", with Alpha being the yellow star which is furthest from the horizon, and Beta the blue white star below and slightly to the right. Between these stars and Pavo lie the dim constellations of trianglum and Circinus (the compass).
Alpha Centauri is the closest star to our sun at around 4 light years. However, recent measurements with the Hippacaros satellite put the system 300 million kilometers further away than previously thought. Alpha centauri is actually a triple star, conssiting of two sunlike stars and a red dwarf, Proxima centauri, which is the closest of the triple stars to earth.
Two handspan from alpha Centauri to the right and a little down is a small star, about a handspan to the right again is a fuzzy star, this is omega Centauri (5139 on the map), a globular cluster of stars which is quite spectacular in good binoculars, and more spectacular than 47 Tucana (see below). Another handspan to the right is Centaurus A, a very radio bright galaxy (5128 on the map). You need a dark night and binoculars (at least 10 x 30) to see it, but it is one of the few galaxies you can see in the southern hemisphere (outside of the small and large Mangellanic clouds) without a telescope.
Returning to alpha Centauri, following a line south east through the "pointers" brings you to the Southern Cross, two handspans below the pointers and 6 handspans above the horizon at about the 3 o'clock position on a clock. A high definition map of Centaurus and Crux is here.
The Southern Cross is, as expected, a cross shaped formation with Acrux (alpha Crucis) and gamma Crucis forming the long axis of the cross (running parrallel to the horizon, with bright Acrux on the westerly end of the axis). Beta and delta Crucis, now running north-south, form the cross piece of the cross. Just above and to the right Acrux is the coal sack. This dark area against the glow of the milky way represents a large dust cloud and is clearly visible in dark skies. The Jewel box in the Cross is a small open cluster just to the left of Beta Crucis, the uppermost bright star in the Cross at the moment. It is quite beautiful, but requires strong binoculars or a small telescope to see properly.
Just below the Southern Cross is Carina (the keel of the former constellation Argo Navis). A high definition map of this region is here. Looking almost anywhere in the area streching between Sagitarius and Vela/Carina will reveal an interesting cluster or star formation. However, the area two handspans below and slightly to the right of the Southern Cross, between it and the false cross, is particularly rich. Here you will find the "Southern Peliades" surrounding the tail star (Theta Carina) of a prominent kite shaped group of stars in Carina. Smaller and less spectacular than their northern counterparts, they still look very nice in binoculars. Four fingerwidths below the Southern Peliades are two rich open clusters, and the barely visible star Eta Carina. Eta Carina's spectacular nebula is only dimly seen in binoculars. Five hand spans below and two to the left of the Southern Cross is the False Cross, now only two handspans from the horizon. Just to the left of the False Cross is a good open cluster, normally just visible to the naked eye but hard to see this close to the horizon. Still very nice in binoculars though. Canopus (alpha Carina) is a bright yellowish star sitting just on the south-eastern horizon .
Just below Carina, sitting on the horizon is Vela, the sail of Argo Navis. When, Argo Navis was broken up into Puppis, Vela and Carina in 1750, they forgot to assign alpha and beta stars to Vela, and its brightest star at magnitude 1.5 is Gamma Velorum, now below the horizon. Most of Velas best sights are either below the horizon, or too close to be seen well. Kappa and delta Velorum, with iota and epsilon Carina, make the "false cross" (about 2 hand spans above the south-western horizon). A high definition map of Vela is here.
Three handspans straight up from south, and just to the left is the extended nebulosity of the Large Magellanic cloud, the largest of the dwarf satellite galaxies. Binoculars will reveal a rather attractive nebula near it, the Tarantula nebula.
Six handspans up from the southern horizon and three to the left is the Small Magellanic cloud, the second largest of the dwarf satellite galaxies to the Milky Way. This feature is best viewed on a dark night, away from the city. In this nebulosity is what looks to be a fuzzy star, this is 47 Tucana, a spectacular globular cluster that is very nice through binoculars.
To the left of the Small Mangellanic cloud is the dim, non descript constellation of Tucana, the Toucan itself, then another 6 handspans further left near bright Fomalhaut is the battered cross of Gruss the crane.
Four handspans from the south-eastern horizon, in an area otherwise devoid of bright stars is magnitude 0.5 Achenar, alpha Eridani, lead star in the constellation of the river, which will soon ramble across the southern skies.
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Sky Maps
How to use the maps
Comparison of a section of a skymap showing the Southern Cross (Crux) and pointers, with the appearance of the night sky. The map and sky are for September 1 at 10.00 pm, facing south. Both show approximately 30 degrees (5 handspans) of sky just above the horizonThe maps look a little busy, as they cover all sky from horizon to zenith. The grid lines are navigational helpers; each horizontal or vertical line covers 30 degrees of arc (the gridlines in the illustration show 15 degrees of arc), which is roughly five handspans (where a handspan is the width of your hand, held flat light a "stop" sign at arms length). As you can see from the way the lines bunch up. The map is a little distorted, due to trying to project a spherical surface on a flat surface. The horizon is the lowest curved line on the map (for technical software reasons I can't block things out below the Horizon). Constellations are linked by lines and their names are in italics. Stars are shown as circles of varying size, the bigger the circle the brighter the star. The stars are named with their Bayer letter (eg a - alpha, the brightest star in a constellation, a Crucis is the brightest star in Crux). Variable stars are shown as hollow circles, double stars are marked with a line (eg a, b and g Crucis are all double stars, that look quite beautiful in a small telescope). Clusters and Nebula brighter than magnitude 6.0 are marked as broken circles (eg the Jewel box cluster next to b Crucis above which is best viewed in binoculars or a telescope) and squares respectively. To find Crux for example, locate Crux on the appropriate map (eg see the illustration above). Holding the Map, face either east or west (depending on the map), then use the grid lines to determine how far over and up you should look, then look for the Crux pattern in that part of the Sky.
GIF Maps
A view of the Eastern August sky at 10.00pm AEST on 1 August can be downloaded here (augsky_e.gif 30 Kb) and a view of the western August sky can be downloaded here (augsky_w.gif 30 Kb). These are more compact files but don't have a lot of resolution.If you wish to print the GIF maps directly from Netscape you must set the printer in landscape mode and you must set the margins to 0 cm (yes, that's right, 0 cm) or the maps will not print correctly.
PDF Maps
High Resolution PDF files can be obtained for the eastern (110 Kb) and the western (110 Kb) horizon maps.The Zenith Map (110 Kb) shows you the whole sky. You will need to face the one of the compass points, then hold the map with the appropriate compass point on the map at the bottom of the page.
You will need a PDF viewer such as Adobe Acrobat or GhostView to view and print them. They look slightly worse on-screen than the GIF files, especially as Acrobat 3.0-4.0 can only display them side on, but print much better and come with legends. However, Acrobat 4.05 and higher can display them in the proper orientation.
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[December Skies] [January Skies] [February Skies] [March Skies] [April Skies] [May Skies] [June Skies] [July Skies] Return to Menu
Cheers! And good star gazing!
Ian's Astrophotography Gallery
Some of the photographs/images I have taken in recent years of astronomical phenomena that may be of interest.
- Partial Lunar eclipse. Partial Lunar eclipse, July 5, 2001
- My Solar eclipse report. Pictures from the Dec 4, 2002 solar eclipse in South Australia
- Transit of Mercury pictures! 7 May 2003
- Images of the partial solar eclipse 24 Nov 2003
- Transit of Venus June 8 2004 report
- Images of Jupiter, taken, after an enormous struggle, with my webcam, April 2005
- Mosaics of the Moon, more fun with my webcam, April-May 2005
- Animation of Sunrise on the Moon November 2006
- Animation of A shadow Transit on Jupiter May 2007
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Links
Societies:Australian Resources:
- OnLine Astronomical Societies in Australia, from the Astronomical Society of New South Wales Inc.
- Astronomical Society of Australia
Australian Planetariums:
- A clickable star map for Victoria
- Monthly free Star maps. High quality, monthly maps for Southern and Northern Skies, has lists of interesting objects. Requires Adobe Acrobat to print.
- Gordon Garradd's Astronomy Page
- Peter Enzerinks Astronomy page - Web based telescope/eyepiece calculator and other southern sky tidbits.
- Buying a telescope in Australia, lots of helpful hints.
- Anglo-Australian Observatory
- MSSSO - Mt Stromlo and Siding Springs Observatory
- ATNF - Australian Telescope National Facility
- Parks Radio telescope facility
- Spaceguard Australia the proposed search for Near Earth Objects including meteroids.
- Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex
- Star Class, Astronomy Education
- Information about Aboriginal astronomy.
- Australian weather forecasts
- Sky and Space, Australia's Astronomy magazine.
- Planetary Society, Australian Volunteers events diary.
- Australian Astronomy
- Adelaide Planetarium
- Canberra Planetarium and Observatory
- Launceston Planetarium
- Science Centre and Planetarium (Wollongong)
- Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium
- Perth Observatory and Planetarium
- Museum of Victoria Planetarium, Skynotes Index
- The Cosmos Centre in Charleville
International Resources:
- ABC Space for Kids, Games, information and more.
- Star Child NASA space information for kis 5-13.
- Interactive site on the Sun, good kids resources
- ABC Space for Kids, Games, information and more.
- Astronomy for Kids
- Astronomy for Kids (different site to the one above, and a bit simple, but lots of good images).
- Kids astronomy information from Astronomy Magazine
Stunning sites:
- SEDS, home of the Nine Planets Tour, and much much more
- The Planetary Society
- Center for Backyard Astrophysics
- Amateur Radio Telescopes
- International Occulation Timing Society
- Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy pages (very educational)
- SKY Online - Your Astronomy Source on the World Wide Web
- Astronomy Magazine
- Stellar distances
- Space Weather site (with Meteor counts)
- Near Earth Object home page (also follows comets, including LINEAR S4 and meteor showers)
Useful programs:
- A 3D map of satellites orbiting the Earth in real time! Simply amazing!
- The Anglo Australian Observatories 3D virtual tour through a 3D map of the Cosmos. Mind Blowing!
- Views of extrasolar planets seen from the Southern sky, stunning Java-driven map with heaps of (complex) info.
- Stellarium, free (but large) photorealistic sky charting software. What I use for the horizon views.
- Celestia, free 3D space travel software, see the Earth from Mars, see the Moon of EL62, see Saturn rise on Titan.
- Ian's Celestia resources. Save these files into the "Extras" directory
- Script to show Conjunctions of Earth from Mars.
- Definition File for asteroid 87 Sylvia and her two moons (see story here).
- Definition File for Pluto's two new Moons P1 and P2.
- Definition file for three Neptunian extrasolar planets of HD 69830.
- Asteroid 2004 VD17, which will not hit the Earth.
- Definition file for Comet 2006/P1 McNaught
- Definition file for for the Gliese 581 system that contains the most Earth-like world yet.
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Charts, Books and Software for Astronomy
If you would like to have charts available all the time, rather than relying on mine, for between $2-$20 you can pick up a planisphere from a newsagent or bookshop (or for a bit more you can get fancy ones from Australian Geographic, the ABC shop or the other Australian Geographic look alike shop, or the Wilderness Society, or even a binocular/ optical store). The planisphere won't give you position of the planets, so you will need to get the planet rise/set times. These can be found in most serious newspapers (the Age, the Australian, SMH etc. The Australian is probably the best bet for budding amateurs). The combination of planisphere and rise/set times is the best value for beginners though, if you are not too worried about identifying star clusters in your binoculars.Or, for $19.95 US, you can have the Touring the Universe through Binoculars Atlas http://www.philharrington.net/tuba.htm which can print observing charts, but has a few annoying quirks. These include having no horizon line, and the planets are shown in the wrong places.
I use a combination of a 1962 star chart, the Australian Astronomy 2012 almanac and SkyMap Pro 11.0 . I highly recommend the Australian Astronomy 2012 almanac. It is more helpful for planetary/comet/asteroidal observations and eclipses than for double stars, clusters galaxies etc, but is an excellent resource for Australian observers and anyone who would like to seriously follow the planets in Australia should have this almanac. It has easy to follow month-by-month summary information, as well as detailed charts, tables and whole sky maps. It is easily navigated. The Almanac is often in big bookstores or optical shops, or email info@quasarastronomy.com.au to purchase a copy directly for those outside major population centres. The Australian Astronomy almanac comes out in around November for the following year, and is now approx $28.
Sky and Telescope now also do an Australian version of their magazine.
For detailed chart drawing and timing of events, as well as satellite track predictions I feed the information from the almanac into the $150 AUD SkyMap Pro 11.0 , planetarium program. This is a very handy program which prints maps of every possible orientation and scale. The maps on this page are produced by SkyMap.
A shareware version of SkyMap that runs on windows 3.x, and win95 can be found here http://www.winsite.com/info/pc/win3/desktop/skymp21a.zip this is approximately 640 Kb zipped.
A shareware version of the win95 only version 5.0 is here http://www.download.net.au/cgi-bin/dl?13607
Other highly recommended Sky charting packages (win95/98/2000/XP sorry) are:
Cartes du Ciel at http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/ (FREE) a bit messy to install but very good.
Stellarium at http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/ (FREE) stunning photorealistic program, but requires grunty PC and OpenGL.
TheSkyVarious packages from $49 US to $249 US
Stary Night various versions from $49 us for the basic pack (10 day trial of the basic pack at http://www.siennasoft.com/english/downloads.shtml) up.
Earth Centered Universe $88 AUD (shareware version at http://www.nova-astro.com/)
On the other hand a standard Sky Atlas for serious observing (much handier than carting a computer with you) such as Norton's Star Atlas can range from $35 to $90.In these days of Handheld devices (smart phones and tablets), there is a plethora of sky charting apps you can take into the field with you. I use GoogleSky for android and a cut down version of Stellarium for iPad, my most used handheld app is heavens Above for Android, for watching Iridium flares and ISS passes. This is one app that has changed my astronomical life. There are many more, many free or less than 1 AUD to dowload.
This is not meant to be a product endorsement of any kind (outside of the Australian Astronomy 2012 almanac. For any budding astronomers out there, it is fantastic value and no, I don't have any commercial interest in it, but I did win bronze in their website Olympics).
This page can be used freely for any non-commercial purpose but please attribute it correctly. However, see the disclaimer.
Email: reynella@mira.net
e-mail
Ian with any suggestions
Created: Wednesday, 1 April 1998, 11:22:13 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, 3 July 2012, 11:30:13 PM
