January Skies
Useful info for visitors from New Zealand, South Africa and South America.
Morning January 1; weak partial Lunar eclipse seen in WA. Morning January 4; Mars and bright star Regulus near waning Moon. Morning January 7; Saturn and the waning Moon close. Morning January 8; bright star Spica and waning Moon close. Morning January 14; thin crescent Moon close to Mercury. Evening January 18; crescent Moon near Jupiter. January 25, Occultation of Pleiades. January 30, Mars at opposition. January 30, Blue Moon.
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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Summer is here once more, and the beautiful constellations of Orion, Taurus and the magnificent rambling constellations of Carina, Puppis and Vela grace our skies again. The December school holidays will be an ideal time to head out somewhere dark and view the stars and planets at their best. Summer also means very long twilights in southern Australia, so you may have to wait to see these delights. Despite the warmth of the days, nights are often cool, so don't forget a light jumper before doing any extended star watching. A blanket or rug to sit on is a good idea. Some mosquito repellent will be a must.
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 21/01/08: Sunspot cycle 24 has offically started. We are still in Solar Minimum, but expect things to begin to pick up aurora-wise towards the end of the year.Auroral images and descriptions from past geomagnetic storms are now at the auroral image web page.
While we are at solar minimum, it will still be possible to see the occasional 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 mimiumin should occur in 2006, and sunspot numbers, and hence flare rates are dropping considerably, 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.
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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 events1 January 2010; weak Partial Lunar Eclipse (WA only)
30 January 2010; Opposition of Mars
30 January 2010; Blue Moon
12 February 2010, Crescent Moon close to Mercury
18 February 2010, Asteroid Vesta at opposition
14 March 2010, Crescent Moon close to Jupiter
22 March 2010, Saturn at opposition
30 March 2010; Blue Moon
17 April 2010, Moon occultsleiades
15-20 April 2010, Mars near Beehive cluster
6 May 2010 Eta Aquarid meter shower.
16 May 2010, Thin crescent Moon and Venus close together.
7 June 2010, Mars close to bright star Regulus.
11 June 2010, Occultation of Pleiades with Venus close by.
15 June 2010, Venus close to thin crescent Moon.
20 June 2010, Venus near Beehive cluster.
26 June 2010, Partial Lunar Eclipse.
10 July 2010, Venus and Regulus close.
13 July 2010, Mercury in Beehive cluster with crescent Moon nearby.
28 July 2010, Mercury and Regulus close.
31 July 2010, Mars, Saturn and Venus close.
8 August 2010, Mars, Saturn and Venus close.
12 August 2010, Crescent Moon and Mercury close together.
13 August 2010, Crescent Moon, Venus, Mars and Saturn all close together.
19 August 2010, Venus and Mars close.
1 September 2010, Venus close to Spica, Mars nearby
5 September 2010, Mars close to Spica, Venus nearby.
11 September 2010, Mars, Venus, Spica and the crescent Moon close.
21 September 2010, Opposition of Jupiter.
7 October 2010, Mars and venus close.
10 October 2010, Venus, Mars and crescent Moon form nice triangle.
22 October 2010, Orionid meteor shower.
30 October 2010, Blue Last Quarter Moon.
5 November 2010, Crescent Moon close to Spica and Venus.
7 November 2010, Crescent Moon close to Mercury.
18 November 2010, Leonid meteor shower.
21 November 2010, Mars and Mercury close.
3 December 2010, Venus, Spica and crescent Moon close with Saturn nearby.
7 December 2010, Mercury and crescent Moon close.
14 December 2010, Mars and Mercury close.
14 December 2010, Geminid Meteor shower.
29 December 2010, Saturn, Moon and Spica close.
Out in SpaceCassini has caught glints of light from methane lakes on Titan.
The NASA Mars rovers are facing separate challenges. SPIRIT is still stuck and now has wheel problems. OPPORTUNITY is investigating a "Marquette Island", possibly yet another meteorite.
Mars Express has imaged the Phobos and Demios together.
The Mars Reconaissance Orbiter has seen fantastic canyons on Mars.
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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 1st
Last quarter on the 7th
New Moon is on the 15th
First quarter on the 23rdh
On the morning of January 1, there is a weak partial eclipse, best seen in WA, where the mid eclipse is around 3:30 am (WST). For the rest of Australia, mid eclipse occurs during dawn. On the morning of January 4 the waning Moon is close to Mars. On the morning of January 7 the Moon is close to Saturn. On the morning of January 8 the Moon is close to Spica. On the morning of January 14 the thin crescent Moon is close to Mercury. On January 18 the thin Moon is near Jupiter. On January 30th there is a Blue Moon.
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 Melbourne on January 4 at 4:00 am AEDST (3:00 am AEST) showing Mars, Regulus, the Moon, Saturn and Spica. (similar views will be seen from other cities at the equivalent local time eg 4:00 am ACDST Adelaide.
The evening sky facing west in Melbourne on January 18 at 9:00 pm AEDST (8:00 am AEST) showing the Moon and Jupiter. (similar views will be seen from other cities at the equivalent local time eg 8:00 pm ACDST Adelaide.Mercury returns to the morning sky late this Month. On January 14 Mercury will be a handspan above the eastern horizon, half an hour before Sunrise. At the same time Mercury will be under half handspan from the thin crescent Moon. By January 29, Mercury is two and a half handpsans from the eastern horizon half an hour before Sunrise. On this date Mercury is poised between the brightish stas Xi and Pi Sagittarii, and just a quarter of a fingerwith from Omicron Sagittarii. Venus is lost in the twilight this month. It will return to the evening sky in February.
Earth is at perihelion on January 3rd, the closest point in its orbit to the Sun.
Mars enters the evening sky, and is at opposition on January 30th. This is a very poor opposition, and Mars will not be more than a smallish disk in small to medium telescopes, although its size will increase appreciably over the month.
On the evening of January 1 the distinctive red Mars can be seen just above the north-eastern horizon at 11:00 pm local daylight saving time. On the 3rd, the waning Moon is just under a handspan to the left of Mars. On the 15th, Mars is two handspans above the north-eastern horizon 11:00 pm local daylight saving time. On the 30th Mars is just over three handspans above the northern horizon at 11:00 pm local daylight saving time. On the 30th Mars is at its biggest and brightest and is just over a handspan from the "Blue" Full Moon.
Jupiter is very low in the western sky, and is not a good telescopic object due to its closeness to the horizon. On January 1 Jupiter is just under 3 handspans above the western horizon an hour before sunset. It is the brightest object in the sky at this time. On January 15 Jupiter is a just over a handspan above the western horizon an hour before sunset. On the 18th the crescent Moon is a handspan from Jupiter. On the 30th, Jupiter is a handspan above the western horizon half an hour before sunset. Jupiters satellites are easily visible in binoculars or small telescopes, and watching their ever changing movement is quite interesting even when Jupiter is close to the horizon.
This table was created using The Planets 2.02 a free program available from http://www.cpac.org.uk Times are AEST, subtract 30 minutes for ACST and 2 hours for AWST. Add 1 hour for Daylight saving time. GRS = Great Red Spot. S = Shadow Transit, T = Transit Fri 1 Jan 21:46 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Fri 1 Jan 22:55 Io : Disappears into Occultation Sat 2 Jan 21:13 Io : Shadow Transit Begins ST Sat 2 Jan 22:35 Io : Transit Ends S Wed 6 Jan 20:56 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Wed 6 Jan 22:11 Cal: Transit Begins T Fri 8 Jan 22:36 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Sat 9 Jan 22:18 Io : Transit Begins T Sun 10 Jan 21:51 Gan: Shadow Transit Ends Sun 10 Jan 22:34 Io : Reappears from Eclipse Wed 13 Jan 21:46 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Thu 14 Jan 21:45 Eur: Disappears into Occultation Fri 15 Jan 20:58 Cal: Reappears from Eclipse Sun 17 Jan 21:29 Io : Disappears into Occultation T Sun 17 Jan 22:19 Gan: Shadow Transit Begins ST Mon 18 Jan 20:56 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Mon 18 Jan 21:08 Io : Transit Ends S Mon 18 Jan 21:50 Io : Shadow Transit Ends Sat 23 Jan 21:45 Eur: Transit Ends ST Mon 25 Jan 20:52 Io : Transit Begins T Mon 25 Jan 21:28 Io : Shadow Transit Begins ST Mon 25 Jan 21:46 GRS: Crosses Central Meridian Tue 26 Jan 20:54 Io : Reappears from Eclipse Sat 30 Jan 20:56 GRS: Crosses Central MeridianSaturn rises higher in the morning sky this month and by the end of the month it is visible before midnight. On January 1 Saturn is seven handspans above the north-eastern horizon an hour and a half before sunrise. On the 7th the waning Moon is near Saturn. On the 8th the Moon is near the bright Star Spica. By January 15 Saturn is eight handspans above the north-eastern horizon, an hour and a half before Sunrise. On January 30th, Saturn is nine handspans above the northern horizon an hour and a half before Sunrise. From mid month Saturn is well placed for telescopic observation in the early morning. The ring system is gradually opening, so the rings will be looking more dramatic.
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Starshine 3
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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.
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.
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 IlluminationThe 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.
There are no significant showers this month.
Outside of the showers, you can still see sporadic meteors. Rates seen from the Southern Hemisphere are around 10 random meteors being seen per hour during the late morning hours and 2 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 the Pleiades by the Moon January 25.
On the evening of Monday January 25 the waxing Moon will pass in front of the beautiful Pleiades star cluster. Because the Moon is so bright, it will be best to watch this event with binoculars or a small telescope. In Australia, the Northern Territory has the best view. Darwin sees the most bright stars covered, starting with the bright star Maia, followed by bright Taygeta.
South eastern Australia sees just 18 Tauri covered (for Adelaide this occurs in twlight, so you can't actually see it) and WA misses out.
The occulataion is also seen in China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Phillipines. For timings in these places see the occulataion map links below.
In the table below, for simplicity, the disappearance of the first bright(ish) star is listed. For Maia timings (Universal Time) and occultation track maps see here, and Taygeta timings (UT) and track maps see here. Other locations generally see here.
City Disappears from behind dark limb Resappears behind bright limb Australia Adelaide (ACDST) - - Brisbane (AEST) 20:33 (18 Tau) - Canberra (AEDST) 21:21 (18 Tau) - Darwin (ACST) 20:01 (Maia) 20:21 (Taygeta) Alice Springs (ACST) - - Townsville (AEST) - - Hobart (AEDST) 21:18 (18 Tau) - Melbourne (AEDST) 21:12 (18 Tau) - Perth (AWST) - - Sydney (AEDST) 21:27 (18 Tau) --
Eclipse:Partial Lunar eclipse January 1, 2010:
On the early morning of Friday, January 1, there will be a weak partial eclipse of the Moon. Only 1 % of the Moon goes into the Earths inner shadow, the Umbra. However, the Moon is deep into the outer shadow, so we will see a slight but visible darkening of the Moon, with a dark "chip tken from the bottom.
Western Australia has the best view, for central and easter asutralia the eclipse beging in the twilight and is at maximum during the dawn. The eclipse begins at 3:51 am AWDST on the 1st. Mid eclipse is 4:22 am AWDST. The eclipse finishes on during dawn. The eclipse will be also be seen in Africa, India and South East Asia.
For people in Asia, see here for a map and contact timings in UT.
Find local 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:While most stars seem to shine with a constant brightness, there are some that undergo regular, dramatic change in brightness. The classic variables Mira and Algol are currently unobservable.
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 peaked in brightness in around November 10, and is now fading. It may be seen above the eastern horizon around 10 pm local daylight saving time beow a loop of stars just below Taurus (see western Horizon Map, Mira is not shown as the plotting software only shows the minimum).
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Stars:
The southern evening sky at 10:00 pm AEST in Melbourne on January 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 January 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 (and adjust for daylight saving).
- Readers in Darwin, Cairns, Brazilia, La Paz, Lusaka and Lima must adjust North/South descriptions by about 4-5 hand spans (and adjust for daylight saving).
Face east, just above the north eastern horizon is Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, which is just rising above the horizon. Directly east, above the horizon by 4 handspans is Hydra, and to the south east is the distinct wine-glass shape of Crater, the Cup.
About 13 handspans up from due east is Puppis, the poop deck of the form constellation of Argo Navis, the argonauts ship. The Milky Way passes through Puppis (and its companion constellations Vela and Carina), and there are several rather beautiful clusters worth looking at in binoculars.
Directly to the left of Vela is Canis Major. The bright white star 3 handspans left of due east is Sirius (alpha Canis Majoris), the brightest star in the sky. The constellation of Canis Majoris has a number of open clusters that are well worth exploring with binoculars, Most of these lie two handspans to the right of Sirius, amongst the V shaped group of stars that marks the tail of Canis Major. Below Sirius by two hand spans, and one handspan to the right is M47. This cluster is quite nice in binoculars.
To the left of Sirius by about four handspans and almost due north is the distinctive saucepan shape of Orion's belt. The handle of the saucepan is Orion's sword, which contains some good naked eye open clusters, and the final star in the handle hosts the famous Orion nebula, which is visible to the naked eye under clear skies. Directly above the handle of the saucepan is bright Rigel (beta Orionis). Directly below the saucepan is the bright reddish Betelgeuse (alpha Orionis), a red giant star.
To the left of and below Orion's belt by about 4 handspans is Alderbaran (alpha Tauri), another red giant which forms the base of the V shaped group of stars called the Hyades, which forms the head of Taurus. Further to the left and down again by 2 handspans from Alderbaran is a faint, but pretty, compact cluster of stars called the Pleiades (the seven sisters). The Pleiades are particularly beautiful through binoculars.
To the right of and below Orion's belt by around 8 handspans are bright Castor and Pollux, the brightest stars of Gemini.
Directly below Orion's belt by around 9 handspans, and just a handspan from the northern horizon is Capella, the brightest star of Auguia, the Charioteer.
Facing east, and Puppis again, to the left of Puppis is Vela and Carina, the sail and keel 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. Gama Velorum is a double star which may be resolved in good binoculars. The Milky Way passes through Vela, and there are many open clusters which can be seen with binoculars or the naked eye. One of the best of these is NGC2547, a little below gamma Velorum. Vela is also home to the spectacular Gum nebula (which can only be seen in telescopic photographs), and the second pulsar to be observed optically. Kappa and delta Velorum, with iota and epsilon Carina, make the "false cross" (about 7 hand spans above the southern horizon). A high definition map of Vela is here.
Carina (the keel of the former constellation Argo Navis) is a little further to the left of Vela. Canopus (alpha Carina) is a bright yellowish star sitting 3 handspan from due east and 14 handspans above the south-eastern horizon (and about 3 handspans up from the False Cross). A high definition map of this region is here. It is now far enough from the horizon to appreciate its many faint objects. Looking almost anywhere in the area of Carina will reveal an interesting cluster or star formation. However, the area between the Southern Cross and the false cross is particularly rich. The False Cross is 3 handspans below Canopus, four handspans up from the Southern Cross and, nine handspans from the southern horizon. Just to the left of the False Cross is a good open cluster. Between the False Cross and the Southern Cross you will find the "Southern Pleiades" surrounding the tail star (Theta Carina) of a prominent kite shaped group of stars, with theta Carina two handspans up from Acrux in the Southern Cross. Smaller and less spectacular than their northern counterparts, they still look very nice in binoculars. Four fingerwidths below the Southern Pleiades are two rich open clusters, and the barely visible star Eta Carina. Eta Carina's spectacular nebula is only dimly seen in binoculars.
Continuing down from Vela and Carina, following the Milky Way, we come to the Southern Cross.
The Southern Cross is, as expected, a cross shaped formation with Acrux (alpha Crucis) and gamma Crucis forming the long axis of the cross (pointing down to the south-east, with bright Acrux on the end of the axis away from the horizon). Beta and delta Crucis form the cross piece of the cross. Just to the right of Acrux is the Coal Sack. This dark area against the glow of the Milky Way represents a large dust cloud and is usually clearly visible in dark skies, but will be hard to see this close to the horizon. The Jewel box in the Cross is a small open cluster just to the right of Beta Crucis. It is quite beautiful, but requires strong binoculars or a small telescope to see properly, and is unlikely to be good viewing this close to the horizon.
Continuing down and south from the cross we come to the bright, distinctive alpha and beta Centauri, the so-called "pointers". They are a little over two handspans from the south-eastern horizon, with alpha being the yellow star which is closest to the horizon, and beta the blue white star just above and to the left. Most of the rest of Centarus, the Centaur, is too close to the Horizon to be seen properly. Later in the month however, omega Centauri, a naked eye globular cluster three handspans to the left of alpha Centauri, should be high enough to view properly. It is the object marked 5139 on the eastern sky map. A high definition map of Centaurus and Crux is here.
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 kilometres further away than previously thought. Alpha Centauri is actually a triple star, consisting of two sunlike stars and a red dwarf, Proxima Centauri, which is the closest of the triple stars to earth.
Directly above the southern horizon by 11 handspans 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.
To the left of this by 4 handspans and down by 3 handspans 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 (marked 104 on the western sky map), a spectacular globular cluster that is very nice through binoculars. To the right of the Small Magellanic Cloud by about 4 handspans is the dim constellation of Tucana, the Toucan, the parent constellation of 47 Tucana.
To the left, about two handspans from the south western horizon is Fomalhaut, alpha Piscinus Austrinis.
Almost 5 handspans up from due west is Deneb Kaitos, beta Ceti, brightest star of Cetus the whale, which stretches off to the right. Mira, Omicron Ceti (O on the maps) is a variable star with a period of about 332 days. Mira is currently fading rapidly and is no longer visible to the naked eye.
Cetus also hosts a nearby sun like star. Tau Ceti is 11.4 light years away from earth. From beta Ceti, Two handspans to the right is eta Ceti, two handspans from eta Ceti, forming a triangle with eta and beta, is Tau Ceti.
Continuing up from beta Ceti by around 9 handspans is the rambling, faint constellation of Erandius, the river. Bright Achenar is about 8 handspans up and to the left from beta Ceti (around 9 from the south western horizon).
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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 January sky at 10.00pm AEST on 1 January can be downloaded here (jansky_e.gif 30 Kb) and a view of the western January sky can be downloaded here (jansky_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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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.
- ASNSW Astro Almanac page for 2004
- ACT skywatch This site focuses on the ACT.
- Australiasky has moved, this nice site covers all of Australia, and has some nice features.
- Gordon Garradd's Astronomy Page
- Excellent Magellanic Cloud page with heaps of maps and info.
- Peter Enzerinks Astronomy page - Web based telescope/eyepiece calculator and other southern sky tidbits.
- Southern star gazer A bit heavy on graphics but pretty good.
- 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
- RP - CSIRO Radio Physics (part of TIP Division)
- Spaceguard Australia the proposed search for Near Earth Objects including meteroids.
- Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex
- Melbourne's Astronomy Central
- Star Class, Astronomy Education
- Information about Aboriginal astronomy.
- Australian weather forecasts
- Sky and Space, Australia's Astronomy magazine.
- Planetary Society, Australian Volunteers events diary.
- 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-$10 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 2007 almanac and SkyMap Pro 11.0 . I highly recommend the Australian Astronomy 2007 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 Space, the Australian equivalent of Sky and Telescope, is also very good, especially for breaking news. It is found in most big newsagents at $7.40 an issue. Disclaimer! I am now a contributing editor and write the planetary observation section for Sky and Space.
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.This is not meant to be a product endorsement of any kind (outside of the Australian Astronomy 2007 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). I am now also a contributing editor for Sky and Space so naturally take my enthusiasm with the appropriate grains of salt (although I was enthusiastic before I was approached to write for it).
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, 29 December 2009, 11:30:13 PM
