First Maritime Night Sky

Last night after watching the sixth OBS deployed, we noticed jelly- fish floating and the almost half moon and Venus.  The lit up moon was in the shape of a C rather than a D like you would see in the northern hemisphere.  Why is this?  Go stand on your head silly!

Our Old Friends – Visible Northern Constellation

I have been looking forward to glimpsing the night skies down under.  Three of the projects submitted had to do with the constellations present.  I have recognized four constellations that are visible in the northern hemisphere.

- Orion, the hunter with the amazing Orion Nebula in the sword

-Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky is the nose the constellation Canis Major

-The Seven Sisters or Pleiades

-Taurus the Bull

Orion is upside down and more towards the top or zenith of the night sky not in the south like in Colorado.

New Friends-Southern Circumpolar Constellations

To the north are constellations that are thought to be circumpolar constellations.  They are seen year round in the southern hemisphere below thirty degrees latitude.    

 Check out this blog’s link titled Southern Hemisphere Constellations for basic star information.

The sky was partly cloudy, but we did find the Southern Cross, which is on the New Zealand flag.

Southern Cross on New Zealand Flag

To the lower right are two bright stars; Alpha Centauri the third brightest star in the night sky and actually a triple star system.  Alpha Proxima the smallest of the Alpha Centauri triple is our closest neighbor outside of the sun.  When you look at Alpha Centauri you are looking at a conglomerate of all three stars.  It is only 4.3 light years away. 

The second brighter star is Beta Centauri which is also down under. 

Polar Stars-Navigator’s Helpers for Millennia

North Star

In the northern hemisphere we have Polaris called the North Star.  Check out this web site to find it.

http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/how-to-find-the-north-star/

The Southern Star

There is a South Star, Sigma Octantis, but it is barely visible to the naked eye.  We reviewed how to find south since Polaris is not visible here.  Rick Sibson uses method 2 from the following web site. 

http://www.landyspares.co.za/landyspares/gps/crux.htm

The pictures will help you.  Learn it now if you ever intend to go down under.

Other interesting web sites

Basic Southern Constellations

http://nzphoto.tripod.com/astro/asoutherncross.htm#

About Alpha Centauri

http://www.solstation.com/stars/alp-cent3.htm

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