The Night Sky Guy

Planet Star Sky Show

Venus Pairs up with Bright Star; Click to enlarge

Friday through Sunday evening check out a close encounter between planet Venus and one of the brightest stars in the heavens.

Face towards the western horizon after sunset and look for the brightest star-like object about a third way up the sky. That is Venus – also known as the evening star. Once dusk sets in and it gets dark enough look just underneath Venus and you should see a fainter star pop out- Regulus. As an added bonus check out the planets Mars and Saturn too. The three planets are lined up like a row of ducks – quite a sight too!

By Saturday evening Venus-Regulus will be their closest to each other – only 1 degree apart – that is equal to the width of your finger held out at arms length.  If you keep watch into Sunday and Monday you will notice Venus moving off towards the southwest – that is the actual motion of Venus in its orbit you can watch happening right before your eyes.

The lead member in the constellation Leo- the lion, Regulus marks the heart of the lion and lies 78 light years away. A hot blue-white star, it is about 3.5 times larger than our Sun and is a young teenager when it comes to star lifetimes at 300 million years old.

It is about 150 times fainter in the sky right now than Venus, yet it is still the 19th brightest star in the entire sky.

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Moon Near Lion’s Heart

Face the southern horizon tonight and look for the Moon pairing up with the lead star in the constellation Leo, the lion. Also if you look carefully you may notice that the Moon is also sandwiched between two  bright star-like objects – planets Mars and Saturn – both a bit of  a distance away from Luna but still a pretty show.

Friday night: Moon sits under 78 light year distant Regulus

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Moon with Cluster Tonight

Moon and star cluster tonight; click image to enlarge

Check out the Moon late tonight paired up with the bright cluster M35. Both will be in the constellation Gemini-located at the twin’s feet. While the cluster is visible to the naked-eye from a dark sky, a pair of binoculars will really bring out the details in the 2,800 light year distant cluster nicely, especially from a light polluted suburban backyard. This open star cluster consists of several hundred stars and measures about 24 light years across. In our Earthly skies it takes up about the same chunk of sky as the full Moon does. M35 is one of the eternal favourite targets of beginner stargazers looking for deep sky treasures.

Best time to look for the cluster would be after local 9  pm, before which the sky will be to bright to make out details . Remember that low magnification is all you need when using a telescope to get the whole cluster in  your field of view.

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Moon meets Scorpion’s Heart

Moon and Mars' Rival Meet Sunday morning; click image to enlarge

Late night owls or early birds there is a pretty pairing of the last quarter Moon and the brilliant orange-coloured star Antares in the early Sunday (Mar.7) morning  sky. The pair will rise in the east after 2 am and will travel across the high southern sky together until they reach their closest point to each other just before dawn -around 6 am when the pair will only be separated by 1.3 degrees – about 3 full moon disks apart. Both objects will be in the constellation Scorpius which is one of the favourite summertime targets for stargazers when it dominates the southern evening skies.

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Moon meets Sisters

Cosmic Odd Couple on Sunday Night; click image to enlarge

This Sunday evening take a gander at the first quarter Moon and look towards its lower right and you might notice a hazy patch of light.  That stellar smudge is in fact one of the most famous night sky destinations for beginner skywatchers – called the Pleiades or seven susters.

It is rich star cluster located about 400 light years distant and it can easily be seen from even light polluted suburban skies. With even the bright Moon in play this weekend, the Pleiades can be spotted fairly easily.

If you are finding it hard to make out try using binoculars – they will bring out many more members of this cosmic nursery. More than 40 members belong to this young group and most can be seen with binoculars and small telescopes. But the naked eye will still pick out the brightest five to seven of its stars.

The Moon and Pleiades in the constellation Taurus; click image to enlarge

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Worlds Unite at Sunset Today

The Moon, Jupiter and Venus int he SW sky at sunset; click image to enlarge

This week there is a neat skywatching event going on just after sunset where the two planets Venus and Jupiter appear to huddle close together. And as an added bonus, the razor thin crescent Moon will be joining the pair in the southwestern sky tonight.

To  see the two planets you must have a very clear line of sight, devoid of high trees or houses to the low southwestern horizon.  I sometimes go onto highway overpasses (where there is a sidewalk) to catch a good, clear view.

Tonight the pair will be separated by just a little more than a 2 full moon disks, while Luna itself will be about 20 full moon disks above them. All three members of our solar systems will be in the part of the sky occupied by constellation Aquarius.

But by tomorrow, Tuesday at sunset Venus and Jupiter will appear their closest – only one full Moon disk apart - as the Goddess of Love moves a bit higher in the sky and King of all planets sinks a tad lower.  But remember you have to be quick to spot them as they will set within a half hour or so after the Sun.

Don’t  forget you can always get late-breaking stargazing news anytime by following me on Twitter and Facebook, or get  email alerts sent directly to your inbox.

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Happy Valentine’s Day

Here is a pretty picture postcard from a corner of the universe we call the constellation Cassiopeia. This is a glowing cloud of hydrogen gas that happens to take on the familiar shape of a heart and so is  called appropriately the Heart nebula. It spans about 300 light years across and lies 6000 light years from Earth.  This magnificent emmision nebula is the birthplace of many still young massive stars seen scattered across this photo.

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Orion’s Veil Pulled Back

New Close-up portrait of Orion Nebula, M42; Click image to enlarge

The Great Orion Nebula, one of the perennial favorite scenic wonders of the night sky has begun to reveal its innermost secrets.  A new dramatic image of this giant gas cloud has been showcased by the European Southern Observatory’s new VISTA survey telescope. The telescope’s huge field of view can show the full splendor of the whole nebula and VISTA’s infrared vision also allows it to peer deeply into dusty regions that are normally hidden and expose the curious behavior of the very active young stars buried there.

The Orion Nebula is a vast stellar nursery lying about 1,350 light-years from Earth. Although the nebula is spectacular when seen through an ordinary telescope, what can be seen using visible light is only a small part of a cloud of gas in which stars are forming. Most of the action is deeply embedded in dust clouds and to see what is really happening astronomers need to use telescopes with detectors sensitive to the longer wavelength radiation that can penetrate the dust. VISTA has imaged the Orion Nebula at wavelengths about twice as long as can be detected by the human eye.

VISTA — the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy — is the latest addition to ESO’s Paranal Observatory. It is the largest survey telescope in the world and is dedicated to mapping the sky at infrared wavelengths. The large (4.1-meter) mirror, wide field of view and very sensitive detectors make VISTA a unique instrument. This dramatic new image of the Orion Nebula illustrates VISTA’s remarkable powers.

As in the many visible light pictures of this object, the new wide field VISTA image shows the familiar bat-like form of the nebula in the center of the picture as well as the fascinating surrounding area. At the very heart of this region lie the four bright stars forming the Trapezium, a group of very hot young stars pumping out fierce ultraviolet radiation that is clearing the surrounding region and making the gas glow. However, observing in the infrared allows VISTA to reveal many other young stars in this central region that cannot be seen in visible light.   These youthful stars eject streams of gas with typical speeds of 700,000 km/hour and many of the red features highlight the places where these gas streams collide with the surrounding gas, causing emission from excited molecules and atoms in the gas. There are also a few faint, red features below the Orion Nebula in the image, showing that stars form there too, but with much less vigor. These strange features are of great interest to astronomers studying the birth and youth of stars.

Below is a cool video of the new look at Orion…

- Adapted from an ESO news announcement

Orion in the southern evening sky; click image to enlarge

Doorstep Astronomy: You can take a gander at this star factory for yourself with nothing more than your unaided eyes – even from light polluted suburbs! Just face towards the southern sky all evening long and look for Orion constellation’s distinctive row of three stars. This trio marks the belt of the mighty hunter. Just below the belt is Orion’s sword – which is a near vertical row of another three fainter stars.

Look closely at the middle star, and you will notice that it looks kind of fuzzy compared to the ones beside it. You have found Orion’s nebula – a giant cloud of gas and dust nearly 1400 light years away from us.

Binoculars and even a small telescope will begin to reveal the cloud’s beautiful flower-like structure composed of a tiny, tight cluster of blue-white stars surrounded by a grey-green mist. The French comet-hunter Charles Messier made an accurate sketch of its main features in the mid-eighteenth century and gave it the number 42 in his famous catalogue.

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The Purrfect Nebula

Nebula lies just off the stinger's tip; click image to enlarge

Few objects in the sky have been as well named as the Cat’s Paw Nebula, a glowing gas cloud resembling the gigantic pawprint of a celestial cat out on an errand across the Universe. NGC 6334 lies about 5500 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Scorpius (the Scorpion) and covers an area on the sky slightly larger than the full Moon. The whole gas cloud is about 50 light-years across. The nebula appears red because its blue and green light are scattered and absorbed more efficiently by material between the nebula and Earth. The red light comes predominantly from hydrogen gas glowing under the intense glare of hot young stars. 

Best image ever of the Cat's Paw Nebula; click image to enlarge

British astronomer John Herschel first recorded NGC 6334 in 1837 during his stay in South Africa. Despite using one of the largest telescopes in the world at the time, Herschel seems to have only noted the brightest part of the cloud, seen here towards the lower left.This new portrait of the Cat’s Paw Nebula was created from images taken with the 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

NGC 6334 is one of the most active nurseries of massive stars in our galaxy and has been extensively studied by astronomers. The nebula conceals freshly minted brilliant blue stars — each nearly ten times the mass of our Sun and born in the last few million years. The region is also home to many baby stars that are buried deep in the dust, making them difficult to study. In total, the Cat’s Paw Nebula could contain several tens of thousands of stars.Particularly striking is the red, intricate bubble in the lower right part of the image. This is most likely either a star expelling large amount of matter at high speed as it nears the end of its life or the remnant of a star that already has exploded.

Click here to get this image for you desktop wallpaper.

- Adapted from a European Southern Observatory new release

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New Night Sky Episode

If you missed it last night here is my latest episode where we talk about tracking down Orion constellation and its most celebrated star – Betelgeuse. Just don’t say that name three times

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