Tuesday, March 21, 2017

About that bright star...

So there sure is a lot of confusion up (and out) there.  The constellation Orion is easy to spot as it moves across the sky.  A few people asked me what that star was moving from left to right that appears at about the 32 second mark in the video.  Downloaded this app for my tablet computer to figure it out.  Turns out that was not a star afterall.  It was Jupiter - the largest planet in the solar system.  The other prominent star below it was Spica - which is part of the constellation Virgo.  Virgo is a little hard to sort out but the constellation Corvus (Latin for crow or raven) and it's relation to Spica is easy to spot.  A lot of people who didn't read the description also thought that was the sun coming up at the end.  It was the moon.  88,94,56,0,B

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I just picked up a copy of "NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe", hopefully that'll help identifying a lot of the less common stuff. I might pick up a telescope in the future. Your sky is unreal. LOL

intermittent marathonian 00 said...

As a part-time Marathon resident who enjoys the astrobleme (?), I see
satellites, meteors, and whatever else with the naked eye whenever I choose to observe. The combination of low humidity,negligible air pollution, and absence of ambient artificial light make the skywatching as spectacular as I experienced in Shaybah, Saudi Atabia.

intermittent marathonian 00 said...

Unfortunately, I know very little about astronomy.

Off Grid Research said...

Well... Cool Moon!

intermittent marathonian 00 said...

So little, in fact, that I thought "astrobleme" was related to sky darkness. The "astrobleme" north of Marathon is actually a possible meteorite impact site.

J said...

You really need to check out McDonald Observatory. I think you would enjoy the lectures and star viewing through the big telescopes.