The Star Book: Stargazing Throughout the Seasons in the Southern Hemisphere

By Peter Grego

Stargazing Throughout the Seasons in the Southern Hemisphere is an excerpt from The Star Book that guides you through the night skies in the Southern Hemisphere, through wide-angle star charts. Looking at the main constellations, stars and celestial showpieces of the southern celestial sphere, beginning with constellations around the south celestial pole and then taking a season by season view. Far southern stars had to wait until the early 17th century to be mapped by European explorers.
Everyone is interested in the stars and on a clear night astonished by them. Stargazing Throughout the Seasons in the Southern Hemisphere will answer any questions you may have when you look up into the night sky.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781446359686

Peter Grego

Peter Grego has been a key watcher of the night sky for almost thirty years. Director of the Lunar Section of Britain’s Society of Popular Astronomy since 1984, he is also Editor of three astronomy magazines. He is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Book preview

How to Use This Book

The star charts in this book show all the naked-eye stars (down to magnitude +5) visible under dark skies from the southern hemisphere. If a bright star isn’t on the chart, it’s more than likely to be one of the five bright planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter or Saturn, each of which can grow bright enough to be visible from urban locations.

Complete coverage of the Southern celestial sphere is given by the wide-angle star charts featured in this eBook. All of the Southern constellations are depicted, labelled in abbreviated form. Each chart overlaps slightly with its neighbours, enabling them to be referred to more easily. Identification of the constellation patterns is made easier with the inclusion of joining lines. On each chart we highlight several of the more prominent constellations, accompanied by a tour of their bright stars, multiple stars, variable stars and deep-sky objects of interest; some of these are naked eye objects, while others require binoculars or a telescope. Reference is sometimes made to smaller, easily recognized patterns of stars such as the ‘Keystone’ of Hercules and the ‘Plough’ in Ursa Major; known as asterisms, these patterns are a great help in locating individual constellations and objects.

Instead of being an all-encompassing guide to the sky, our selective survey of the heavens serves as an ample taster for what the night skies have to offer the keen observer. If you like what you see, there are many avenues along which you can pursue your interest in astronomy to a greater depth.

For practical purposes, the Southern hemisphere begins with a chart showing the circumpolar constellations, followed by four seasonal views representing the sky above the southern horizon at midnight local time on 1 January (northern winter, southern summer), 1 April (northern spring, southern autumn/fall), 1 July (northern summer, southern spring) and 1 October (northern autumn/fall, southern spring). Representative horizon lines have been selected; for the southern hemisphere these are Wellington (41°S) and Canberra (35°S). The band of the Milky Way features on the charts, and so too does the line of the ecliptic, near to which the Moon and planets can always be found.

The illustrations alongside each entry come from a variety of sources, but all of them are the work of amateur astronomers keen to capture the beauty of the night skies.

Labelled hypothetical constellations, stars and deep-sky objects with explanatory key.

Introduction

This eBook will help you get to know the brighter stars and constellations visible throughout the year in the Southern Hemisphere. Some constellations cover a wide swathe of sky, while others are small enough to be easily obscured by the outstretched hand. Once the names and locations of the brighter stars and constellations are known, they can be used as pointers to less conspicuous celestial objects. This eBook also contains a taster of some of the brighter deep-sky treasures to be found in selected constellations – there are countless more celestial delights awaiting the eyes of the curious stargazer wishing to take their enjoyment of astronomy to the next level.

Far southern stars had to wait until the early 17th century to be mapped by European explorers.

Southern circumpolar constellations

Sigma Octantis, just visible with the naked-eye, marks the approximate location of the south celestial pole. Fortunately there are several convenient pointers to the pole. The nearest consists of the squat triangle formed by Nu Octantis, Beta Hydri and Beta Octantis; the latter is the triangle’s apex and points towards the pole about a hand’s width away. Adjacent to the triangle are the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, which themselves form a triangle with the south celestial pole.

On the other side