Milky Way Tour
The Galaxy >
Late summer is a great time for a little late evening guided tour along the Milky Way.
First grab a pair of binoculars and get yourself to a place that is away
from city lights and pesky moons. Try this in the nest couple of days,
too. Next week's Harvest Moon will bleach out the subtle Milky Way and
ruin our little star tour.
Let's start in the northern Milky Way. Find Cassiopeia, the W-shaped constellation
that now looks more like a jagged number 3.
In mythology Cassiopeia was a beautiful queen whose good
looks and smart mouth got her and her daughter in a heap of trouble with
Poseidon.
But to some native Americans this constellation represented the wife and
mother of the family. Across the sky a little the Big Dipper represented
her husband. This couple, visible year-round in North America and sitting
around the "fire" of the North Star, was a way honoring the
sacred family unit.
Now follow the Milky Way higher into the sky, almost above your head.
The most obvious constellation here is Cygnus the Swan, taking the shape
of a giant cross.
Take your binoculars, now that your eyes have adapted
to the dark, and scan the skies here. Notice how space here is thick with
pinpoints of light. It is difficult to imagine that all those tiny shimmering
dots are stars, most of them bigger than our sun.
The brightest star in Cygnus is Deneb, at the top of the cross. Can you
see that it is also one corner of a big triangle of three bright stars?
Another star of this Summer Triangle is Vega, almost directly above. (You
may recall Vega as one of the "co-stars" of Jodi Foster's movie,
Contact.)
The
third star of the landmark triangle is Altair, a star not too much bigger
than our sun. It looks so bright because it's only about 100 trillion
miles away - just across the street by astronomical standards.
Let's finish our tour of the Milky Way down in the south. If you live
in a dark area you may notice that this is the brightest part of the Milky
Way. It's so bright because it's in the direction of the illustrious center
of our galaxy. This crowded area of the sky is rich with "deep sky"
objects.
Here is the part of the article where I would normally
tell you specifically what to look for and what it all means. This time,
though, I would invite you to discover for yourself the many interesting
things the southern summer skies have to offer.
With family or friends and just a pair of binoculars - even better, a
telescope - relax and slowly scan the skies of the south. You'll see cloudy,
luminescent areas - called nebulae - which are places of starbirth. You'll
notice tiny circular fuzzballs called globular clusters, and loosely packed
clusters of stars called open clusters. But most of all there are stars
- b-zillions of stars.
If you really need to know exactly what you are looking at, there are
sky maps waiting for you with highlights at firstlightastro.com/icolumn.html.
Until next time, clear skies and great discoveries!
Posted by Administrator at 2000.09. 3 09:14 AM | Comments (0)
