Greetings Fellow Star Gazers!
You are receiving this email because once upon a time you either contacted the Bare Dark Sky Observatory managers, or you have purchased a Community Event ticket. Since we cannot currently meet together at our observatory to search the night sky, we wanted to encourage you to
Keep Looking Up
from wherever you are. Over the next several weeks, as we observe Covid-19 social distancing guidelines, we will be sending you occasional night sky observation tips and facts in a simple conversational format. If you prefer to opt out of these emails, please click on the unsubscribe button at the bottom of the email.
Since so many of you visit us from hundreds of miles away, we want to get everyone on the same page. As a reminder, we are located east of Burnsville in western North Carolina. Latitude and longitude-wise, we are 35.9 degrees north, 82.3 degrees west, Eastern Standard Time. These coordinates will help those of you utilizing telescopes, as well as, make certain our sun, moon, and planet rise and set times are in sync. So let's begin...
Over the next several evenings. The sun will set around 7:55 pm, so you should see your first stars popping out by 8:30 pm. That nice bright light in the southwestern sky, besides the almost full moon, is Venus the second planet from our sun. We plan to share some Venus fun facts in our next email. Since the Bare Dark Sky Observatory (BDSO) is a Dark Sky designated site, we would normally be closed right now because of how bright the moon is. As much as we absolutely love showing close-ups of moon craters thru our 34" mirror "Sam" telescope, the brightness wipes out deep sky observations that we would normally enjoy.
Without a doubt, the highlight of winter-spring night sky is the constellation Orion, which will be our main focus tonight. It’s hard to miss his three star belt high in the southern sky. The Belt of Orion asterism (familiar pattern of stars) is often referred to as the Three Kings or Three Sisters. The middle star, Alnilam is 1,344 light years from Earth. That means that the photon of light that just now reached your eyes has been traveling 186,000 miles per second since the seventh century! The light from the left belt star, Alnitak (1,262 light years away), and the right belt star, Mintaka (1,200 light years away) left in the eighth century. How cool is that?!
If you utilize one of the many sky apps (SkyView, Star Chart, Sky Guide, etc) that draw out our 88 constellations, you’ll notice the four brightest stars surrounding the Belt of Orion as he is facing us: Rigel (his left foot), Saiph (right foot), Betelgeuse (right shoulder), and Bellatrix (left shoulder). With your unaided eyes, and easily with a pair of binoculars or a small telescope, you should be able to see Messier 42 - the Orion Nebula (near right kneecap). This favorite of astro-photographers is a diffuse nebula and a birthplace for new stars.
As you look to the left of Orion, you can't miss the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius (the Dog Star) located in the constellation Canis Major. This most prominent star is part of the asterism known as the Winter Hexagon. Moving above Sirius look for the bright star Procyon (in Canis Minor), then Pollux and Castor (in Gemini), then Capella (Auriga), Aldebaran (Tauras), and over to Rigel (Orion). In less than ten minutes you have already learned thirteen stars, six constellations, and one nebula. As you become more familiar with their names and locations in the December to April evening sky, we encourage you to look them up online to learn some of the Greek, Roman, Native American, Arabic, and other traditional stories and legends. We also encourage you to make up your own fun constellation stories to share with family and friends. Your stories are just as credible!
Before we sign off, look to the north and you can't miss the Big Dipper. In our next night sky tour we will share why it has always been a favorite of sailors and desert wandering nomads. We will also talk about the Little Dipper, Venus, Pleiades, Leo, and a few other choice nuggets like the Atlas Comet, now appearing in the constellation Camelopardalis, the giraffe.
A couple things to mark on your night sky calendar: Look for the International Space Station (ISS) overhead on Sunday, April 5 9:17- 9:21 pm. Also, plan to camp out at early dawn on April 22 for the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower. And for you early April morning risers (5-7 am), look for Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn just to the left of the giant teapot (Sagittarius) in the eastern sky. Amazing!
