Eyes Full Of Stars

I was setting up my 20″ mirrored reflector last night for some Astronomy Adventures guests and I thought “hmmm, I wonder if I can catch the pup?” So I popped in a 6mm eyepiece and with the Paracorr in place, it yielded about 523x. Dang, Sirius was bright! It took a while to get the scope tracking just right. Even a little bit of wander translates in to big error at this magnification.

After checking all around and hoping the diffraction spikes weren’t laying on top Sirius B, I saw it!

“In like a lion and out like a lamb” an old weather proverb with astronomical origins nicely describes our night sky this month. At nightfall, we find the dim constellation Aries, the ram or lamb, close to setting above the western horizon. To the east, the constellation Leo is just starting its seasonal reign bringing us warmer evenings and later sun down times. The sky in the direction of Leo harbors a number of bright stars, interesting spiral galaxies.

This week, we take another look at the brightest star in the night sky, the Dog Star, Sirius. During the winter months, it commands our attention with a kaleidoscopic display of dazzling color. Found nearly due south at twilight, Sirius is progressing slowly toward the western horizon. By mid-May, Sirius will set with the Sun and be absent from the night sky until it returns in autumn.

As stars go, Sirius is relatively close at 8.6 light years distant. To get a better sense of just how far away that is, consider this; many of the third graders enrolled in schools around town were born the same year the starlight we see tonight left Sirius.

Night sky fans, mark your calendars! March 3rd – 16th are the dates for the 2010 GLOBE at Night campaign. Now in its 5th year, GLOBE at Night is a citizen-scientist program to survey the extent of light pollution worldwide. By compiling data received from observers, event organizers can more accurately determine the impact of artificial lighting on the quality of the nighttime environment.