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Dear Friends,

I thought you might like a view of the Winter sky from Lookout Observatory, so the first attached picture is a view facing South, showing a section of sky from near the horizon (where the trees are) to 5/6 of the way up to the zenith (the point directly overhead). The brightest star in the picture (next to the tallest tree) is Sirius, the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major, the Great Dog. Sirius is also the brightest star in the whole sky (expect for the Sun). If you look diagonally up and to the right, you will see the Constellation Orion the Hunter in the center of the picture. The 3 stars on a diagonal in the middle are considered to be Orion’s belt, and the stars in a row below the belt are his sword. If you enlarge the picture a lot, you can see that the center of the sword is a large fuzzy patch – the famous Orion Nebula. Continuing further up to the right you will see a group of stars in a Vshape pointing to the right and slightly down. One open end of the V is marked by a bright yellowish star, Aldebaran, This grouping of stars is known as the Hyades. They are physically connected by gravity, moving together through space. They are part of the larger constellation Taurus the Bull. If you continue moving diagonally up and to the right, you will see at the extreme right edge a small cluster of stars known as the Pleiades. Part of this cluster is out of the picture. Running diagonally above Sirius, Orion and the Hyades you can see part of the Winter Milky Way, the edge on view of our own galaxy. It’s not a bright as the Summer Milky Way because in the Summer we are looking toward the brilliant center of our galaxy.

If you have trouble following my descriptions in the photo, open the second picture. It is a map of the same section of sky as shown in the photo, and it may help you better identify the stars and constellations in the photo. By the way if you go outside on a clear moonless night at about 8 PM in the last half of February and look South, this is the sky you will see. Even in bright, light-polluted skies in a city, you will be able to see most of the bright stars in this photo. And you will be able to see the Pleiades nearly overhead.

Because the Pleiades is considered by many to be the most beautiful star cluster in the sky, the third picture is a 170-minute exposure of this cluster through a telescope. An exposure this long is able to bring out (if you enlarge it a lot) the subtle streaked details of the nebulous gas that this cluster of stars is passing through. It is blue because it is reflecting the light from the blue hot stars that make up this cluster. Because this cluster is easily visible to the naked eye, it is known and named in many different cultures. In Japan it is known as Subaru, and the car by that name uses a logo that represents the 6 brightest stars of this cluster. Do you know anyone who drives a Subaru?

Keep looking up,

Carter

(Sometime) Resident Astronomer,

Lookout Observatory