By now I hope you feel right at home looking up and recognizing Orion, Taurus, and Canes Major as old friends. If so, it’s time to add one more constellation to your bag.
The celestial twins of Gemini are easy to find using stars in Orion. We won’t use the belt stars this time, but Rigel, Orion’s left leg, and Betelgeuse, his right shoulder. Follow a line from Rigel to Betelgeuse and continue the line until you come to two stars high in the northeastern sky that are almost the same brightness. These are the twins Pollux and Castor. They are about 3 finger widths apart (5 degrees). Castor is the upper star and is a bit dimmer than Pollux.
Castor is not one but six stars that orbit each other in a complex pattern. They are so far away that our eyes see one bright star, but telescopes can resolve their dance. Pollux is a giant star five times the diameter of our Sun. Castor and Pollux are the heads of the twins. See if you can spot the arms and bodies of the twins as two line of stars pointing back toward Orion.
Sometimes the paper doesn’t have room to include the sky chart I send with these articles. If that’s the case this week, you can get a free monthly sky map at skymaps.com. or https://skymaps.com/skymaps/tesmn2302.pdf You can print these out and use your red flashlight to help outside. (Hint: if you happen to have access to a green laser pointer, you can use it to point out the stars even better. Just be careful not to point the laser at people or aircraft!).
In the next episode we’ll finish our tour of the main winter constellations using Orion’s stars to find Auriga, the Charioteer, and Canis Minor, Orion’s small dog. Days are getting longer and spring is coming with its own constellations.
Finally, see if you can spot the 3 bright planets in the evening sky right now. Look in the west about 7 p.m. Th brightest object low in the west is the planet Venus. It’s getting a bit higher in the sky every night because it’s catching up with the Earth as it moves around the Sun in its orbit. About as bright as Venus is Jupiter. Look above and to the left of Venus to find it. It’s bright because it’s big. You could put 1,200 Earth’s inside it! It’s not brighter than Venus because it is much farther away from the Sun.
To find the third planet Mars use the belt stars of Orion again. Follow them up and to the right until you get to Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus the bull. Mars will be the pinkish bright “star” just above Aldebaran. I wish you good star hunting luck and clear skies. Keep looking up!
Remember that copies of the book 365 Starry Nights are in your county library.
For questions or comments: James Hill, Mississippi NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador. jhill6333@gmail.com.
