HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 2016-09-07, Page 916 Lucknow Sentinel • Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Star Column: Stick figures
in the sky... with diamonds
John Hlynialuk
Bluewater Astronomical
Society
Several decades of looking
at the same star map gives
one a certain familiarity with
the territory.
Constellation patterns to
me are now old friends and
thankfully, no new ones are
appearing on sky maps, so
folks (the older ones anyway)
getting a laser -assisted sky
tour often are impressed by
my constellation knowledge.
The younger folks are
more impressed with my
laser.
So, what is the secret of
"learning the constellations"?
First, go online and get a
monthly star chart like those
from skymaps.com or a star
app for your phone. (Laser
pointers are available online
too). Then, do not concentrate
too much on constellations as
such, but learn "asterisms"
and stick figures instead! For-
get about finding a bear in the
sky or a flying horse with
wings out -stretched.
These were art works on
older star charts actually, not
star guides for users. Modern
asterisms are simple patterns
of stars forming crosses, trian-
gles and squares, none more
complicated than a hexagon
(there is only one of those and
it's in the winter sky). The Big
Dipper is a seven star aster-
isms which, no matter how
you try, looks like a pot, not a
bear, so let's "call a pot, a pot"!
You need a dark sky anyway to
see all of the Ursa Major stars
and it is a strange bear after
all, with an unusually long tail
and legs. (The tail got
stretched when the bear was
swung around by the tail and
flung into the sky).
A good asterism to start
with is in the sky right now.
Follow the Milky Way from the
southern horizon until you
are looking straight up. At the
zenith is bluish Vega and it is
the corner of a big 90° triangle.
The other corner is Deneb, to
Vega's east and the third is
Altair, down from Vega.
This is the Summer Trian-
gle and straddles the MW
connecting three constella-
tions, Lyra the Lyre (a small
harp), Cygnus the Swan, and
Aquila the Eagle. On a star
chart, stick -figure Cygnus is
a large cross, the Northern
Cross, with the longest part
running along the MW. Lyra
is a tiny triangle with bright
Vega at one vertex, the rest is
a small parallelogram dan-
gling down and Aquila is a
rhombus with Altair at one
of the four corners.
All modern star charts use
a standard set of stick figures
(not caricatures) to repre-
sent constellations.
For example, there is a
square for Pegasus, so big it
is called the "Great Square."
Corona Borealis, the North-
ern Crown is a circle of stars
and there is a diamond
forming most of Delphinus
the Dolphin. So the secret of
"finding constellations"
involves just looking for sim-
ple geometric shapes.
The Winter Hexagon men-
tioned earlier includes stars
from no less than 6 constel-
lations, - all visible in our
winter time sky. It can be
seen from Canada in
December and January but I
recommend seeing it from
as far south as possible. Flor-
•T F
Cygnus
.
(c8)
Delphi nips
(d]antoridj
ti
Lyda
(05 rellefpgirar t)
a
Aquila
Khairiibi ia)
Stick figures in the sky.
ida will do.
The summer heat is pretty
much gone, September
nights are cool and a stellar
geometry lesson from our
astronomers awaits at the ES
Diagram c/o Starry Night Education
Fox Observatory.
We will be viewing after
dark on Sept. 24 and Oct. 1,
weather permitting.
More at www.bluewat-
erastronomy.com
if it's local, it's here
lucknowsentinel.com
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