What constellation?

GetMeOuttaHere · 17/12/10 - 01:34

I'm in East London, just looked out of my south facing bedroom window to be met with a magnificent sight of numerous bright stars spread across the clear nights sky, (3 stars close together). How I'd love to be away from the bright city lights to see such wonderment without intrusions.

[Deleted User] · 17/12/10 - 01:38

GetMeOuttaHere wrote: »

I'm in East London, just looked out of my south facing bedroom window to be met with a magnificent sight of numerous bright stars spread across the clear nights sky, (3 stars close together). How I'd love to be away from the bright city lights to see such wonderment without intrusions.

I live in the Cotswolds and it is very clear and crisp out there tonight.

Get out of the city, we have dark sky and even have clear and clean air here.

The stars you saw, could they be the belt of Orion? If your view is to the South I would think it could be they.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_(constellation)

.

(Soz, just noted you said south, will teach me to read properly.

)

irishguy · 17/12/10 - 01:47

Orion and the Plough are about the only constellations I can recognise. Orion is very distinctive due to those 3 bright stars aligned in a diaganol. As far as I remember it also contains 3 stars which are in the top 20 brightest stars in the sky (including Betelguese - home of Ford Prefect). On a clear night, with no light polution you can make out the nebula near the belt.

nethwen · 17/12/10 - 01:57

Orion is my favourite constellation. It always looks so majestic to me.

Does anyone know what the early morning star in the south eastern sky is again? Is it Venus?

I saw it very early the other morning (about 4:30 am) and it was breathtaking. It shone so brightly low in the sky and even had the points... like what you see on a Christmas card, you know. It reminded me of the Magi.

irishguy · 17/12/10 - 01:59

nethwen wrote: »

Orion is my favourite constellation. It always looks so majestic to me.

Does anyone know what the early morning star in the south is again? Is it Venus?

I saw it very early the other morning (about 4:30 am) and it was breathtaking. It shone so brightly low in the sky and even had the points... like what you see on a Christmas card, you know. It reminded me of the Magi.

Venus is the morning star. Theres an easy way to tell planets from stars... planets move across the sky over the period of the night whereas stars remain fixed only gradually changing position over the year.

[Deleted User] · 17/12/10 - 02:03

irishguy wrote: »

Venus is the morning star. Theres an easy way to tell planets from stars... planets move across the sky over the period of the night whereas stars remain fixed only gradually changing position over the year.

There is another give away that helps you tell straight away.

The planets, do not "Twinkle" like stars do. They remain solid bright points of light.

nethwen · 17/12/10 - 02:05

irishguy wrote: »

Venus is the morning star. Theres an easy way to tell planets from stars... planets move across the sky over the period of the night whereas stars remain fixed only gradually changing position over the year.

Thanks irishguy.

The night sky fills me with awe every time; it is so amazing.

nethwen · 17/12/10 - 02:08

Superior wrote: »

There is another give away that helps you tell straight away.

The planets, do not "Twinkle" like stars do. They remain solid bright points of light.

Yes, I remember that.

I knew the morning star is a planet; I just always get my Venus and Jupiter mixed up for some strange reason, and wasn't sure what I was looking at the other morning.

I would love to learn a lot more about astrnomy but I find it so difficult. For example, I can't make out any other constellation other than Orion.

irishguy · 17/12/10 - 02:08

nethwen wrote: »

Thanks irishguy.

The night sky fills me with awe every time; it is so amazing.

No problem. It is amazingly beautiful.

On a trip to Morrocco we stayed out one night in the Sahara under the stars... it was one of the most amazing things I ever saw. You could really understand why they call our galaxy is called the milky way from there. Even the view in the cities is pretty awe inspiring.

TheEricPollard · 17/12/10 - 02:10

I do not know any of them. I went to Iceland a couple of weeks ago and we went out into the middle of nowhere to look for the Northern Lights and there were millions of stars and some shooting stars; it was a little bit more impressive than Yorkshire. :eek:

irishguy · 17/12/10 - 02:12

The Aurora Borealis... to see a good display of those really would be awesome. Well worth freezing your butt of in my opinion.

TheEricPollard · 17/12/10 - 02:15

We saw a pretty poor display really, but it was still quite exciting. and not that cold really if you wear all the clothes you own at once. :eek:

nethwen · 17/12/10 - 02:19

irishguy wrote: »

The Aurora Borealis... to see a good display of those really would be awesome. Well worth freezing your butt of in my opinion.

Do you remember a time in the 1980s when, I think the above Aurora was seen over England? It was a rare showing. I was out walking my dog and people had stood still with their mouths open staring at the sky. Obviously not the full monty, so to speak, but a very impressive sight nonetheless.

TheEricPollard · 17/12/10 - 02:20

It was meant to have been visible one night quite recently, and then the whole country had cloud of course. :eek:

GetMeOuttaHere · 17/12/10 - 02:20

Whatever constellation I am looking at, it is truly magnificent. Of the three diagonal stars, which are all dimmer than the the other visible stars in my field of view, the highest one, (to the right) is pulsating the most, as is the star that is lower down and to the left of them.

Pliny the Elder · 17/12/10 - 02:22

Constellations I recognise, would be the Plough (Ursa Major), Orion, Cassiopea (the W shaped one), also Ursa minor (little bear), Pegasus (I think it's 4 stars in a kind of squarish shape) and Gemini - which is just two stars (as far as my amateur recall goes).

irishguy · 17/12/10 - 02:22

nethwen wrote: »

Do you remember a time in the 1980s when, I think the above Aurora was seen over England? It was a rare showing. I was out walking my dog and people had stood still with their mouths open staring at the sky. Obviously not the full monty, so to speak, but a very impressive sight nonetheless.

Yeah - its happens every so often... I've only caught it once and it was quite dim.... I'd love to see it in its full intense glory.

nethwen · 17/12/10 - 02:23

TheEricPollard wrote: »

It was meant to have been visible one night quite recently, and then the whole country had cloud of course. :eek:

Oh, really? In this country?

TheEricPollard · 17/12/10 - 02:24

Yes. I think it was earlier this year, or perhaps last year. my memory is atrocious. :eek:

irishguy · 17/12/10 - 02:25

GetMeOuttaHere wrote: »

Whatever constellation I am looking at, it is truly magnificent. Of the three diagonal stars, which are all dimmer than the the other visible stars in my field of view, the highest one, (to the right) is pulsating the most, as is the star that is lower down and to the left of them.

If those 3 stars are dimmer than the others around it, might not be Orion then.. the 3 stars of the belt are usually very bright...

Does it look anything like this?

http://www.carolianastro.org.uk/images/Orion%20070303E2.jpg

Carlos_dfc · 17/12/10 - 02:28

nethwen wrote: »

Do you remember a time in the 1980s when, I think the above Aurora was seen over England? It was a rare showing. I was out walking my dog and people had stood still with their mouths open staring at the sky. Obviously not the full monty, so to speak, but a very impressive sight nonetheless.

I remember seeing it from North-East England in what would have been late '88 or early '89.
I had been working late, and came out of the building at around 10:30pm - Myself and a colleague stood transfixed for maybe 20 mins.
It looked quite well-defined - even through the light-pollution from a medium-sized town - wish I could have seen it from a rural site that night.

Also saw it very faintly, maybe 3 years ago, or so - from Northern England

GetMeOuttaHere · 17/12/10 - 02:30

irishguy wrote: »

If those 3 stars are dimmer than the others around it, might not be Orion then.. the 3 stars of the belt are usually very bright...

Does it look anything like this?

http://www.carolianastro.org.uk/images/Orion%20070303E2.jpg

I'm not far from the city so what I see is going to be impeded by the city lights. The three diagonal stars I'm seeing (out of a 4 foot by 4 foot window, with craned neck) are only an inch or so apart from my view.

nethwen · 17/12/10 - 02:33

TheEricPollard wrote: »

Yes. I think it was earlier this year, or perhaps last year. my memory is atrocious. :eek:

I'm with you on your memory. Mine's terrible at the moment too (brain fog).

I hadn't heard of the recent one.

Joanna Lumley's TV programme was very good on the Northern Lights. I think that was on last year sometime.

Carlos_dfc · 17/12/10 - 02:35

GetMeOuttaHere wrote: »

I'm not far from the city so what I see is going to be impeded by the city lights. The three diagonal stars I'm seeing (out of a 4 foot by 4 foot window, with craned neck) are only an inch or so apart from my view.

Sounds like Orion's belt...
Are we talking about a roughly straight line of 3 ?
In a diagonal line with the right one highest?

nethwen · 17/12/10 - 02:36

Carlos_dfc wrote: »

I remember seeing it from North-East England in what would have been late '88 or early '89.
I had been working late, and came out of the building at around 10:30pm - Myself and a colleague stood transfixed for maybe 20 mins.
It looked quite well-defined - even through the light-pollution from a medium-sized town - wish I could have seen it from a rural site that night.

Also saw it very faintly, maybe 3 years ago, or so - from Northern England

Yes, Carlos! That would have been when I saw it too. I'm also in the North East of England. It was amazing wasn't it?

I know you are one of the DS experts on astronomy here

so was that showing one of the brightest at the time or something? I seem to recall that there was something special about it at the time.

Carlos_dfc · 17/12/10 - 02:41

nethwen wrote: »

....so was that showing one of the brightest at the time or something? I seem to recall that there was something special about it at the time.

IIRC, at the time it was the best showing over England for at least a couple of decades - and it hasn't been as bright since then.
So I suppose that would make it the best display in the last 50 years at least.

Hey there!

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