Page 6 - BBC Sky at Night Beginners Guide to Astronomy - 2017 UK

START IN THIS MAGAZINE

❯ NEED TO KNOW
HERE • Get started with naked-eye observing
• Astronomy terms explained

So, you’ve found a nice dark spot in the northern hemisphere for your Here’s where – it’s called the Plough, and it’s a recognisable pattern made
fi rst night of stargazing, but where do you begin? up of seven bright stars. In UK skies, it never goes below the horizon
THE FIRST NIGHT

START STARGAZING THE RIGHT WAY

When you start thinking about astronomy, your Once, not long after I’d fi rst started stargazing, I
mind can end up anywhere – you could speculate was visiting La Palma, in the Canary Islands off
about life in the Universe, future human missions northwest Africa, where the skies are amazingly
to Mars, or the creation of gold in a supernova dark and clear. This sounds ideal, but in fact it took
explosion (that’s the cataclysmic ending event for a me an agonisingly long time to fi nd anything
star much larger than the Sun). because all those annoying fainter stars had
Maybe you’d simply like to fi nd your way around become visible and ruined the patterns I
the night sky, or possibly your enquiry is more understood. Moral: light pollution, although not
JARGON BUSTER philosophical, such as: what’s it all about? Now that good, is no bad thing for learning the sky.
last one remains a mystery, but the point just So, where do you actually start if you fi nd
before about getting to know the stars is much yourself with a clear night? All the stars in every
• CONSTELLATION An area
BSIP, CHASSENET/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY X2, T. CREDNER & S. KOHLE/ALLTHESKY.COM X2
of the night sky, the brightest easier to tackle. direction we look in have been grouped into areas
stars of which sometimes form For newer stargazers, it’s possible that the best known as constellations. There are actually 88 in
recognisable patterns. starry views you have encountered so far were total, but some are easier to see and indeed form
• NORTHERN HEMISPHERE when you were on holiday. I certainly know that ‘signposts’ that can be used to fi nd many others in
The half of the Earth from Mediterranean skies, for example, seem that much different parts of the sky.
around the equator ‘up’ to the darker, with the stars shining brighter than at The place to begin if you live in the mid-to-high
North Pole.
home. There’s also an issue here that when you’re latitude northern hemisphere, which includes the
• STAR A glowing ball of on holiday, you’re more relaxed and therefore have UK, is a group of seven stars known as the Plough
gas that makes its light and more time to gaze skyward, so that’s actually a (or the Big Dipper in the USA). The reason for
heat by nuclear reactions. good time to get to know the night sky. telling you about the hemisphere is that you’ll fi nd
Stars can be of different sizes
depending on how much gas that these fairly bright Plough stars never go below
they are made of. THE BRIGHTEST STARS the horizon. Hence you will always be able to see
• UNIVERSE Everything Back home, many of us live in a town or city with this group if it is a clear night, no matter what time
we know is the Universe: much light pollution, which does indeed give the sky of year it is.
this includes all the stars, an orange wash. In fact, I learnt the night sky from
galaxies, dust, gas, planets, a fairly polluted area. Strangely, this can help: here KNOW WHERE NORTH IS
comets – the whole lot – plus the fainter stars are not visible, which leaves only To locate the Plough, you just need a knowledge of
energy, space itself, and what the brightest and best of the bunch, which tend to where north is from where you are looking. Simply
we know as time.
be the ones that outline the constellations. speaking, that is off to the left of where the Sun
06 skyatnightmagazine.com 2012