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This month we will turn our eyes to Orion the hunter.  It is one of the most popular constellations, and it is easy to locate if you can find three stars of equal brightness making a line to form Orion’s Belt.  It is pretty easy to imagine a stick figure of a man in the stars of Orion, with two stars marking his shoulders – or his armpit, if you translate from the Arabic to get the meaning of the star named “Betelgeuse.”  Two stars below mark the hunter’s knees or feet, including Rigel, the 7th brightest star in the night sky.

March is the perfect time to look for Orion, because you can participate in a program called GLOBE at Night.  Dr. Lori Feaga gave us an introduction to GLOBE at Night in an earlier segment on Astrocast.TV in Episode 11.  People across the world will be looking at Orion between Monday, March 16 and Saturday, March 28 to determine how many stars they are able to see.  This is one way you can get an idea of how much light pollution there is in your area.   The website for GLOBE at Night has star maps that you can print out and use to determine the limiting magnitude of your sky – that is, the dimmest stars that you are able to see.  GLOBE at Night’s website also has a place where you can report your observations online and find out how many stars people can see from different places across the globe.  Try it out, and let the world know what Orion looks like in your night sky!

The constellation Orion is home to the famous Orion Nebula, also called M 42, because it is the 42nd object on Charles Messier’s list of deep sky objects.  Stars are being born in this cloud of gas and dust that is almost 1300 light years away from Earth.  You can see the blue-tinted nebulosity in binoculars.  With a telescope, look for a close grouping of 4 stars at the center of the nebula called the “Trapezium.”

I’m providing printable star chart of Orion to help guide you when you go outside to observe.

The Orion Printable Star Chart

The software TOURING THE UNIVERSE THROUGH BINOCULARS ATLAS is free to download From TUBA Software by Phil Harrington and Dean Williams

For best viewing click on lower right button in player window to watch full screen.

March 1, 2009 – Episode 12 – Check out Lori’s Blog for more links and coverage of IYA09.

- Greg Redfern reports on a NASA’s Ares 1 and Ares V rockets scheduled to replace the Space Shuttle and take us back to the Moon. STEREO gives us a wider look at the Sun and at the same time.

- Dr. Lori Feaga reports on European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile as it shows us the Carina Nebula seen like never before. IYA 09′s 100 Hours of Astronomy kicks off in April. Lori talks with Mike Simmons who will tell us all about it.

- Katie Moore tells us all about the Constellation Orion and M 42. Download the printable Orion Star Chart PDF presented by Astrocast.TV and Tuba Software.

-Dr. Geller tells answers a viewers question about the International Year of Astronomy 2009 or IYA 09

Follow our Blog for more links and information in Episode 12.

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The constellation Auriga shines brightly overhead this month.  Capella, its brightest star, is a member of the Winter Hexagon.  Auriga represents a Charioteer in western sky lore, but the constellation mostly looks like a hexagon.

If you’re away from city lights, look for the Milky Way running through the constellation.  Binoculars will reveal many more stars in the Milky Way than the naked eye does.

Auriga also features several star clusters that are easy to see in binoculars or even a small telescope.  The best targets are known as M36, M37, and M38.  You can expect to see each one as a small fuzzy patch of stars, and with a larger telescope more stars will be visible.  These are similar to the Pleiades or Seven Sisters star cluster, but more distant.

February 1, 2009 – Episode 11 – Check out Lori’s Blog for more links and coverage of IYA09.

- Greg Redfern reports on a pair of rovers that were supposed to last 90 days on Mars and are now entering their FIFTH year of operations on the Red Planet. Greg will also discuss India’s Chandrayaan-1 which has been having some overheating problems but has been returning data using just one of the 11 instruments at a time to avoid additional problems.

- Dr. Lori Feaga reports on NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope reveal six dead white dwarf stars with shredded material orbiting around them. Also looking for other solar systems and Earth analogs is NASA’s Kepler Mission set to launch from Cape Canaveral Florida on March 6, 2009.

- Katie Moore tells us all about Our Winter Hexagon.

-Dr. Geller tells answers a viewers question about a Black Hole

 

Now that winter is officially upon us in the Northern Hemisphere, let’s take a look at the constellations of the Winter Hexagon. You will remember it from Episode 8. This month, we will take a closer look at the constellation Taurus.

 

The bright orange star Aldebaran of the Winter Hexagon marks the eye of Taurus the bull. You will notice a “V” of dimmer stars near Aldebaran tracing the shape of the bull’s head, and two other stars that mark the points of its horns.

The stars in the “V” of the bull’s face are actually members of a star cluster called the Hyades – all except Aldebaran. Use binoculars to take a closer look and dozens of stars will come into view. It’s the second closest open star cluster to us, averaging about 150 light years away, and it contains a few hundred stars.

 

Another open star cluster is found in the constellation of Taurus, away from the head and horns of the bull. It is the brighter and more compact Pleiades, also called the Seven Sisters. The Pleiades is a younger cluster than the Hyades, young enough that its stars are still surrounded by gas and dust. Most people can see six stars naked-eye, and many more in binoculars. With a telescope, you can see hundreds of stars, and, on a dark and clear night, you might see some of the nebulosity around the stars.

 

Another interesting object to see in a telescope is the first object on Charles Messier’s list of deep sky objects, the Crab Nebula. You can find M1 just inside the bull’s horns, about a degree from the star marking the tip of the bull’s horn. The Crab Nebula is faint and dim – you will see simply a fuzzy patch of light. But that light is what remains from the death of a massive star – the nebula left behind after a supernova explosion. That supernova was observed in the year 1054, when the star became bright enough to be seen in the daytime. That star is now a pulsar that’s only visible in large telescopes.

From all of us here at Astrocast.TV Happy New Year!

January 1, 2009 – Episode 10 – STS-119 heads for ISS to install it’s the final backbone. IYA 09 is here and Lori gives us more on the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Check out Lori’s Blog for more links and coverage of IYA09.

– Greg reports on Dark Energy and NASA’s recent findings on the effects of this mysterious energy. Also Asteroids are in the News, Greg fills us in.

Our Special Guest Dr. Phil Plait aka "The Bad Astronomer" talks about Bad Astronomy and his new book "Death From The Skies"

- Katie Moore tells us all about Our Winter Night sky.

-Dr. Geller tells answers a viewers question about binary Star Systems

 

Follow our Blog for more links and information in Episode 10.

Survey - Tell us what you think of Astrocast.TV and how we can better serve your interests in Astronomy.

 

December 1, 2008 – Episode 9 – Astronomy activities for all ages! Lori kicks of our coverage of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 or IYA09. Check out Lori’s Blog for more links and coverage of IYA09.

- Greg reports on STS-126 and the Expansion of the International Space Station. Also down but not out, an update on the Hubble Space Telescope.

- Katie Moore tells us all about the Hubble’s first visual spectrum image of a Planet orbiting another Star. Katie will also update us on Our December Night sky.

-Dr. Geller tells us when the Sun will expand over 100 times its current diameter.

November 1, 2008 – Episode 8 – An Asteroid, 2008 TC3 was predicted with 100% certanty to hit the Earth and yes, it did! Also an update on Hubble Service Mission 4.

- The Interstellar Boundery Explorer is on its way to explore the Solar Systems final frontier. Is Pluto a Planet? Follow the debate. For more information on IBEX and the great Pluto debate check out my Blog.

- Katie Moore from the U.S. National Air and Space Museum tells asks us all about the World Wide Star Count. Send Katie an e-mail and tell us what you saw. katiewwst@astrocast.tv. Katie will also update us on our November sky.

 

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October 1, 2008 – Episode 7 – Will India became a member of the Lunar Club. Join us as we explore Chandrayaan-1 India’s Lunar orbiter spacecraft.More on NASA’s extended Mars Phoenix Mission and the ,scheduled to land on a comet in 2014.

-Astrocast.TV welcomes a new co-host. Dr. Lori Feaga joins the Astrocast.TV team. See Oct 1st Press Release.

- Katie Moore from the U.S. National Air and Space Museum tells us all about the World Wide Star Count.

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Episode 6 – With over 100,000 orbits of Earth the Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 prepares for an October 8th launch to the Hubble Space Telescope for Service Mission 4 (SM4) as Space Shuttle Endeavor sits ready for launch if needed for safety. Greg Redfern talks about the Mission with Edward Ruitberg, Deputy Program manager for HST.

- Katie Moore from the U.S. National Air and Space Museum tells us what’s up in our August sky.

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