Stargazing this week
This was originally published in our Weekly Newsletter. Each weekend we’ll treat you to stargazing tips and the latest physics news. You can sign up here! Also check out Stellarium for an open-source star map.
The Moon visits Virgo
Tomorrow is the full moon! As it falls on a Sunday, it makes for the maximal time between said moon and Easter Sunday. In any case, spring is certainly here. The Full Moon on Sunday is in a part of the sky that’s a little less familiar. You can use the moon as a guide to see the constellations Leo, Virgo, Bootes and even Hydra!
It’s a great chance to calibrate your ability to find the two bright stars Arcturus and Spica.
Look to the south. The moon will pass inside Virgo on Monday night, and the bright star just below it is Spica. The other bight star, upwards and just east-southeast of the moon is Arcturus from the constellations Bootes. To calibrate yourself, keep looking up and slightly eastward to find the Big Dipper. Now follow the handle of the dipper back to find Arcturus, and continue the arc to Spica. Well done!
If you’re out this week, you might want to bring your binoculars. The moon will steal most of the show for the next few nights without them.
From Dwarf Galaxy to Globular Cluster
This week at EarthSky, Bruce McClure has a well-timed piece about looking for a particularly bright globular star cluster.
Omega Centauri is bright, very bright. And that brightness betrays a difference from most other globular clusters - a giant amalgam of high stellar density - in our Milky Way. Evidence suggests it was once a dwarf galaxy that just kind of got absorbed into our galaxy, including it’s own potential intermediate mass black hole at the center.
Omega Centauri isn’t normally visible from the North Hemisphere. Indeed, the entire Centaurus constellation is probably more familiar to our New Zealander audience. Nevertheless, Omega Centauri hits its northern Apex in the next few days. But if you live above the 38th’s parallel - about San Francisco - you’re not going to see it.
That said, for you folks in Scottsdale, Dallas and LA? If you can get away from the bright city lights, you’ll definitely have a chance.
Once you find Spica, look directly south towards the horizon. The bright fuzzball you’ll see if Omega Centauri, riding just above the spine of the Centaur in the Constellation.
