We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. ~ Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900), Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1892, Act III
Last night at around 8pm I turned a corner and there staring right back at me was The Hunter, Orion.
I was facing south and at an elevation of about 30 degrees and I was able to make out his shoulders, his shiny belt, his right knee and his left foot, set against a clear night sky.
When visible, Orion is easy to spot because it is bright and has a distinctive shape, three close stars for Orion’s belt, two stars above are his shoulders and two stars below mark a knee and a foot.
I wasn’t able to see his club, held above his head, or his shield as there was plenty of light pollution to contend with. Dublin, like any city, isn’t the best place for looking at the stars. Lights from buildings, street lamps and cars make it hard to see faint stars without the aid of binoculars or a telescope.
But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible, and last night it was easy to see and identify half a dozen constellations with your eye alone. All you have to do is first find Orion (look south) and let it be your guide.
This is what you do:
- following the line of the belt towards the northwest you’ll meet Aldebaran of the constellation Taurus (The Bull)
- following the line of the belt towards the southeast you’ll meet Sirius of the constellation Canis Major (The Great Dog)
- A line from Rigel through Betelgeuse (stars of Orion) points to Castor and Pollux of the constellation Gemini (The Twins)
- A line eastward across the two shoulders leads you towards Procyon of the constellation Canis Minor (The Little Dog)
Away from Orion, if you look to the north you can see Ursa Major (The Great Bear), Polaris of Ursa Minor (The Little Bear) and Cassiopeia (The Queen). I’ll let you look these up for yourself.
For a long time I thought that Polaris (The North Star) was the brightest object in the night sky, but that distinction belongs to Sirius of Canis Major (The Great Dog). (I feel a John McEnroe impression coming.)
Looking at the stars, learning about the constellations doesn’t cost much and there are plenty of online articles and books that help.
Two books I really liked are
The Stars: A New Way to See Them
and
Simple Stargazing
Apart from books there’s plenty of great software freely available that you can use to identify the stars and constellations.
My favourite at the moment is Stellarium which is available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux operating systems. It allows you to set your location, set your date and time, and explore the night sky with easy navigation.
It’ll display constellation lines and constellation art to help identify what you’re looking at. It helps track star movements over time (the Earth doesn’t stay still, orbiting the sun and spinning on its axis means that many constellations are only visible at certain times of the year, and they appear to move through the night sky).
If you decide to hunt “The Hunter”, here are a few tips:
- pick a spot where street lights, houses and trees don’t obstruct your view too much
- clear moonless nights are best
- if the night is clear, but there’s a moon, do it anyway
- if there are only a few clouds, do it anyway
- no telescope or binoculars are needed
- Identify North: find north using The Plough (The Big Dipper) part of Ursa Major (The Great Bear) and let it point you to Polaris (The North Star)
A friend who likes to look at the stars, got into the habit of sending me a text in the early hours of the morning whenever they were clearly visible. It got out of hand when on a cloudy night he sent a text saying that there was a total eclipse of everything. I don’t keep my phone near my bed anymore.
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