Transcript Autumn Stargazing - Trimble County Schools

• Still contains your circumpolar constellations:
Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cepheus, Cassiopeia and
Draco
• Summer constellations, such as Cygnus, Aquila
and Lyra, are still visible.
• New constellations to look for include:
• Pegasus
• Perseus
• Auriga
• Pegasus is found toward the south. The body of the
winged horse forms a huge square, the “Great Square
of Pegasus.”
• The horse is actually upside down. His neck is to the
right. His legs are actually entangled with the
constellation Andromeda’s hair.
• You will use the Great Square and Cassiopeia to find
the Andromeda galaxy…more on this later!
• Just beyond the nose of Pegasus is M15, a globular
cluster.
• The first exoplanet ever discovered was around a star
in Pegasus.
• To find Perseus, find Cassiopeia. Look at it
until it is a “W” shape. Go from star #3
toward start #2 and straight on to Perseus.
• The 2nd brightest star in Perseus is Algol. It is
an eclipsing variable that changes 1.5
magnitude of brightness every 2.87 days. It’s
Arabic name means “ghoul” or “ghost.”
• Algol is sometimes depicted as the eye of
Medusa.
• To find Auriga, keep going from Cassiopeia
through Perseus, toward the shape of a huge
sideways house or pentagon.
• There is a really bright star, Capella, on that side
of the “house.”
• Toward the bottom of the house are M38 and
M36. They are galactic clusters (clusters of
galaxies) that appear as misty patches. M37,
another cluster (of stars this time) lies just
outside, opposite Capella
• Is 4th magnitude in brightness (in best
circumstances you can see up to 5.5
magnitude).
• To find it, again find Cassiopeia. The 2nd half
of the “W” forms a “V” that points to
Andromeda.
• It is 2.8 million light years away…the farthest
object visible to the naked eye.
• Beneath the first “V” are six open star clusters.
• Orionids: October 20th (10 to 30 max/hour)
• Leonids: November 16th (10 to 20 max/hour)
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"APOD: 2001 December 10 - Globular Cluster M15." Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Web. 01 Oct. 2009. <http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011210.html>.
"APOD: 2008 January 24 - Andromeda Island Universe." Astronomy Picture of the
Day. Web. 01 Oct. 2009. <http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080124.html>.
"APOD: 2008 October 24 - Amazing Comet Holmes." Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Web. 01 Oct. 2009. <http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081024.html>.
Brunier, Serge. The Great Atlas of the Stars. Willowdale, Ontario: Firefly Books,
Ltd., 2001. Print.
Dickinson, Terence. Nightwatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe. 2rd ed.
Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books, Ltd., 1998. Print.
"Google Image Result for http://stardate.org/images/constellations/auriga.gif."
Google Images. Web. 01 Oct. 2009.
<http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://stardate.org/images/constellati
ons/...%3Den>.
"Google Image Result for http://www.myth-andfantasy.com/pegasus/potherpages/const_peg.jpg." Google Images. Web. 01 Oct.
2009. <http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.myth-andfantasy.com/pegasus/potherpages/const_peg.jpg&imgrefurl...Den>.