![]() These four stars are very young stars, referred to as the Trapezium stars, and the fuzziness around them is the gas and dust out of which new stars are currently forming. And inside the fuzzy area, we can see four stars, in a slightly distorted rectangle in the middle. The Great Nebula is one of the more interesting objects to look at through a small telescope because, through a telescope we can see a little bit of fuzziness. That is, light has taken 1,500 years to reach us from the Great Nebula in Orion. It is at a distance of about 1,500 light years from us. This is the nearest large star-forming region to Earth. Now, as I said, the middle, slightly fuzzy star that we can see in Orion’s dagger is the Great Nebula in Orion. The reason is, of course, that Orion was named in the Northern Hemisphere a long time ago, so when we look at Orion, we actually see Orion upside-down. Of course, you might find it a little odd that the giant Orion of Greek mythology wears his sword above his belt. These three stars represent the dagger of Orion, or sometimes they’re referred to as the sword of Orion. Just above the belt, there is a line of three faint stars, and the middle one is the Great Nebula of Orion. The three stars in the row in the middle represent Orion’s belt. Orion is an easily recognisable constellation, as it is made up of four stars in a rectangle, with three stars in a row in the middle. Orion is also visible during the Australian summer evenings. We will see, of course, the familiar sight of the Australian night sky, the constellation of Orion, to our left and to the north-west. We’ll start off our tour of the April stars by facing north. Go outside, sit yourself down, and listen to this podcast. And of course, in April, it can start to become a little cool, so dress suitably. The idea of the red light is that it does not wreck your adaptation to the night sky, so you can look at a map and a piece of paper as well as looking up into the sky without having to wait for your eyes to adapt to the darkness again.Īlso, it’s a good idea to make yourself familiar with the cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west. ![]() The way to convert an ordinary torch into a red torch is to put some red cellophane at the front. It would also help to equip yourself with a torch that should have a red colour. To start off, it’s a good idea to download the star map that’s available through this website, the monthly sky map, and print it out. ![]() We’ll start off the podcast by talking about the stars in the night sky, and we’ll consider what planets are visible at the end. It is always available at the beginning of each month. This sky guide can be found through the MAAS Sydney Observatory website. ![]() To view PDF star charts you will need to download and install Adobe Acrobat Reader if it’s not on your computer already. We provide an April 2016 night sky chart (PDF) which shows the stars, constellations and planets visible in the night sky from anywhere in Australia. Other constellations Nick tells us about this month are Orion, Leo the Lion, and Crux – also known as the Southern Cross.Īndrew looks at the Moon phases, planets and an interesting grouping of planets in the evening sky. For example, the star we think of as Castor – one of the two most prominent stars, Castor and Pollux, in the constellation of Gemini the Twins – is actually six stars! ![]() In this month’s podcast, Nick also tells us about stars that look from Earth like single stars but are actually multiple stars. This month’s guide is presented by Dr Nick Lomb, Sydney Observatory’s past Curator of Astronomy and Dr Andrew Jacob, Sydney Observatory’s Curator of Astronomy. To help you learn about the southern night sky, Sydney Observatory provides a guide to the night sky and a sky map or chart each month. ![]()
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