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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Posts Tagged ‘Arcturus’

Sky Tonight—April 23, Two stars lead to

Sky Tonight—April 23, Two stars lead to constellation Hercules

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science Visit EarthSky at www.EarthSky.org The constellation Hercules the Kneeling Giant can be seen ascending in the east-northeast on these spring evenings. Our chart today shows the sky for late night, when all of these objects are well up in the northeastern to eastern sky. The stars Arcturus and Vega can help you identify Hercules, whose most noticeable pattern is a squarish figure in the center of the constellation. This sky pattern, or ... Full Story

Sky Tonight—April 5, Drive a spike to Spica

Sky Tonight—April 5, Drive a spike to Spica

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science Visit EarthSky at www.EarthSky.org Notice that we’ve shrunk the scale of today’s chart, in order to take in a wide sweep of sky from northeast to southeast. Tonight, let the Big Dipper introduce you to another bright star. This star is Spica in the constellation Virgo the Maiden. If you’re outside this evening, you can follow the arc to Arcturus and drive a spike to Spica. First follow the curve made by these stars in the Big Dipper’s ... Full Story

Sky Tonight—April 2, Follow the arc to Arcturus

Sky Tonight—April 2, Follow the arc to Arcturus

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science Visit EarthSky at www.EarthSky.org Now is a perfect time to look outside in the evening and learn a playful phrase useful to skywatchers. Scouts learn it. Grandparents teach it to kids. It was one of the first sky tools I learned to use in astronomy. The phrase is: follow the arc to Arcturus. First locate the Big Dipper asterism in the northeastern sky in mid-evening, maybe around 9 p.m. Can’t find the Big Dipper? Look ahead to our chart for ... Full Story

Sky Tonight—March 27, Use the Big Dipper to locate

Sky Tonight—March 27, Use the Big Dipper to locate the Hunting Dogs

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science Visit EarthSky at www.EarthSky.org You can easily locate the Big Dipper in the northeast sky on these early springtime evenings. The Big Dipper is part of the constellation Ursa Major, the Greater Bear. If you can find the Big Dipper, you can also find two Hunting Dogs seen by the ancient stargazers to be nipping at the Bear’s heels. The Hunting Dogs are a separate constellation: tiny Canes Venatici. You will need a dark sky to see these two ... Full Story

Sky Tonight—March 4, Bright star Arcturus is a

Sky Tonight—March 4, Bright star Arcturus is a harbinger of spring

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science Visit EarthSky at www.EarthSky.org The gloriously bright star Arcturus rises into your east-northeastern sky around 9 p.m. tonight. This yellow-orange beauty – like any brilliant star – sparkles wildly when it hovers near the horizon. Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation Bootes, which represents a Herdsman – though to our modern eyes, this star formation might look more like a kite or snow cone. Arcturus is the fourth brightest ... Full Story

EarthSky Tonight—October 12, Arcturus sparkles in

EarthSky Tonight—October 12,  Arcturus sparkles in western sky on October evenings

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org Is Comet Hartley 2 beginning to brighten? A bright star in the west in the evening in October – flashing colors – is Arcturus. Let us back up a minute. The extremely bright object in the east to southeast sky on these October 2010 evenings is the planet Jupiter. Still, many have asked about a bright star – not as bright as Jupiter, but still very bright and twinkling very actively – in the west after sunset. Jim wrote, ... Full Story

EarthSky Tonight—August 20, Star-hop from Big Dipper

EarthSky Tonight—August 20, Star-hop from Big Dipper to Arcturus and Spica

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org The Big Dipper pops out into your northwestern sky on August evenings. On August 3, we star-hopped from the Big Dipper to Polaris, the North Star. Tonight, we star-hop to two bright summer stars: Arcturus and Spica. As shown on our sky chart, we extend the Big Dipper handle “to arc to Arcturus and to drive a spike to Spica.” Arcturus is the brightest star in your western sky, so you cannot miss this yellow-orange beacon. ... Full Story

July 8: 2010: Corona Borealis is also called the

July 8: 2010: Corona Borealis is also called the Northern Crown

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org To see what is shown on today’s chart, you would face east and look high overhead for Corona Borealis, also known as the Northern Crown. This constellation looks like a half-circle, in the middle of which is a white jewel of a star called Gemma. The Crown is located more or less along a line between two bright stars: Arcturus in the constellation Bootes the Herdsman and Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp. Arcturus has ... Full Story

Earthsky Tonight—May 13, 2010: M13, the Great

Earthsky Tonight—May 13, 2010: M13, the Great Cluster in Hercules

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org Hercules above the star Vega. Today’s closer view can help you identify the most famous deep-sky object within this constellation. It is a globular star cluster known as M13. Today’s chart shows the location of M13. It is about a third of the distance along a line between the stars Eta and Zeta Hercules. We are not showing you what the cluster looks like on this chart – and in the sky, you’ll see it differently, ... Full Story

Earthsky Tonight—May 12, 2010 The constellation

Earthsky Tonight—May 12, 2010 The constellation Hercules and The Keystone

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org Hercules the Hero is not the easiest constellation to identify. You will need a dark sky to see this mighty star figure. However, if you can see Vega – a prominent blue-white star in the northeast in the evening now – you might spot Hercules nearby. Still can’t see it? Look back at this chart to see Hercules with respect to both Vega and another star, Arcturus. The most noticeable part of Hercules is an “asterism” or ... Full Story

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