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Monday, October 14, 2024

Posts Tagged ‘Big Dipper’

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—April 1, Use Big Dipper to find Polaris

Sky Tonight—April 1, Use Big Dipper to find Polaris and Little Dipper

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science Visit EarthSky at www.EarthSky.org Here is the view northward on April evenings. At present the Big Dipper is high in the north. Notice the two outer stars in the bowl of the Big Dipper. These two stars – called Duhbe and Merak – always point to Polaris, the North Star. Polaris is special because it always stays in the same spot in the northern sky. It is the star around which the entire northern sky appears to turn. That is because Polaris is ... 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 3, Recognize the Big Dipper …

Sky Tonight—March 3, Recognize the Big Dipper … and Little Dipper

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science Visit EarthSky at www.EarthSky.org We received a question about the Big and Little Dippers. “How can I locate both Ursa Minor and Ursa Major? I am seeing one of them in the sky . . . but cannot tell which one and where the other one is.” The answer is that, if you are seeing only one dipper, it is probably the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major. This constellation, also called the Greater Bear, contains the Big Dipper asterism that is ... Full Story

Sky Tonight—March 2, Use Big Dipper to locate

Sky Tonight—March 2, Use Big Dipper to locate Polaris, the North Star

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science Visit EarthSky at www.EarthSky.org People are always asking how to find Polaris, the North Star. It’s easy! Drawing a line through the two outer stars of the bowl of the Big Dipper faithfully points to Polaris. At one time, sailors’ livelihoods and survival depended on their lucky stars – most especially, the pointer stars of the Big Dipper. Scouts also learn to use the Big Dipper and Polaris to find the direction north. Polaris is not the ... Full Story

Sky Tonight—February 8, Use Big Dipper’s Pointers

Sky Tonight—February 8, Use Big Dipper’s Pointers to find Polaris

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science Visit EarthSky at www.EarthSky.org If you can find the Big Dipper in the northern sky in mid to late evening tonight, you can find the North Star, Polaris. The Big Dipper is not a constellation. Instead, it is an asterism, just a recognizable pattern of stars on the sky’s dome. It is part of the constellation Ursa Major, the Greater Bear. Big and Little Dippers: Noticeable in northern sky A well-known trick for finding the North Star, or Polaris, ... Full Story

Sky Tonight—January 16, Cassiopeia and Big Dipper on

Sky Tonight—January 16, Cassiopeia and Big Dipper on opposite sides of North Star

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science Visit EarthSky at www.EarthSky.org Bright star on January evenings? It’s the planet Jupiter The northern sky’s two most prominent sky patterns – the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen and the Big Dipper – both circle around Polaris, the North Star, once a day. They are opposite each other – one on either side of the North Star. The constellation Cassiopeia the Queen is easy to recognize in the northern sky, either in the evening or before ... Full Story

EarthSky Tonight—Nov 13, Big Dipper bowl points to

EarthSky Tonight—Nov 13, Big Dipper bowl points to bright star Capella

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science Visit EarthSky at www.EarthSky.org You can use the Big Dipper to find the brilliant star Capella in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer. The top two bowl stars point toward Capella, as we depict on today’s sky chart. The phrase spring up and fall down gives you some idea of the Big Dipper’s place in the evening sky. On fall evenings, the Big Dipper sits way down low in the northern sky. On spring evenings, the Big Dipper shines high ... Full Story

EarthSky Tonight—Nov 12, Big Dipper, aka Sky Bear,

EarthSky Tonight—Nov 12, Big Dipper, aka Sky Bear, comes to Earth on November evenings

Courtesy of EarthSky A Clear Voice for Science www.EarthSky.org In our northern hemisphere, the Big Dipper is probably the sky’s best-known asterism. In other words, it’s a recognizable pattern of stars – not an official constellation. The Big Dipper is part of the constellation Ursa Major, otherwise known as the Great Bear. Every year, the Big Dipper (Great Bear) descends to its lowest point in the sky on November evenings. In fact, people in the southern part of the United States ... Full Story

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