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The Observer's Year 366 Nights in the Universe

:	Patrick Moore
:	The Observer's Year 366 Nights in the Universe
:	Springer-Verlag
:	9781846281556
:	2
:	CHF 36.30
:

:	Astronomie: Allgemeines, Nachschlagewerke
:	English

:	376
:	Wasserzeichen/DRM
:	PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
:	PDF

For this new edition, the text has been brought fully up to date - and the period covered is from 2005 to 2010. Inevitably, this has meant that large sections of the book have been completely rewritten. Much has happened since the ?rst edition was published in 1998. Patrick Moore December 2004 v 00-OY2e_PRE(i-xvi).qxd 14/2/05 2:03 PM Page vii Contents Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Phases of the Moon 2005-2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii January . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 February . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 March. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 April. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 May . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 June . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 July . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 August. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 September. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 October . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 November. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 December. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 Appendix A: The 88 Constellations. . . . . . . . . . . . 351 Appendix B: Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 Appendix C: The Greek Alphabet. . . . . . . . . . . . . 363 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 vii 00-OY2e_PRE(i-xvi).qxd 14/2/05 2:03 PM Page ix Introduction It was once said that 'the night sky always looks much the same'. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. There are 365 days in each year (366 in a Leap Year!), and from an astronomical point of view no two are alike.

August(p. 214-215)

August 1
The August Sky

For the northern observer, the nights are lengthening. The Summer Triangle continues to dominate the scene, while the main autumn constellation, Pegasus, makes its entry in midevening. The Great Bear is rather low in the north-west, which means that the W of Cassiopeia is high in the northeast. Arcturus is setting, and Capella is so low over the northern horizon that any mist or light pollution will conceal it. We have lost the Scorpion, though Sagittarius remains on view very low in the south. In the early hours of the morning, the lovely star-cluster of the Pleiades appears in the east. By the end of August it rises well before midnight a reminder that the hot days are over, and winter, with its frosts and fogs, lies ahead.

Remember that August is the meteor month . The Perseids, which peak on 12 August, may always be relied upon to give good displays, and even in the presence of the Moon quite a number of shooting-stars can always be expected. The shower has already started at the beginning of the month, and goes on until near the end of the third week. From the southern hemisphere, the Vega-Deneb-Altair triangle is visible in the east, though only Altair is reasonably high from Australia or South Africa. Scorpius and Sagittarius remain prominent, though Scorpius is sinking in the west.

The Southern Cross is low, and so is Canopus, with the Southern Fish high up, and Pegasus appearing in the northeast. Of course the Perseids can be seen, but the radiant lies far in the north, so that for once Britons have the advantage over Australians. The Clouds of Magellan are gaining altitude, and this is a good time to pick out the admittedly rather confusing Southern Birds Grus, Pavo, Ph nix and Tucana.

August 2
Neptune: the Outermost Giant

Throughout the period we are covering here, Neptune reaches opposition in the late northern summer from 8 August in 2005 to 19 August in 2010; the synodic period is only 367.5 days. Throughout the period Neptune remains in Capricornus, around declination 19°; at the 2002 opposition it remains near the star Rho Capricorni, magnitude 4.8. Neptune s mean opposition magnitude is 7.7.

This means that it is well below naked-eye visibility, but binoculars will show it in the guise of a starlike point. Telescopically it appears as a small, bluish disk, with an apparent diameter of around 2 seconds of arc. Ordinary telescopes will show no surface features, though markings have been recorded very distinctly from the Hubble Space Telescope and of course from the one space-craft to have passed by it, Voyager 2 in 1989. There are 11 known satellites, of which 6 were found during and after the Voyager 2 encounter. Of the two attendants previously known, Triton is an easy telescopic object with adequate equipment, but Nereid is very faint indeed, and the recently-found satellites are beyond the range of Earth-based instruments.

	Preface	6
	Contents	8
	Introduction	10
	Phases of the Moon 2005 2010	13
	January	17
	January 1 The January Sky	22
	January 2 The Two Most Famous Constellations	23
	January 3 The Poles of the Sky	24
	January 4 The Quadrantid Meteors	25
	January 5 The Horse and his Rider	25
	January 6 The Faintest Star in the Plough	26
	January 7 The Little Bear and the Guardians of the Pole	27
	January 8 The Legend of the Bears	29
	January 9 Lunokhod 2 on the Moon	30
	January 10 Colours of the Stars	30
	January 11 Phases of the Inferior Planets	31
	January 12 Orion, the Hunter	33
	January 13 Orion as a Guide	34
	January 14 The Legend of Orion	36
	January 15 Betelgeux	36
	January 16 Rigel	38
	January 17 Comets	39
	January 18 Hare in the Sky	39
	January 19 The Dove, the Graving Tool and Declination	41
	January 20 The Belt and the Sword	42
	January 21 Features of the Moon	43
	January 22 Right Ascension	44
	January 23 Clusters in Cassiopeia	45
	January 24 Variable Stars in Cassiopeia	46
	January 25 Tycho s Star	47
	January 26 Northern and Southern Lights	48
	January 27 King Cepheus	49
	January 28 Variable Stars in Cepheus	50
	January 29 The Celestial Lizard	51
	January 30 Introduction to Eridanus	52
	January 31 Lunar History	53
	February	55
	February 1 The February Sky	60
	February 2 Oppositions of the Planets	60
	February 3 Touchdown in the Ocean of Storms	61
	February 4 Gemini	62
	February 5 Fra Mauro	63
	February 6 The Non-Identical Twins	64
	February 7 William Huggins and his Spectroscopes	64
	February 8 The Castor Family	65
	February 9 Variable Stars in the Twins	66
	February 10 Messier s Catalogue and M35	67
	February 11 The Eskimo Nebula	68
	February 12 Messengers to Venus	68
	February 13 Introducing the Milky Way	69
	February 14 The Solar Cycle and Solar Max	70
	February 15 Lunar Insects?	70
	February 16 Touchdown on Eros	71
	February 17 Missions to the Sea of Crises	72
	February 18 Twinkling Stars	72
	February 19 De Revolutionibus	73
	February 20 The Great Dog	74
	February 21 The Celestial Pup	76
	February 22 The Sun s Surroundings	77
	February 23 Messier 41	77
	February 24 Supernovæ	78
	February 25 Fritz Zwicky and his Supernovæ	79
	February 26 Procyon and the Little Dog	79
	February 27 The Little Snake	80
	February 28 An Equatorial Star	81
	February 29 Leap Years	81
	March	83
	March 1 The March Sky	88
	March 2 The Celestial Crab	88
	March 3 Back to the Moon	89
	March 4 The Seas of the Moon	90
	March 5 The Beehive	91
	March 6 Binoculars and the Sky	92
	March 7 X Cancri	93
	March 8 The Solitary One	93
	March 9 The Watersnake	94
	March 10 The Giraffe and the Southern Pointers	95
	March 11 The Planet-Hunter	96
	March 12 Star Magnitudes	97
	March 13 Solar System Anniversaries	98
	March 14 The Greatest Globular Cluster	98
	March 15 Choosing a Telescope	99
	March 16 Procyon	100
	March 17 The Owl Nebula	101
	March 18 Space-Walking	101
	March 19 XI Ursæ Majoris: the First Computed Binary	102
	March 20 The Equinox	103
	March 21 The Celestial Equator	104
	March 22 The Origin of the Planets	104
	March 23 The Hunting Dogs	105
	March 24 The Whirlpool	106
	March 25 Titan	107
	March 26 Messier Objects in Ca