A Stargazing Program for Beginners: A Pocket Field Guide

425 Pages·2015·18.138 MB·English

by  Jamie Carter (auth.)

Astronomer’s Pocket
Jamie Carter Field Guide
A Stargazing Program
for Beginners
A Pocket Field Guide
Astronomer’s Pocket Field Guide
More information about this series at h ttp://www.springer.com/series/7814

Jamie Carter
A Stargazing
Program for
Beginners
A Pocket Field Guide
Jamie Carter
Cardiff , UK
ISSN 2198-0756 ISSN 2198-0764 (electronic)
Astronomer’s Pocket Field Guide
I SBN 978-3-319-22071-0 ISBN 978-3-319-22072-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-22072-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015950843
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
T his work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole
or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical
way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer
software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
T he use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
T he publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
Cover Image Credit: © Gill Carter
Printed on acid-free paper
S pringer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business
Media (www.springer.com)
T his book is for Gill, my binary star,
who loves the Pleiades
(but can’t pronounce it),
and for my parents, who taught me to
ask questions and read maps.

Pref ace
E very night, the Universe is talking to you. It’s time to listen.
M ost people have, at some point, gazed up at the night sky from a remote
place and felt overwhelmed by a “blanket of stars.” But there is no blanket. The
night sky has depth, and it can be navigated. It can be known. Everything you’ve
ever heard about space, planets, comets, NASA missions, and distant galaxies
drifts above your head each night. With nothing more than patience, a few
hours to spare each month, and clear skies, the Universe is yours to explore.
Stargazing is easy; you don’t need an advanced education in astrophysics to
understand the rhythms and celestial geography of the night sky. You just need
to take the time to watch it all happen.
Unlike most stargazing guides, this book is not merely a list of seasonal
sights in the order you should view them. Instead, it’s an attempt to gradually
build up your observing skills and visual knowledge of the night sky. This
12-month journey will allow the night sky to slowly expose its secrets as you
witness one full orbit of the Sun. It’s a journey that will repeat every year for
the rest of your life and far beyond it, as those same stars will be rising and
setting. The night sky is nothing if not predictable, but only for those who
know the rules.
There is no big reveal. The map is always moving. Stargazing is about gath-
ering new pieces of the jigsaw each month. By learning a few basics about the
distances to some of the major stars and objects in the night sky, it’s possible
to begin to see shape and scale.
Seeing depth is the hard part; seeing back in time is shockingly simple. The
last sunset you watched happened eight minutes before you saw it; that’s how
long it takes light—which boasts the fastest speed of all—to travel the 93 mil-
lion miles from the Sun to the Earth. The next nearest star’s light takes almost
five years to reach us. From the next galaxy it takes 2.5 million years. Are we
looking back in time? You could say that, or you could say that time is chasing
us. Either way, after spending a year stargazing you’ll live in a far bigger place
than you do today.
N avigating the vast cosmos is easier than you think. You probably don’t
need to know how to cross oceans using only the stars as your guide, but it’s
nevertheless an easy skill to master. It takes just five minutes to learn how to
find north from anywhere above the equator. After just a few short stargazing
sessions you’ll be able to point out several constellations and major stars, and
know their incredible stories. After only a few months of observing, you’ll
instinctively know where the planets are and where the Moon is, even when
you can’t see any of them. Once a year has gone by and the stars you first saw
in January have returned to the night sky, you will have observed one complete
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Preface
orbit and seen the Universe in its entirety for the first time. In doing so you will
have learned how to visualize Earth’s astonishing journey around the Sun, and
you will have witnessed a tiny part of the Sun’s gradual journey through the
Milky Way.
If that all sounds like philosophy and geography more than hard science, it
should. Stargazing is too often associated with telescopes and astrophysics. So
critical is math in the modern approach to astronomy that the number of
humans who appreciate the night sky and its rhythms is dwindling. It’s an
oxymoron: as public interest in the discoveries continues to increase, fewer and
fewer of us appreciate the night sky. We’ve gained a lot of astronomical
k nowledge, but we’ve lost the context.
This is not an astronomy book. Although it could act as a good grounding
in amateur astronomy, I’ve tried to focus on gaining some cosmic perspective,
through stargazing, on the distances and scale of the night sky. To keep things
simple I have rounded up to the nearest light year and included only stars that
can be seen by the naked eye or when using only basic equipment. There’s
plenty of information included about forces at work in the night sky that you
can’t see, but the focus is on visible stars, constellations, star clusters, galaxies,
and planets. I’ve also used star names in place of astronomical designations,
which has often meant using Arabic names that have various phonetic spell-
ings. The specific demarcations of the various constellations do change
depending on the books, apps, or star charts you use; I’ve stuck with those
most familiar to me, and I make no apology either for taking the odd shortcut
or for including two asterisms of my own, Felis Major (Chap. 3 ) and the Baby
Giraffe (Chap. 6) . Once you’re familiar with the night sky you’ll begin to find
your own constellations, too. That’s what stargazers do.
As well as the vital constellations and clusters, and the weird and wonderful
nebulas, we’ll also discover some dark sky destinations across the globe that
help increase knowledge and give a new perspective on familiar night sky
sights. Travel broadens the mind, and stargazing can be a journey in more ways
than one. By year’s end the reader will be able to glance at the night sky from
anywhere on the planet and tell in what direction they’re facing, where all the
planets are, and even where Galactic Center Point is. Now how’s that for celes-
tial geography?
While I’ve included a mix of what I call flat and deep knowledge, there’s an
emphasis on the latter. Star names, constellations, and the myths associated
with them all come from humans, and while they’re certainly interesting, they
tell us more about the human story than they do about what’s really going on
up there. It’s the science in the stars, not their fictional stories, that most
astounds. Deep truths about the distances of stars, their relation to one
another, and the rhythms of the cosmos will all be explored. You really can have
it all just while standing in your backyard.
The naked eye can go a long way in stargazing, but only so far. In this book,
we will use binoculars (from April) and telescopes (from September) because
they’re so useful for studying the sky and getting a deeper understanding.
They’re optional, but for many stargazers, they prove irresistible. We’re some of
the first people in existence to have both access to inexpensive binoculars and
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Preface
telescopes, and a real scientific understanding of what’s actually going on in
deep space. Many astronomy guides make the point of saying that stargazing
has little to do with equipment and then proceed to offer pages of detailed
advice on which telescope to buy. Since that advice is already out there and
constantly being updated, I see no need to repeat it. The basics are covered, but
those who require exhaustive advice on equipment should look elsewhere; this
book is about the stars. Naked eye targets are therefore included all the way
through this book; we will learn just as many new constellations in December
as in January.
This book presumes you live in mid-northern latitudes, in the northern
hemisphere. That includes continental USA and Europe. All times, celestial
signposts and navigation tips are given for 10:00 p.m. on the first day of the
month; this translates to around 8:00 p.m. toward the end of the month. You
will soon understand why.
S ome may wonder why I’ve included m ind’s eye targets—such as galactic
features and the location of possible alien worlds—alongside easy-to-see con-
stellations and stars. The night sky is not what it seems. It takes various levels
of equipment to see into its different layers. If you want to know the night sky
and its greatest sights, you need to know its ways and its geography, and that
means learning about things that perhaps you can’t see with your own eyes.
These mind’s eye targets are designed to bring valuable context.
I ’ve also included a few human interest targets, from the International
Space Station and the exact positions of the Apollo landing sites on the Moon,
to space probes now on the outer reaches of the solar system. In this book,
you’ll learn in which constellations the Voyager probes are, and even where
Halley’s Comet resides in the night sky, waiting patiently for its return trip
around the Sun. I make no apologies for including objects like these; they’re
simply objects I wanted to know the location of as I began to stargaze.
S targazing and astronomy are not subjects for one book. Inside you’ll find
recommendations for websites, apps, podcasts, and other books; the best way
to learn isn’t by sticking to one source, but many. This book is therefore
intended only to offer an active introduction to a lifetime of stargazing.
After the year is up, the stars and constellations you first saw many months
ago will return like old friends, and the Universe will feel like what it really is:
your home.
Cardiff, Wales Jamie Carter
June 2015