The weather last month was not very good though there were some nights when the sky was crystal clear with good visibility if you were prepared to brave the cold. Let’s hope this month is better as there are some interesting objects to see.

I have chosen Gemini (the Twins) as this month’s constellation. It is in the south-southwestern sky about midnight, above and to the left of Orion. Two fairly bright stars at the top left are named Castor and Pollux and form the heads of the twins. With a bit of imagination you can see two “stick men” that form the constellation itself as shown in this diagram:

Just above the left foot of the twin Castor is an open cluster of stars known as M35 which is visible to the naked eye but better seen with a small telescope or binoculars. This cluster is made up of several hundred stars and covers an area of sky about the same size as the full moon (about half a degree).

Just to the south east of the star Pollux but in the adjacent constellation of Cancer (the Crab) you can see the planet Mars which has just passed its closest distance from Earth and will now be receding and therefore getting smaller and fainter for a year or so before the two planets approach each other again. Looking at Mars through a medium sized telescope it is easy to see the southern polar icecap and the darker basaltic plains.

On the subject of planets, on 31st of the month Mercury and Venus will appear close together low in the western sky just after sunset. Venus is the very bright object and Mercury is less bright and lower to the right. Both planets are closer to the Sun than the Earth so they only ever appear as morning or evening objects – never visible all night as can the outer planets such as Saturn which is visible low in the southern sky all month in the constellation of Virgo (please see the star map at the end of this article).

The comet 81P/Wild is at its brightest this month but don’t get too excited as you will need binoculars or a small telescope to see it. The comet will appear like a smudge of light and is at the lower left of the constellation Virgo.
If you would like some easy astronomy nothing is easier than the Sun so long as you never look directly at it especially with binoculars or a telescope as to do so can cause instant and permanent blindness. However, there is an easy way to observe the Sun – visit website: http://spaceweather.com

You can see sun spots, prominences and other solar features live from the SOHO satellite. Sunspots appear as dark blobs on the surface of the Sun. The number of spots varies from a minimum of zero in a month to over two hundred in a regular eleven year cycle. 2009 was the last minimum with 270 days when there were no sunspots at all. We have now passed the minimum and numbers are beginning to rise again. Sunspots are associated with other solar activity that can have a direct impact on Earth from causing an increase in Northern Lights to affecting global communication and even electrical power distribution. For more information on sunspots go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspot

New Moon is on the 15th and full Moon on the 30th. For a nice amateur video of the moon as seen through a medium sized telescope go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_moZHbJWek

These are just a few of the things to see in the sky this month but there are many more. To see the sky at its best you should allow at least fifteen minutes for your eyes to become dark-adapted. If you share my interest in astronomy I hope you find these few pointers of help.

Steve Kourik