![]() ![]() Antares means ‘rival of Mars’, and when they are close together in the sky they certainly do look very similar. Now, look for the Scorpion’s heart, Antares, a red supergiant that is 400 times the diameter of our Sun. ![]() This does work for everyone, as your arm length is proportional to your hand size. Put your hands side-by-side and you now have 30 degrees, the size the Scorpion covers in the sky. Hold your other arm out and spread your hand out as wide as you comfortably can (so the opposite of a fist), from your little finger to your thumb is 20 degrees. From one side of your fist to the other, this is 10 degrees. Hold your arm out towards the sky and make a fist. Working out degrees in the sky is quite easy. The Scorpion is one of the easiest constellations to pick out as it is one of the few that does look like what it’s supposed to represent. Now turn to face the east and there is Scorpius rising in triumph as Orion sets defeated for another season. Orion is now on his side as he sets below the western horizon. This is a familiar group of stars for those of us in the southern hemisphere and is Orion’s belt and sword. If you’re having difficultly picking out the Hunter then look for ‘The Saucepan’. Orion appears in many cultures, even the ancient Egyptians saw Orion as Osiris, god of the underworld and of regeneration. When Scorpius sets in the west the healer Ophiuchus crushes the Scorpion into the Earth and revives Orion so he can rise in the east again. As Scorpius the Scorpion rises in the east, Orion sets in the west, defeated. This entire myth is played out in the stars each year. Orion was stung on the shoulder but was revived and placed in the stars along with the scorpion. Gaea, the Earth goddess, was alarmed by his statement and fearing for all the animals on Earth she sent a scorpion to kill him. In Greek mythology, Orion was a hunter of great skill and boasted that he could kill all living animals. Low in the western sky is the familiar constellation of Orion, the Hunter. Wait about 5-10 minutes and allow your eyes to adapt to the darkness. ![]() Pick a comfortable spot either on a rug or a deck chair that you can lay back in. Remember that the Sun rises in the east, moves through the northern sky during the day and sets in the west or a small compass will also point you in the right direction. My name is Melissa Hulbert and I’m an Astronomy Programs Coordinator at Sydney Observatory.īefore we start our night sky tour, make sure you download the May sky chart.Īrmed with your sky map and a small torch with some red cellophane covering it, find a nice dark place away from the glare of the street lights and make sure you know your cardinal directions – north, south, east and west. Hello and welcome to the night sky guide for May. To view PDF star charts you will need to download and install Adobe Acrobat Reader if it’s not on your computer already. We provide a May 2016 night sky chart (PDF) which shows the stars, constellations and planets visible in the night sky from anywhere in Australia. In the May sky guide, as well as showing us where to find the constellations Orion, Scorpius, Centaurus and Crux, and the star clusters, the Jewel Box, M6 and M7, Melissa tells us the best times to see the planets Jupiter, Mars and Saturn and the best time to see the Eta-Aquarid meteor shower. This month’s guide is presented by Melissa Hulbert, Sydney Observatory’s Astronomy Programs Coordinator. and click here after you've loaded a page to jump to the content.To help you learn about the southern night sky, Sydney Observatory provides a guide and a sky map or chart each month. You can also skip past the moon phase info, etc. In the meantime, you will have to scroll down a way to see the page you wish to view. If updating/changing your browser is not possible, do not panic - all of the LAS website is still available to you and we are working to make the layout compatible with outdated browsers. The Browse Happy website has a list of the latest versions of all major browsers, including Internet Explorer (but remember Windows XP only supports up to IE8!) As well as not supporting modern features and web standards, old versions of browsers - especially Internet Explorer - can expose your computer to security risks. Please consider using an alternative browser - especially if you are on Windows XP which only supports the outdated Internet Explorer 8 browser - such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome which do have support for these web standards. Click here for an example of how the site should look. If you can see this message then you are using a browser (probably Internet Explorer) which does not support the international web standards used by the LAS website and many others. ![]()
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