What's Up for February 2012

The stars are out. It can't be all that hard to learn the sky, can it? But then you get out there and the stars all look, well, all more or less the same. So what's the secret? Read on and find out.

But before you do anything these days you have to carry out a Risk Assessment. Being eaten by the Beast of Bodmin? No chance, unless you actually live in Bodmin and the Beast is hungry. Being scared out of your wits by next door's cat suddenly jumping on you? That's more likely, assuming next door have a cat. Being frozen to the guts? Even more likely this weather, but at least you can do something about that one by putting on two of everything (within reason, of course).

You will need a star map, and you will need to know how it works. This may seem obvious, but there is a knack to understanding these things. Here's our map for this month:

All maps produced using Stellarium software.

Wrong way round?

Now don't write in and tell us that we have the points of the compass all wrong. This is a map of the sky, so you have to hold it over your head. When you do this, east and west will be the right way round.

It shows the whole sky, so the scale is quite small. Normally you turn to see different parts of it, so to see the view looking north, for example, hold the map upside down with north at the bottom.

The map shows the sky in mid month at about 7.30 pm, at the start of the month at 8.30 pm, or by the end of the month at 6.30 pm. All times are GMT.

TIP If you aren't sure of the direction of north from your location, click here for a page on Getting Your Bearings.

Find Orion

At this time of year one of the best constellations (star patterns) of all is in the sky – Orion. Look just to the left of your south point and you should spot three stars in a line, with four other stars forming a sort of box around them, as shown on the map below.

Orion has more bright stars than any other constellation, so it shows up no matter how bad your light pollution is. You can't mistake it for anything else in the sky. As well as the three stars in a line there are two brighter stars, called Betelgeuse and Rigel, at top left and bottom right.

The three stars in a line are known as Orion's Belt. Orion is meant to represent a hunter, usually facing westwards towards Taurus, the Bull. Dangling from his belt is a sword, which is the line of fainter stars just below the belt where the map is marked M42.

You can follow the Belt stars up and to the right (the west) to the bright star Aldebaran, in Taurus, and beyond that to the best star cluster in the sky, the Pleiades (pronounced Ply-a-deez). Then following the Belt stars down and to the left you get to Sirius, in the constellation of Canis Major, the Greater Dog. Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky (note: smart-alecs love to point out that the brightest star in the sky is the Sun so you always have to be vary careful to say the night sky to avoid giving them the satisfaction of doing so).

Other constellations to look for

Also look out for Auriga, some distance directly above Orion. Its brightest star, Capella, is almost overhead from the UK at this time of year. There is a little group of three fainter stars just to one side of it. There are four other stars in a big pentagon making up the rest of the constellation.

Above and to the left of Sirius is Procyon, then high up above Procyon is a pair of stars called Castor and Pollux. When you have stopped sniggering, we will just say that these are the main stars of Gemini, the Twins. Click to find out more about these stars and the constellation.

For a star map that shows all the constellations and their names, click here.

This month's bright planets

That bright star high in the southwest is Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. It's been in the sky for several months, but right now it is sinking into the twilight and won't be around for very much longer until later in the year. It's worth looking at it through binoculars, as you should see three or four of its moons like tiny stars on either side of it. With a telescope you can see a couple of its dark equatorial belts as well. It'll be around in the western sky for another few weeks, but then it will start to get lost in the twilight.

As well as Jupiter, mentioned above, Venus is visible in the southwestern sky after sunset, but farther west and lower down. It's vey bright, but through a telescope it's not much to look at now – all you see is a small white blob. Give it a month or two and it will start to look more interesting.

Mars gets up around 8 pm over in the east, as a bright pinkish object, and by 10 pm it is worth looking at through a telescope. But if you have a small telescope don't expect its markings to jump out at you, because the disc is fairly small. It will be at its closest for a couple of years next month. Take time looking at it, and you should eventually see something. Saturn is in the late evening sky at the moment, and is not high up until the early morning.

What about the Moon, then?

It begins the month just after first quarter, which was on the 31 January, then full Moon is on the 7th. Last quarter is on the 14th. Then the next new Moon is on the 21st. We have a whole section of the website devoted to the Moon and its features, so make the most of it.

Sorry, no eclipses this month.

Text by Robin Scagell