Northants Skies
January 2012
Northants Skies
Star char courtesy of Heavensabove.com
Star Chart above is drawn for the 10th of the month at 20:30hours
The bright star Sirius has joined us again rising well above the horizon and so we have in our skies the winter constellations of Auiga, Taurus, Orion, Gemini and Canis Major, the summer triangle has not completely disappeared from our sky. Vaga is just skirting the horizon in the North West, but Deneb, higher and farther west, is still very visable. The constellation of Draco is nicely placed for observation beneath the Pole star, have a go at identifying the faint constellation of Lynx in the north-east, it runs generally north-south roughly half way between the outer stars of Ursa Major and the stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini.
Beneath Andromeda to the west of the meridian are two small constellations the Triangulum and Aries, the Triangulum is made of three stars arranged in a triangle and Aries gives the impression of a distinctive crooked pattern in the night sky, Aries is also one of the Zodiacal constellation.
Steve Bell
The bright star Sirius has joined us again rising well above the horizon and so we have in our skies the winter constellations of Auiga, Taurus, Orion, Gemini and Canis Major, the summer triangle has not completely disappeared from our sky. Vaga is just skirting the horizon in the North West, but Deneb, higher and farther west, is still very visable. The constellation of Draco is nicely placed for observation beneath the Pole star, have a go at identifying the faint constellation of Lynx in the north-east, it runs generally north-south roughly half way between the outer stars of Ursa Major and the stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini.
Beneath Andromeda to the west of the meridian are two small constellations the Triangulum and Aries, the Triangulum is made of three stars arranged in a triangle and Aries gives the impression of a distinctive crooked pattern in the night sky, Aries is also one of the Zodiacal constellation.
Steve Bell
- Moon
The Moon.
Full Moon 10th December
New Moon 24th December
- Mercury
A mornind object from the midle of the month
- Venus
Venus. Graces the evening sky all December
- Mars
Mars. Is available after midnight
Jupiter
Jupiter. An evening obect abject all month
Saturn
Saturn Rises a couple of hours after the constellation of Virgo
Uranus
Uranus Is still with us as an evening object
Neptune
Neptune. Is low down in the early evening sky
Pluto Is at conjunction on the 29th so is out of sight this month
By Mervyn Lloyd
