It’s March in Australia, so welcome to the best skies in the world, says resident and astronomer Dave Reneke. Out of the 88 constellations, we’ve got the pick of the crop, he said
“So, it’s just you, me and the starry night.
“Depending on your age and your eyesight, you can see up to about 1500 to 2000 stars on a clear night.
“You’ll need a blanket to sit on, a pair of binoculars, and a pillow.”
Mr Reneke said, if you’ve e ever wondered how many stars there are in the Universe, think about this.
“There are more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on every beach in the world. Fantastic isn’t it? More stars in the night sky than heartbeats for every human who ever lived. Whew!
“Ordinary stargazing need not be complicated. If you can find the Moon, you’re on your way to becoming a backyard astronomer,” said Mr Reneke .
“On some nights, the Moon can serve as a great locator to help find other objects, including the constellations and planets.”
Once you’ve found the con-stellations, you can then identify a handful of bright stars, even if you live in a city, he said.
“The brightest is Sirius, which can be found just to the right of the famous constellation we call the Saucepan and it’s visible all night long.
“You don’t need a telescope to view it – a pair of binoculars will do just fine.
“Sirius is 8.6 light-years away, meaning that the light you see tonight took 8.6 years just to get here! You’ve now learned to look back in time.
“Looking at the Moon is a sneaky way to look back in time too,” Mr Reneke said.
“Most of the craters are ancient, many having formed more than three billion years ago by impacting meteors.
“Look also for bright streaks radiating outward from craters. These are formed by material cast out by those impacts. What violence.
“Equally as stunning and hard to miss at the moment is Venus shining brilliantly in the eastern sky just before sunrise. Venus was called the ‘goddess of love’ in Roman mythology, but we know it better as the ‘morning star’.
“Jupiter is getting low in the western evening sky now and will probably catch your eye if you’re out and about just after sunset.
“While you’re hunting Jupiter, look for comet Pan-Stars in the same direction and try to spot its tail glistening in the fading sunlight.
“Watch for Saturn rising in the east as Jupiter is setting. It’s fantastic to see the famous rings in a small telescope,” Mr Reneke said.
“Yep, they really are there and, out of all the things to see in a small telescope, this is the one object with the ‘Wow’ factor.
“Here’s something else to think about. If the sun were the size of a dot on an ordinary-sized letter ‘i’, then the nearest star would be 16 kilometres away.”
