Looking to the Skies April 2022 By Brian Davidson

We passed the spring equinox on the 20th March so we are getting more daylight and the clocks went forward an hour on the 27th March so it will be later before the sky darkens. The good news is that we have had some clear nights and seeing the winter sky has been really good. Like last year, I thought that it would be a good idea to repeat the bit about the celestial sphere and how the sky changes in appearance from night to night and month to month. I hope this will prove useful to any newcomers to the subject and any youngsters who are hopefully embarking on observing the skies as a lifetime’s hobby.
 
The Celestial Sphere
Before we venture outside let us recall some helpful facts. It is useful to think of the sky as a hollow sphere which has the Earth at its centre and to which all the heavenly objects are attached. This sphere is known as the celestial sphere. Just like when you visit a planetarium. The celestial sphere also has north and south poles directly above the corresponding poles on Earth and a celestial equator directly above the Earth’s equator.  Far away objects such as stars and galaxies are in more or less ‘fixed positions’ on the celestial sphere whereas the Sun, Moon and planets continually shift their positions but stay close to a circular path on the sphere’s surface called the ‘ecliptic’ which is tilted to the celestial equator because the Earth’s axis is tilted by 23.5 degrees to the plane of its orbit. In reality of course the Earth revolves round the Sun and the ecliptic is where the plane of the Earth’s orbit cuts the celestial sphere. This makes sense because when we observe the Sun we are looking along the radius of the Earth’s orbit and hence in the plane of its orbit.

The recent equinox marks the point where the path round the ecliptic crosses the celestial equator. This is when the Sun is overhead at the equator and it continues to travel further north until the summer solstice when it is overhead at the Tropic of Cancer. We see from the diagram that the ecliptic is north of the celestial equator during this period of time.
For us in the northern hemisphere we see the stars rotate about the north celestial pole. Don’t worry about some of the additional information on the diagram. The yellow line is the ecliptic and it shows the signs of the zodiac (representing the constellations) and how the Sun appears to pass in front of them as the Earth revolves around the Sun. Remember we are using a model for what we see and this is governed by the movement of the Earth. The Earth spins about its axis from West to East once a day (i.e. 360 degrees in 24 hours or 15 degrees per hour) and that is why we see the Sun move across the sky daily from East to West. It may not be so obvious that the stars are doing the same thing at night and they move across the sky from East to West at 15 degrees per hour as well. Of course, they also do it during the day, but we cannot see them for the glare of the Sun.
 The Earth also revolves about the Sun once a year (i.e. 360 degrees in 365 days or about 1 degree per day or 15 degrees in 15 days) which is why the sky at 10.00pm one day will look like the sky at 9.00pm 15 days later. If you wait till 10.00pm again the celestial sphere has moved on by 15 degrees or 1 hour and all the stars have moved that amount further west.
 
Observing
Okay, it is time to look at the stars. The following charts represent the night sky at 10.00pm BST on the 8th of April and at 9.00pm BST on the 23rd April.

The fact that some stars appear in a group does not indicate that they are close together and their distances can vary by very large amounts. Some groups of stars stand out but may be only part of a constellation and such groupings are called ‘asterisms’. So we will begin with possibly the best known one- The Plough. Start by facing north east and you will readily see The Plough high in the sky standing on its handle. It contains seven stars and the chart shows three of them named. The Plough is part of the constellation – Ursa Major- The Great Bear, but it takes a lot of imagination to see a bear and that region is mostly referred to as The Plough. In North America it is called the Big Dipper and perhaps here in the UK a better name in modern times would be ‘The Pan’. We said in the introduction that the stars rotate about the celestial North Pole and stars close to there never set but are visible all year round when the skies are dark. Stars like this are said to be circumpolar and Ursa Major is a circumpolar constellation. But note The Plough’s orientation carefully because as it continues on its circular journey it will appear upside down in six months’ time as it travels anti-clockwise about the north celestial pole.
            The constellations are used as signposts in the sky and enable us to engage in a fun activity called ‘star hopping’.
The two stars in the Plough, Merak and Dubhe, are called the pointers and a line from Merak to Dubhe continued onwards (shown in yellow on the chart) leads to Polaris- the Pole Star. The distance is about x5 the distance between Merak and Dubhe. Polaris is very close to the celestial north pole and easily found because although not very bright it is the only star visible in that area. Polaris is in the constellation- Ursa Minor- The Little Bear.                       Now consider a line from the star Alioth in the Plough, through Polaris and continued onwards for about the same distance again (also shown in yellow on the chart) until you see a bright star. It will be the central star of a W (or M) formation, an asterism in the constellation Cassiopeia- Queen Cassiopeia in Greek mythology. Most people see the W shape and call it Cassiopeia. The bright star was never given a name in Western or Middle Eastern culture so is referred to as gamma Cas. The convention is to name stars using the letters of the Greek alphabet and an abbreviated form of the constellation. Generally this is done in the order of brightness of the star but it is not a hard and fast rule. However this star has been given the name Navi, allegedly by the American astronaut Virgil (Gus) Ivan Grissom as an anagram of his middle name because it was used for navigation in the early space missions. A fitting tribute to someone who made the ultimate sacrifice for space exploration. The constellation Cassiopeia is also circumpolar and because it is directly opposite the Plough across the North Celestial Pole the two will have exchanged positions in six months so we will see Cassiopeia much better in November. Just imagine the two of them at the ends of a long pole rotating about the North Pole. Do have a look at them from month to month so that you become familiar with their orientation.
 
Something to look out for
As previously mentioned the planets are not favourably positioned for viewing at present but on the 24th of April Saturn, Mars, Venus and Jupiter are all in a line before dawn as the Sun rises in the east. I think I might just get up early to see that!
            However the elusive planet Mercury is making an evening appearance and will be at its highest point in the sky on Thursday 28th April. It will be well placed and shining at magnitude 0.2 but still challenging to see close to the horizon at sunset.
Clear skies.