Table Of ContentUSBORNE SPOTTER'S GUIDES
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Digitized by the Internet Archive
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Spotter's Guide to
THE NIGHT SKY
Nigel Henbest MSc FRAS
Illustrated by Michael Roffe
With thanksto Sue Becklake
Starcharts by Studio Briggs
This is aview through atelescope ofl
theGreat Nebula in the constellation
I
ofOrion. See where to look for it 00
USBORNE page 19; mark it off when you have
spotted it (page 27).
Contents
3 Howto usethis 53 Constellation
book legends
4 Observing theskies 54 Constellation quiz
8 Constellations 55 MakeaSun-spotter
26 Stars 56 Interplanetary
32 Galaxies puzzles
34 Empire of the Sun 57 Pronunciation guide
36 Planets 58 Planetariums
42 Comets 59 Glossary
43 Asteroids 60 Scorecard
44 TheMoon 63 Booksto read, clubs
47 Eclipses tojoin
48 Meteors 64 Index
50 Otherthingstospot
51 Artificial satellites
52 Taking photographs
Firstpublishedin1979by
UsbornePublishingLtd,
83-85SaffronHill,
LondonEC1N8RT.
©
1992,1985,1979byUsborne
PublishingLtd.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthis
publicationmaybereproduced,stored
inaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedby
anymeans,electronic,mechanical,
photocopying,recording,orotherwise,
withoutthepriorpermissionofthe
publisher.
PrintedinGreat Britain
UniversalEdition
ThenameUsborneandthedevices-are
IITradeMarksofUsbornePublishingLtd. |
How to use this book
$+ars
This book is an identification guide
to the wide range ofthings you can
see in the sky at night. Take it with
you when you go out spotting on a
clearnight. Notalltheobjectsinthis
book can be seen on any one night,
but during the year you should be Theze are just
©
able to spot most of those visible Some of if\c
fromwhereyoulive. Ihtogs you can
Some objects, like the stars, arc
see in ihe
very distant, while the planets,
comets and the Moon are much night
closer, though even the Moon is a skiez
long way away - over 380,000 km.
Afewofthelights1 inthenightsky,
like the aurorae, occur in the
Earth's atmosphere. This book
starts with distant sky sights and
then moves to ones closerto Earth
with descriptions to help you
identify them.
Read through the book inside
^^^^
the house beforeyougoout,soyou The Moon
knowroughlythe kindsofthingsto
look out for - how to recognize a
satellite, for example. Find out
which constellations are visible,
usingtheskymaponpage8(orpage
10 ifyou live in the southern hemi-
sphere). Look to see where the
planets will be, and ifthere will be Aurora
any meteorshowers.
Nexttomostofthethingsinthe like the more distant planets, can
book is a small blank circle. Each only be seen with powerful tele-
time you spot an object, make a scopessothesedonot havecircles
mark in the circle. Some things, to mark next to them.
Scorecard
Onrrrrimrfmwnfff)
At the end of the book is a score- i
card which gives you a score for iScorecard
eachobject you spot. \ commonor
easily recognized object scores 5
points; a \er\ rare or faint one is
worth up to 50 points. You can add
up your score after a night's spot-
ting, or at the cm\ of each week.
Observing
the skies
When you go out star-spotting trees, and, if you can, keep away
rememberto dresswarmly. Even in from street lights.
summer you will get cold quickly When you come out ofa brightly
when sittingstill,and inwinteryou lit house into adark night, youreyes
will need toweartwopairsofsocks, will take abouthalfan hourto adjust
two sweaters, a warm hat and to the dark. At first you will seejust
gloves. Some astronomers even the brighter stars, so wait a little
weartwo pairsoftrousers,oneover before searching for the fainter
the other. objects. To keep your eyes dark-
Adeckchairisacomfortableand adapted, use a red or a very dim
convenientplacetositwhileobserv- light to read this book while
ing the sky. Standing up soon observing. Bright light will make
becomes uncomfortable,and ifyou youreyes much less sensitive.
lie on the ground you may end up Don't have a hot drink before
wet from dew or frost. A mat will you go out, because it will, sur-
keepyourfeet warmeriftheytouch prisingly, soon make you feel cold.
the ground when you are sitting. Have one when you come in to
Chooseaspot inyourgardenwhere warm up,especially ifyouaregoing
your^sJcy-view is not blocked bv straight to±>ed.
lens covered
w)th red Bcetate
** shoes
Binoculars and telescopes
^Binoculars- 7xZO
* tiie is ideal
Refractor
telescope/
This
diagram
7xfo
Shows the
binocular*,
path of light
znlsrge this
much m +he telescope
You can sec most ofthe sky sights A telescope is more powerful than
in this book with your unaided binoculars, but more expensive.
eyes, but a pair of binoculars will and many of the cheaper ones are
show you much more. ofrather poor quality. Generally it
Binocularsarejusta pairoftele- is betterto buya pairofbinoculars
scopes,oneforeacheye.Telescopes than a cheap telescope at the same
magnify objects, and so they show price, ifyou have the choice. The
you more detail than the eye alone picturesabove and below show the
can see. A reasonablepairofbinoc- two types of telescope you could
ulars (7 x 50 are ideal) will reveal use. The refractor usesglass lenses
cratersontheMoon,andtheround to refract (or bend) the light. The
globe ofJupiter. reflectorusesa mirrorforthe same
Unfortunately binoculars will purpose.
also magnify the shaking of your
hands as you hold them, and the Reflector This diagram
image will wobble about. telescopy show* the
The large front lenses ofbinoc-
ulars gather much more light than path of light
your eyes, so the view through ratfs in the
binoculars is very bright. Some
stars are quite dazzling, and trf
binocularswillshowyoumanystars
whicharetoofaintforyourunaided
eyes to see. Curved
mirror
gathers and
refleers, lighf
WARNING Never,ever,lookattheSuneitherdirectly
(
rthroughbinocularsortelescope-youcouldeasily
lindyourself.
Our place in VW*)
/
Mercury
the Universe Sun Venus
North Pole Pay TheEarthisoneofnineplanetswhich
go around the Sun in circular paths,
called orbits. You can see above a
diagramoftheSolarSystem,whichis
thenameforthe Sun,planets,comets
and asteroids.
The Earth turns around once a day
and completes one revolution around
the Sun in a year. Keeping the Earth
companyisthe Moon, amuchsmaller
body, which circles the Earth once
every 27 days. It is the Earth's only
natural satellite, although since 1957
thousands of artificial satellites have
been launched by rocket to circle the
Earth. Most ofthe otherplanets have
naturalsatellites,andSaturnholdsthe
recordwithseventeenofthem.
Although the planetsandthe Moon
shine brightlyin the sky, theyareonly
N/ght reflecting light from the Sun; they do
ray* "^< notproducetheirownlight.TheSunis
the bright yellowone at the topofthe
picture.
The Earth rotates once
every 23 ho*r$ 56 minutes
#„»
ST'
f [Asteroids
\ ^-Mars PUtto
S 9dh*rn Uranu* NCfrnne
Earth Jupiter
The pictureaboveshowstheMilky
Waygalaxy,avastspiralofstarsand How it all began:
dust ofwhich the SolarSystem isa the Big Bang
member. Astronomers think that .%&
thereareabout100,000millionstars
in the galaxy. The red arrow shows
the position of the Solar System,
though on thisscale,theSun istoo
tiny to be made out.
Distancesbetweenstarsarevast •''
andaremeasured inlightyears,the
distance that light travels in ayear.
Light speed is just under 300,000
kilometres a second, soa light year
(LY)isabout10millionmillionkilo-
metres. The nearest star, Proxima Astronomers think the Uni-
Centauri, is 4.3LY away, while the verse began about 15,000
galaxy is 100,000LY across. million years ago in an
Beyond our galaxy, which you enormous explosion, called
can see in the night sky as a faint the Big Bang. Gas clouds
band oflight called the Milky Way, thrown out by the explosion
arehi11ionsofothersextendinginto turned into galaxies. Even
the furthest depths of space. The today all the galaxies are
nearest are the two Magellanic racing apart from each other
Clouds, visible in the southern as a result of this initial
hemisphere. They are between explosion.
170,000and 200,000LY away.
CONSTELLATIONS
Stars ofthe northern skies
On a clear night you can see about
3,000stars scattered across the sky.
Astronomersfindtheirwayaround
by grouping stars together into
patterns, likejoin-the-dot puzzles.
These 88 patterns, called constel-
lations, are always known by thejr
Latinnames;mostwerefirstnamed
thousands ofyears ago.
During the night, the sky seems
to rotate, carrying the constel-
lations slowly from east to west.
Infact, it istheEarthwhich isturn-
ing, causingsome constellationsto
rise and others to set.
You see different constellations
at different timesofthe year asthe
Earth moves around the Sun. Also,
people in the northern hemisphere
cannot see the stars above the
South Pole and vice versa, because
ofthe Earth'ssphericalshape.
The sky map on the right shows
the brightest stars visible from the
northern hemisphere. The stars to
be seen from the southern hemi-
sphereareonpage 10.
How to usethestarmap
Findthemonth inthemapmargin;
turn the book around until the
current month is lowest. Sitting in
your deckchair, face south and
look forthestarsasthey appearon
the map. You will be able to see
most of the stars shown in the
centre and lower part ofthe map.
Spot the prominent constel-
lations, then turn to the page
numbers marked to find the fainter
constellations which are not
marked here. The dashed lines
show the areas covered b\ each Stars to be seen from one place in
double-page constellation map. autumn,lorexample,arecompletely
1 he two small pictures show how different from those seen from the
theviewchangesovertheyear The same place in winter.
