Night Watch

Look up overhead on any of these frosty winter's nights, and as long as you have a dark area away from direct lighting, you'll see the band of the Milky Way shining brightly. The bulge of the Milky Way will be at its biggest here, as we are looking towards the centre of our galaxy, towards the constellation of Sagittarius. Today, we recognize this band of light for what it is: the edge-on view of our own galaxy of stars. This is a fantastic area of sky to explore with binoculars. Vast areas of gas and dust, superimposed upon millions of countless stars await the observer. As you observe those tiny pinpoints of light, just remember that their light has undertaken a journey of 30,000 years to reach you.

Some of these objects are stellar nurseries; regions where clouds of gas are collapsing to give birth to new stars.

Others are at the other end of the stellar life cycle; big clusters of geriatric stars. One such cluster is M22, at about 10,000 light-years away. It contains half a million stars, all packed into a region of space only a few dozen light-years across. By comparison, a similar volume of space around our own solar system contains only a few hundred stars. M22 is a globular cluster. At more than 12 billion years of age, it's one of the oldest objects in our entire galaxy.

The constellation of Sagittarius represents an archer, however to most modern eyes, its brightest stars outline the shape of a teapot, with the handle to the left and the spout to the right. To see the Teapot the right way up, face south and then look straight up.

Imagine the combined glow of the millions of stars in the disk of our Milky Way as the steam escaping from the teapot. You need dark skies to see it; city lights overpower its subtle glow.

The brightest stars visible along the Milky Way are generally "local", that is, they lie within a few thousand light years of Earth. One very local star is Alpha Centauri; the brighter of the two Pointers, not far from the Southern Cross, now high in the southern sky. It's located only 4 and a quarter light years from Earth. A mere stones throw away from us. In comparison, the Hubble Space Telescope has photographed galaxies whose starlight left on its journey to the Earth a whopping 10,000 million years ago!

Shining brightly, low in the northeastern sky we find Vega, one the brightest stars in the sky and also one of the closest to us, at a distance of only 27 light years. The name Vega comes from ancient Arabic, and it means the "swooping eagle." Today, though, Vega's better known as the "harp" star, because it's in the constellation Lyra, the lyre or harp. It's the only musical instrument enshrined in the stars.

If you like observing planets in the evening sky, then July is for you. Four of the five naked eye planets can all be seen in the northwestern sky during the month. It will be a pleasure to watch the merry dance of the planets. Leading the way is the sparkling jewel that is Venus.

Look to the northwest in the evening twilight, soon after sunset, and a brilliant white star will catch your attention. That "star" is actually the planet Venus. Venus is spectacular. Constantly engulfed in a very dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide, its surface is forever hidden from our view. However, that dense cloud makes Venus' atmosphere very reflective, and hence Venus appears very bright in our sky. It outshines everything but the Sun and Moon. If you know where to look, you can see it in bright daylight.

Best time to start looking is mid-July. On the 15th July, about an hour after sunset, look for the thin crescent of a 3 day old Moon in the northwest. Below it, is the unmistakeable brilliance that is Venus. Above and to the right of the Moon, about 5 Moon diameters, you'll find red Mars, keep going along the same line, but not quite as far again, and you'll encounter yellowish Saturn.

Another great opportunity occurs on July 28th. This is your best opportunity to observe the most elusive of the naked eye planets, Mercury. Because of its very close orbit to the Sun, it never strays very far from it, and is lost in the Sun's glare. On this evening, just as twilight is ending, look low to the horizon and you will be greeted by a close pairing of the blue star Regulus and just above it, the orange hue of tiny Mercury. The view in binoculars, with that amazing colour contrast will be fantastic.

Higher in the sky will be Venus, followed higher still by Mars and Saturn getting closer. Don't let that closeness fool y ou. Mars will be 235 million kilometres from Earth, whilst Saturn sits a whopping 1508 million kilometres away!

The Moon is at Last Quarter on July 5th, New on the 12th, at First Quarter on the 18th, and Full on July 26th.