Brave cold weather for sky’s beauty

The catch 22 of stargazing this time of year is that while the you can have some of the clearest skies and some of the best and brightest of constellations it’s hard to motivate yourself away from that warm fireplace to take in the winter wonderland of the night skies.

There’s also Murphy’s law of winter stargazing that clearly states the beauty of the heavens is inversely proportionate to how many layers you have to put on to go outside.

January skies are very pleasing to the eyes but tough on the skin. Not only should you dress for it, you should also be prepared with things like a big thermos of something warm.

One of my secret weapons against the cold is the instant heat hand and feet warmers that work up to seven hours. You can buy these at most sporting goods stores. I never go under the stars without them this time of year.

Once armed with your winter survival gear, get out and enjoy the best stargazing of the year over Butler.

You’ll notice the eastern half of the sky has many more bright stars than the west. Over the last couple of months the last of the summer constellations have slowly sunk lower and lower in the west, not to be seen again in the evenings until next June.

Of course they didn’t move, we did. As the Earth continues its annual circuit around the sun, the nighttime side has now turned away from the stars of summer.

The dominant constellation of autumn, Pegasus the giant winged horse, is still hanging in there in the west. Look for the distinct great square, actually a rectangle that makes up the torso of the mighty flying horse.

With a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope, scan about halfway between the Pegasus and the bright “W” that makes up the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen, and see if you can spot the Andromeda Galaxy. It’s our Milky Way galaxy’s next-door neighbor.

Honestly all you’ll really see is a faint little smudge, but that little smudge is a whole other galaxy, a little larger than our own, nearly two and a half million light-years away. If you’re new to astronomy, one light-year equals almost 6 trillion miles!

Another holdout from this past autumn is the might and bright planet Jupiter, the king of the planets in our solar system.

It’s the brightest starlike object in the southwestern sky. Even though it’s about 100 million miles farther away from our backyards than it was in September, it’s still a worthy target for that new Christmas telescope.

Through moderate to small scopes you can resolve the disk of the 88,000 mile wide planet and up to four of its bright Galilean moons as they orbit the great planet in periods of two to 17 days.

You might also see some of Jupiter’s cloud bands made of gases like ammonia and methane.

You might even see the great red spot storm if it’s clear enough and the side of Jupiter where the red spot is happens to be facing your way. Despite the fact that it’s a behemoth planet, it spins on its axis much faster than out Earth. It makes one complete rotation in less than 10 hours.

The eastern sky is lit up like a Christmas tree. There are many bright stars and constellations. I call this part of the sky Orion and his gang.

Orion’s the brightest of the gang and at first glance the mighty hunter that looks like a sideways bow tie. But without too much imagination, you can see how that bow tie resembles to torso of very big man.

The three bright stars that make up Orion’s belt are in a perfect row and jump right out at you. There are also the bright stars Rigel, at Orion’s knee, and Betelgeuse, at his armpit.

By the way, keep your eye on this star because sometime in the next million years Betelgeuse could explode in a tremendous supernova explosion.

Elsewhere in Orion’s gang, there’s Auriga, the retired chariot driver with the bright star Capella. There’s also Taurus the bull with the little arrow pointing to the right, which outlines the face of the bull with the reddish star Aldebaran marking the angry red eye of the beast.

Just above Taurus are the Pleiades, a beautiful bright star cluster that resembles a tiny Big Dipper. The Pleiades Star Cluster is made up of more than 100 young stars, probably less than 100 million years old.

If you stay out after 8:30, you’ll see a really bright star on the rise in the southeast. That’s Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky at any time throughout the year.

If you draw a line through Orion’s belt and extend it to the lower left, it will point right at Sirius, a little more than 8 light-years away.

Sky map instructions

To use this map, cut it out and attach it to a stiff backing. Hold it over your head and line up the compass points on the map to the compass points on the horizon where you’re observing from. East and West on this map are not backward. This is not a misprint. I guarantee that when you hold this map over your head, east and west will be in their proper positions. Also use a small flashlight and attach a red piece of cloth or red construction paper over the lens of the flashlight. You won’t lose your night vision when you look at this map in red light.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, “Pennsylvania Starwatch,” available at his website www.lynchandthestars.com and at bookstores.