What’s In The Sky: Spring

As we enter spring the weather begins to warm and we find ourselves spending more time outdoors. Despite the clock change, the nights still draw in quickly, which makes spring a great time to indulge in a spot of stargazing.

Stargazing in spring gives us a last glimpse of the winter greats, such as Orion and Andromeda, as well as a chance to see the upcoming summer constellations of Vega and Cygnus. As well as these previews and encores, spring skies are dominated by a fantastic set of constellations in our evening skies.

In this blog we will highlight a couple of things that can be seen in our spring sky. Most of the objects we will talk about can be seen with just your eyes. Some objects will require a little more assistance. A good place to start is a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope, if you have access to one. If you don’t local astronomy and star gazing groups can be a great place to get involved in the hobby.

Leo the Lion

One of spring’s most prominent and recognisable constellations is Leo the Lion.

The ancient Greeks associated this pattern with the Nemean Lion, a mythical creature that featured heavily in the story of Hercules. The vanquishing of the lion was one of his twelve labours: twelve difficult tasks given to Hercules during his time serving the King of Mycenae.

The constellation of Leo is a popular one. Its bright stars make spotting it quite easy. In the spring, Leo is positioned high in the sky towards the south, with a distinctive backwards question mark that guides the eye to the rest of the stars.

Leo’s popularity is bested only by its history. It is thought to be one of the earliest recognised constellations. Evidence exists that suggests the pattern was recognised as early as 4000 BCE by the Mesopotamians. Despite recognising the constellation earlier than the Greeks, they still drew a lion pattern from the stars. It could be that this decision later influenced Greek stargazers.

The constellation of Leo also features in the 12 signs of the Zodiac. This collection of 12 star patterns was first highlighted by the Babylonians, to help form the first celestial co-ordinate system. The system allowed ancient astronomers to measure the position of planets against these reference points. We still refer to this system as the plane of the solar system passes through these signs, this gives us a quick reference guide to find the planets, Moon and Sun.

Leo is a great stargazing target because it marks the spot of many bright galaxies. The most famous of these is known as the Leo triplet, a small collection of three spiral galaxies M65, M66, and NGC 3628. The first two are easily viewable with a large pair of binoculars or a small telescope.

Boötes the Herdsman

In the evening spring sky, look to the east to find the constellation Boötes the Herdsman. This constellation is one of the 48 described by second century astronomer Ptolemy. It still features in the official list of reference constellations we use to navigate the night sky.

Many of Boötes’ stars are very bright, making it easy to spot in the night sky as a kite shaped pattern. When viewing Boötes our eyes are often drawn to the point of the kite shape, marked by the bright star Arcturus.

Another star in Boötes is not one star but actually two stars in a tight orbit around each other. Epsilon Boötis can be found just above and to the left of Arcturus (following the kite shape). It’s often known as Pulcherrima, or Latin for ‘most beautiful’, referring to the contrasting colours seen when viewing this object through a telescope. Pulcherrima is a binary star system where the primary star is a yellow-orange giant and the secondary is a brilliant blue main sequence star.

It is thought that as these stars age, the smaller, dimmer star will begin to consume material from the larger, brighter star. This will eventually cause them to switch roles, with the dimmest becoming the brightest.

Boötes sits in the Eastern sky at this time of year. A good way to find Boötes is to first look for Ursa Major (The plough). The handle of this pattern points towards the constellation of the Herdsman. The bright star Arcturus at the base of Boötes’ kite helps draw stargazers attention.

Arcturus is the fourth brightest star in the night sky, it is also one of the closer stars to our own solar system, sitting around 37 lightyears away. Study of Arcturus have shown that it is fairly similar to our Sun in terms of mass. However, it does appear to be older and has expanded considerably. Our ability to study Arcturus in detail will give us a good insight into what might happen to our own star as it begins to run out of fuel.

The spring season gives a great opportunity to try out some stargazing. One of the best things about it is that you don’t need any specialist equipment. While binoculars and telescopes can enhance your experience, you only really need an eye or two (we do, however, recommend a big mug of hot chocolate!).

However, if you would like a little extra help, why not pick up a ‘What’s in the Sky’ stargazing guide or pop along to one of our ‘Tour of the Night Sky’ planetarium shows the next time you visit the National Space Centre.  You’ll be an expert in no time.