All About Space Astronomer Book - 2014 UK

Spica in Virgo, the Virgin, the second largest constellation in the entire sky.

The main stars of Virgo are a “Y” shape. Southwest of Virgo, lower in the sky

you will be able to find the four stars making up the main quadrilateral of

Corvus the Crow. They are only between magnitudes two and three but their

pattern is distinctive.

Leo the Lion

High in the south we find the main spring constellation, Leo the Lion. Its

main stars make up a reverse question-mark pattern known as the Sickle.

The brightest star in the Sickle is Regulus of first magnitude, while Gamma

Arcturus sits at the bottom of a huge kite shaped pattern of stars that

represents the herdsman. Adjoining Bootes is Corona Borealis – the

Northern Crown. Easily identifiable because of the little semicircle of

stars of which the brightest is the second magnitude Alphekka. There is

one particularly interesting object in Corona Borealis, the variable star

R-Coronae Borealis. Generally it is on the fringe of naked-eye visibility, but

at unpredictable intervals it fades and becomes so faint that a telescope of

some size is needed to show it. This is because it accumulates clouds of

soot in its atmosphere, dims, and remains red-pink until the soot disperses.

Continue the line from the Great Bear's tail to Arcturus and you come to

[1] Regulus and Mars.

[2] M13 taken with a Canon

10D, 10 x 90 s, ISO 800, Median

Stacked Prime Focus Vixen FL-

102s, f9 refractor.

[3] The constellation Leo in the

Spring skies.

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SPRING (NORTHERN HEMISPHERE)

At the end of winter we begin to lose Orion, though some members

of the Hunter’s retinue are visible well after darkness. Ursa Major is

now almost directly overhead. Follow the line of the Great Bear’s tail

around and you will come to a brilliant orange star, Arcturus in Bootes,

the Herdsman, which is slightly above zero magnitude and therefore

fractionally brighter than Capella or Vega.

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Astronomer Book