What Northern Hemisphere Astronomers Are Missing From the Southern Hemisphere 104
creimer (824291) writes The New York Times Sunday Review has an interesting article on the astronomical night life when viewed from Sao Paulo, Brazil, featuring a treasure trove not visible to astronomers in the Northern Hemisphere: "Yet the Southern Hemisphere claims the three brightest stars of the night sky: Sirius, Canopus and Alpha Centauri. Canopus belongs to the Carina constellation, notorious for two things: the Carina Nebula, four times as large and even brighter than the famous Orion Nebula, and the star system Eta Carinae, which is expected to burst as a supernova or hypernova sometime in the next thousand years. (A scientist told the BBC that the explosion would be so bright that you would see it during the day, and you could even read a book by its light at night.) Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, the 11th-brightest star, are called "The Pointers," as they form a line in the sky to the constellation Crux (the Southern Cross). Crux is the smallest of all 88 constellations but one of the most distinctive. It is visible at practically any time of the year in all of the Southern Hemisphere."
Erh... I don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, yes, it's true. And yes, it's interesting. But ... news?
Open clusters (Score:2)
In 2008 I visited an observatory in Dubbo, NSW, Australia run by Peter Neilson. There were several open cluster visable that were more spectacular than any visible from the Northern Hemisphere. Half the sky is not visible from the US so we should not assume that we got the better half. :)
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Umm, no.
New Orleans is 30 degrees north latitude. Which means that we can see down to 60 degrees South latitude (yah, 60 S is sitting on the horizon and the viewing is terrible, but it's still visible).
Which means all we're really missing the the south polar skies. WAAAAAY less than half the sky.
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Tonight, look in the Northern Hemisphere winter sky for Orion's Belt, the line of three stars in the center of the constellation.. That is right on the celestial equator. Everything below it in the sky is the southern celestial hemisphere.
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Re:Erh... I don't get it (Score:5, Funny)
You might have noticed it's a slow news week...
A young Brazilian woman discussing science - what's not to like?
Re:Erh... I don't get it (Score:5, Informative)
I mean, yes, it's true. And yes, it's interesting. But ... news?
Yeah, not really. In Australia I have known for decades that we have a great opportunity for our telescopes because we see portions of the sky that are out of sight for all you Northern Hemisphereans. Hardly news. That is also why bases in Australia are very useful during space flights, when the capsules or whatever go out of range for the Nrothern Hemisphere.
Oh, and it's summer here - a balmy 25 degree Celsius (=77 degrees F). And I live three minutes walk from the beach ....
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Yeah, and it's also *tomorrow* :))
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So wanna marry so I can get my citizenship?
/ Swedish male at somewhat worse years (35)
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As an American, I wonder... how do you do Christmas in warm weather?
At the beach!
Seriously, I live in a sub-tropical climate in the USA and for years one of the biggest conundrums we had was what to do with Xmas stockings when most houses didn't have fireplaces!
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As an American, I wonder... how do you do Christmas in warm weather? Or do you just do Christmas in July?
Couldn't we just get some mad scientists to invent something to rotate the Earth 180 degrees? Or if they're really mad, 360 degrees.
A: yes, we do Christmas in July (well, some of us do) ... and Christmas in December - so two Christmases, if you want
B: we put fake frost on shop windows, sing songs about sleighs and reindeer, and wear shorts and T-shirts and go to the beach and get sunburnt. I am not used to your wintry Christmas, so I have nothing to miss.
C: the world has already been rotated 360 degrees by mad scientists - didn't you get the email?
D: how do you do July 4th in warm weather? July is cold, and when we used to have "cracker
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Oh, and it's summer here - a balmy 25 degree Celsius (=77 degrees F). And I live three minutes walk from the beach ....
It's winter in Florida, but yesterday's high was 80 degrees F. And nowhere in the state is more than a 2-hour drive to the beach.
Winter isn't what it used to be.
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It was a balmy 70 something here yesterday too. You don't need summer time to have warm temperatures in North Florida.
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It was a balmy -7 here yesterday. Warmest Christmas ever.
I mean, sure, we have white Xmas, but where's the meter long ice stalactites hanging from the rooftops? How am I supposed to get into the Christmas spirit when my breath doesn't freeze while caroling?
Re:Erh... I don't get it (Score:5, Funny)
In 1766, the Royal Society commissioned Lt. James Cook to command H.M. Bark Endeavour to sail to the South Pacific to witness the transit of Venus across the sun from the southern hemisphere, where it would be visible. On this voyage he and his crew would become the first Europeans to see the East Coast of Australia and New Zealand.
In the closing days of 2014, the news reaches slashdot.
Re: Erh... I don't get it (Score:3)
If he was trying to observe the transit of Venus at night I doubt clouds were the problem. He might have had more success if he stayed on his own side of the planet.
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It's easier to observe during night. Less sun-glare.
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And in more breaking news just to hand... recent archaeological studies have unearthed evidence [wikipedia.org] that European discovery of
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Aren't some of the most powerful observatories in Chile? What they are missing?
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The three largest telescopes are in the northern hemisphere. But there are big observatories in both the north and the south. A lot of them are in Hawaii, which is decently close to the equator, so it gets pretty good all around views.
The the next two super telescopes are already under construction, ESO's EELT in Chile, and the TMT in Hawaii.
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Simple: Hemisphere Envy
"Crux is the smallest of all 88 constellations"... (Score:5, Insightful)
...but, in terms of widely recognized asterism shape, Delphinus and Sagitta are both smaller. Sure, as the sky is officially divvied up and assigned to constellations, Crux gets the smallest area -- but those divisions seem about as respectable as gerrymandered congressional districts in the US.
Re:"Crux is the smallest of all 88 constellations" (Score:5, Informative)
Crux is very useful for navigating at night. From wikipedia:
In the Southern Hemisphere, the Southern Cross is frequently used for navigation in much the same way that the Pole Star is used in the Northern Hemisphere. Alpha and Gamma (known as Acrux and Gacrux respectively) are commonly used to mark south. Tracing a line from Gacrux to Acrux leads to a point close to the Southern Celestial Pole.[3] Alternatively, if a line is constructed perpendicularly between Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, the point where the above-mentioned line and this line intersect marks the Southern Celestial Pole. Another way to find south, strike line through Gacrux and Acrux, 3 1/2 times the distance between Gacrux and Acrux, directly below that point is south.
Re:"Crux is the smallest of all 88 constellations" (Score:4, Informative)
As you might imagine, there is a section specifically on Crux:
In your mind, draw a straight line through the axis of the Cross, through the tip and across the sky. You will find the arrow is pointing at another bright star. You cannot fail to identify this star, Achernar, because it is the only first-magnitude star in that part of the sky. Approximately halfway along the imaginary line between the cross and Achernar is the south celestial pole... Once you have established where the celestial pole is, you can determine your latitude. The celestial pole is always a number of degrees above the horizon equal to the latitude at which you are standing. Surprisingly, you don't need complex equipment to make this measurement. Polynesian navigators used a notched stick held at arms length, or sometimes nothing more than the outstretched hands and fingers.
Sizes of Constellations (Score:5, Insightful)
The phrase "smallest of all 88 constellations" really irks me. Constellations aren't real things, they're imaginative descriptions of patterns people see to make it easier to remember which stars are which. There's at least one constellation "The Triangle*" which is smaller, or if you allow two-star constellations, "those two faint dots over there" is even smaller.
(*Yes, I stole that The Triangle from Terry Pratchett; it's the name of a Discworld constellation.)
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Constellations aren't real things, they're imaginative descriptions of patterns people see
In astronomical terms, a constellation is one of the 88 areas of the sky defined by the International Astronomical Union. What you're describing are asterisms.
Every point in the sky is in a constellation, and a constellation is normally named after an asterism in it. Some rather vague asterisms and their associated constellations were designated in modern times to fill in the far southern sky where the ancients hadn't designated any -- like Telescopium.
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There's at least one constellation "The Triangle*" which is smaller, or if you allow two-star constellations, "those two faint dots over there" is even smaller.
(*Yes, I stole that The Triangle from Terry Pratchett; it's the name of a Discworld constellation.)
You may have stolen it from Pratchett, but it already exists in astronomical canon [wikipedia.org].
It boggles my mind that astronomers picked this particular set of three stars, and no other, to call "The Triangle". There are plenty of sets of three not-particularly-colinear stars that deserve the title, from very large scales (the Summer Triangle [wikipedia.org]) to much smaller scales (Orion's head [wikipedia.org]).
Then again, the figures people see in the sky are mostly baffling to me. Give humans a random sensory stimulus, and we can't help but inven
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The Southern Cross appears on the national flags of many countries in the Southern hemisphere. It features prominantly on both the New Zealand and Australian flags, causing confusion for people unfamiliar with them.
Flags depicting the Southern Cross: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F... [wikipedia.org]
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Always have to go one better, bloody Aussies
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Not much I'd Say (Score:1)
Night sky is pretty shitty from Mauritius. I use GoSkyWatch planetarium iOS App and to match what I see in the sky, I set the illumination slider to 3.2. Yes that's what I see at midnight pitch black from my shitty location.
I'm planning a trip to Chile (Score:5, Interesting)
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I, too, have had a strong desire to some day make a trip to the southern hemisphere to view these amazing sights. It'll be so amazing!
Sirius (Score:2)
Isn't Sirius observable in the Northern Hemisphere as well? Why the article sounded as if you can only see it in the Southern Hemisphere?
Re:Sirius (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, it's visible from most of the earth, with the only exception being really far north, north of the Arctic Circle. In the northern hemisphere it's considered part of the Winter Hexagon [wikipedia.org].
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Here in Washington state, both Orion and Sirius stay below the horizon during the summer. For me, the first fall sighting of Orion - usually low in the eastern sky, often while the weather is still mild - serves as a strong affirmation that summer is truly over and winter is on the way.
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Orion is a winter constellation in the north. You are only missing out if you are too wimpy to go outside in the winter. :)
But this is the case for anywhere, you need to observe year-round if you want to see everything.
I just wish I could see the stars! (Score:4, Informative)
The light pollution where I live is so bad that only a few stars are visible on a clear night. I frequently wish all the street lights could be turned off for a change. I doubt that the switch to LED street lights will improve things. In fact, I imagine it will make things worse for the local observatory (Lick) since it is relatively easy to filter out sodium.
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It would be nice. Fortunately I don't have to drive more than an hour or so to get a clear night sky but I do miss the sky from when I was young, before all the land was built up.
Emission spectroscopy (Score:5, Interesting)
And the wavelengths the LEDs are putting out - emission spectroscopy is what you are looking for.
One positive is a lot of the new lights have fittings that reflect the light more in the direction where it is useful. It's easier to design such things for lights that are not very hot.
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Heck, I've been to places I'd be happy to see the sky, the pollution is so bad. When the sun can be mistaken for an orangish moon, dim and hard to see, and there are no clouds, it's a sign. A sign of the Apocalypse!
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All visible (Score:1)
You can see all those stars in the Northern Hemisphere... some of the time,
some places. The one that's really trouble for Americans is Alpha Centauri.
Key West or Hawaii are examples of where you should be able to see it.
The real pleasure, as the article says & the picture shows, is the Milky
Way, & the Magellanic Clouds. Pronounce the "g" in Magellan hard
(like "get") if you want someone in Latin America to understand what
you're looking for. And Alpha Centauri? That's Rigel Kent.
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Neither his native Portuguese, Magalhaes nor the Spanish transliteration Magallanes feature a 'ge' spelling, so we can assume the English got it wrong.
Maddie Magellan pronounces her surname with a hard g in Jonathan Creek; that's good enough for me!
See nothing (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, the majority of humans now live in urban areas, and see little or nothing of the night sky at all, whether northern or southern. Perhaps I'm taking this a step too far, but would it be possible that we'll see a continuing decline in interest and support for astronomy and space technology as more and more voters and influential people grow up and live their lives without ever really seeing the skies?
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Probably not. GLONASS is a recent addition to the smartphones. It is space technology. They also want to use satellite to track the planes, rather than having to pick up the black boxes when bad things happen. I think people will interact with space technology more often. I think at least the interest in Earth-bound space technology will increase.
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As someone who got into back-yard astronomy a year or so ago, I can tell you that it's not so much the problem seeing anything as just never having looked.
I live in London. Way inside the boundaries of the M25, the motorway that circles London and distinguishes "Greater London" from the green belt which surrounds it. I have for most of my life. I live in the middle of a large town in London, it's complete suburban sprawl and the parks are the only break in it.
From my back-yard (which joins onto the back
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What I tried to say was more or less that without regular exposure to the night skies, fewer and fewer people will be interested in ever looking. Just seeing the skies clear skies once or twice will give you a "wow!" experience. But it's only once that pretty surface is old and familiar to you that you start asking deeper questions about what you're seeing.
I think the same thing is happening in other fields. Naturalists, or green biologists, may be losing mind share to lab biology and to other fields - in p
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And as humans become more and more urban, then fields such as astronomy will gradually lose mindshare. Regrettable but probably unavoidable.
Maybe one day we'll solve this light pollution problem. We're already making minor inroads into it by going to more efficient lighting and paying more attention to reflector use and design.
And (Score:2)
You can also eat fresh strawberries and go swimming on Xmas day
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Hey, you can do that up here too... as long as you don't mind freezing your balls off.
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I don't know if I've actually gone swimming in the Pacific on Xmas day, but I've certainly done it right around it. The water is actually warmer then, but it's cold as shit all year anyway so who cares? Then you get out and get dressed quick because it's windy.
No North Star or Big Dipper in the So Hemi (Score:2)
suck it southern astronomers!
Been there, done that (Score:4, Interesting)
Heading south is a very good thing for astronomers to do. It's like visiting another planet: lots of new stars and stuff, and the familiar constellations are all upside down.
I've observed from Australia, New Zealand and the Cook Islands. My first view of the Eta Carinae region was from St. Kilda Beach in Melbourne. My first view of the Magellanic Clouds was from a highway rest area just south of Echuca, Victoria. One night at a motel in Forbes, NSW, I needed the bathroom in the wee hours and padded out to have a look. I knew the Sagittarius Milky Way would be out at that time of the night, but I couldn't find it at first. It was directly overhead.
Of course I went to Parkes [csiro.au]. A nerd's gotta do what a nerd's gotta do. :-)
I'm watching Top Gear in Patagonia, and while Argentina has better scenery, Australia has better weather. And much better roads.
...laura
wtf (Score:2)
Scorpius (when did the name change?) is quite visible from Europe. It's easy to spot as it's the only constellation that actually looks like what it's supposed to be.
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I submit that Triangulum, the triangle, does indeed look exactly like a triangle. So that makes at least two. The image of Orion, the hunter, is also very easy to visualize.
I do not know what you are talking about regarding the "name change" of the constellation Scorpius, it has been called that for all of the modern era. Are you confusing it with the astrological sign Scorpio?
I found it odd that the writer asserted that the only thing she missed from the Northern sky was the Big Dipper. She is also missing
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I submit that Triangulum, the triangle, does indeed look exactly like a triangle. So that makes at least two.
As does any grouping of three stars.
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We can see all of Scorpius from Arizona, and all the way down to just above Crux.
I was thinking about a trip (Score:2)
but then I read "in the next thousand years" so I figure I don't have to immediately plan a trip to that portion of the planet real soon.
Other than that, it would be interesting event unless there's tons of radioactive particles or a gamma ray burst (can may be nasty).
And to think last time of a visible supernova was when Europeans spend all their time doing religious reading and writing, and Chinese did very little documentation (or if they did it got lost in bureaucracy of those dynasties).
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Except... (Score:3)
...that actual astronomers DO constantly use the equipment mounted in the southern hemisphere for observing.
Perhaps the article would have made more sense if instead of astronomers, she'd said 'stargazers' - people who just enjoy looking at stars as opposed to actual astronomers?
Notorious? (Score:2)
Canopus belongs to the Carina constellation, notorious for two things
I do not think that means what you think it means.
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Canopus belongs to the Carina constellation, notorious for two things
I do not think that means what you think it means.
Dictionary.com:
Definition 2: publicly or generally known, as for a particular trait
I think it does mean what the summary writer thought it meant. (I know correct summaries are a surprise here.)
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Dictionary.com:
Definition 2: publicly or generally known, as for a particular trait
I suspect definition 1 (widely and unfavorably known) would be the one that would be inferred by the overwhelming majority of readers.
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Huh? (Score:2)
Sitting bright and pretty, right there in Canus Major.
They aren't sirius, are they?
Well, that's pretty obvious (Score:2)
What Northern Hemisphere observers are missing from the Southern Hemisphere?
All of them.
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I live in Antigua, 17N, we just did a star gazing night out and all the stars mentioned in the article are quite visible.
I've observed from Costa Rica, at 10 degrees north, and the bulk of the southern hemisphere goodies are indeed observable. By a pleasant coincidence, the prime observing season for the Centaurus/Carina Milky Way (February to April) coincides with the dry season in much of the country. The Large Magellanic Cloud, however, is down in the murk from Costa Rica. The Small Magellanic Cloud and 47 Tucanae are worse. If you want to really observe the Magellanic Clouds you need a southern hemisphere location.
Many