How to find North
South is here somewhere.
How to find North
How to find North
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© 2008 Tedwill
If you are in the northern end of earth you would first look for the North star or Polaris.
There are a number of way of locating it.
First you could wait all night and see which star does not move. Polaris is currently located directly above the centre point of the earths rotation. So in this case it would appear to be in the same place all night.
Secondly, you could use the stars in Cassiopeia to point at Polaris. See the diagram.
Thirdly you could use the stars in the Ursa Major, (Great bear, or big dipper, or the plough ) to point the way as in the diagram.
Once you have found these constellations you will start to find your way around the sky.
See, already you know Polaris, The plough, The big dipper and Cassiopeia
From Polaris all directions are South.
There are one or two very identifiable constellations in the southern hemisphere. In particular
is the southern cross. Because it rotates around the south pole it is not often used for navigation. The star Alnilam, the center star in the belt of Oriaon can be seen and is at its highest at 10pm on December 10th.
Three of the stars in the Southern Cross are of the brightest in the night sky, Acrux is the 13th brightest in the night sky.
Interestingly, if you sight along the line cast by the two stars across the cross, they point directly to Betelgeuse in Orian.
The constellation is depected on the Australian flag
The constellation called Orion (The Hunter) is usually seen in mid sky at the end of the year. It is easily seen because it has three stars in a line fairly close together. These form the belt of Orion.
The stars in the belt are Alnitak, Alnilam in the middle and Mintaka at the other end. Orion has a few interesting features which can be seen with a small telescope or binoculars. There is the Horse Head Nebula as a red streak below Alnitak. See photo. Also under Alnilam is and fuzzy patch of light, that is the Great Nebula in Orion. This is a star making factory with well over 1000 new stars formed. It is 1,450 light years away from Earth. At the foot of Orion is a bright star, this is called Rigel and is the brightest in Orion. It is also the 7th brightest in the sky and is around 800 light years away from Earth. The second brightest is a red giant at the top of Orion, called Betelgeuse which is 427 light years away and is the 10th brightest star in the sky.
Alnilam (Epsilon Orionis) ia a large blue star and is the 30th brightest star in the sky. This star is important for navigation as it is easy to find from almost all over the world. It is one of 57 navigation stars. The stellar winds from this star reach upto 2000km/s, that is 7.2 million miles an hour.
One of the more spectacular sights in the night sky is the Horses Head Nebula. The Horsehead Nebula (also known as Barnard 33 or IC 434) is a dark nebula in the Orion constellation. The nebula is located just below Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. It is approximately 1,500 light years from Earth, and is approximately 3.5 light years wide.One of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky, it is part of a swirling cloud of dark dust and gases, shaped like a horse's head (hence its name). The red glow originates from hydrogen gas behind the nebula,ionized by the nearby bright star Sigma Orionis. The darkness of the Horsehead is caused mostly by thick dust, although the lower part of the Horsehead's neck casts a shadow to the left.