Spot the stars – Sunil Kumar Behera
Winter has arrived with Star gazing and Night Sky Watching opportunities, and to spot lots of constellations, nebulae, and galaxies. Let’s spot them in the night sky. Grab your telescope or pair of binoculars to see amazing star clusters. Even if you don’t have a telescope or pair of binoculars, you can spot stars and constellations through your smartphone camera. Manual mode in camera is available in almost all the smartphones. To learn how to take amazing photographs of stars, please refer to my feature ‘Astrophotography with your Smartphone’ that appeared in TCP on 22/07/2020.
You can take beautiful photographs of constellations like Orion, Taurus, Gemini, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Pleiades, etc.
Pleiades is an open star cluster located about 410 light-years from earth. It consists of more than 800 stars. It is like a tiny dipper in the sky near Taurus constellation. It is also known as ‘seven sisters’ or ‘M45’.
The Taurus constellation is one of the largest constellations in the northern hemisphere. It is prominent. The two star clusters cloveseryst to it are Pleiades and Hyades.
Red giant Aldebaran is the brightest star in this constellation. It is the best target for stargazing since it contains more than 8 different types of celestial bodies.
Orion is one of the most prominent constellation that can be seen throughout the world. It’s brightest stars are Rigel and the red giant Betelgeuse. Orion’s sword is not made of stars – it is actually Orion nebula.
Spot different stars and constellations in the night sky. Send us your photographs of stars or constellations, and tell us how you captured them. It is so exciting to know how to locate some constellations.You could use sky chart or sky map smartphone application to help you do so.
*Happy Stargazing*
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