The Mighty Hunter

 My new phone, a Google Pixel 6A (and no they aren't paying for me to write this article!) has a night shooting mode on it, the first phone I've had that can do this.

To my delight, I've found that this has enabled me to dabble in some very basic astrophotography now that I can record brighter stars in the results. 

There is one constellation that is an obvious target because of this, because it has a number of bright stars in a small area, and that is of course the mighty hunter, Orion. 

The most magnificent constellation visible to Northern Hemisphere viewers, it really is one of the few constellations that can be said to resemble what it is meant to represent. The main group of seven stars you can imagine forming his belted tunic, with a smaller group to the right resembling perhaps an arm raising a shield, while a group to the left could be an arm raising a sword or club. 

The stars you can see in this photo represent some of the largest and most luminous stars that can be seen in the night sky, most remarkable of them being the famous Betelgeuse, seen here at the top left. It is a red hypergiant star that is expected to go supernova in some point in the near future in cosmological terms - in other words, within a few thousand years. When it does go bang, it will be bright enough to see in daylight, and to read by at night. 

You can just about make out the orange tint in this photo. 

Rigel, at the opposite corner is brighter and a rather different star - it is a blue supergiant that also may go supernova, but much further into history. Between them is the belt, Alnilam, Alnitak and Mintaka, all very luminous too. Amazingly, beneath them you can just make out a faint fuzz that marks Orion's sword, the nebula Messier 43 where new stars are being formed. 

If you get a clear night, do take a look, although you might have to stay up late at the moment - I took this photo at about 4am!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCRackeredNature 29.10.22

Cycling to Venus and the Moon

The close conjunction of Venus and the thin crescent moon last night captured a lot of attention from casual observers, and many pictures found their way into my twitter feed of this beautiful celestial conjunction in various settings. Over Salisbury cathedral, in a glowing twilight, over peaceful waters and quiet towns and farmer's fields.

My picture is a rather more urban capture from my ride home last night!

Also in the night sky, the dimming of the star Betelgeuse - don't even think of pronouncing it Beetle-Juice no matter how many times Brian Cox says it that way - in Orion has also attracted a lot of attention. Normally one of the ten brightest stars in the sky, this vivid orange-red star is typically easily identifiable as the left shoulder of Orion, the most distinctive constellation in the sky.

But in late 2019, it began to fade, and now in late January 2020 it has become fainter by a factor of 2.5. Now Betelgeuse's eventual fate as a supergiant star has long been thought to be exploding as a type 2 supernova, and there has been much speculation that this sudden fading is a precursor to its collapse and explosion.

I wish so much that this would happen in my lifetime - when it does so it will be as bright as the full moon for a few weeks and as I read today it would be the most significant event in the history of astronomy on this planet. But chances are it may still have the odd hundred thousand years to go.

Spectacular though it would be for us, for any civilisation within 50 light years of the star the resulting radiation from the explosion would destroy it utterly.

At 700 light years, we believe we are safe...

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 29.01.20

Skies Like Blood

After our horrendous weather, which never really got very horrendous up here in the Midlands, and the presence previously of the moon, I was finally able to get outside last night with the 10x50s for some deep sky stargazing.

It was cold, so why I had chosen to grab something cold, cylindrical and can-like out of the fridge was beyond me. Nevertheless, it helped brace me against a clear, breezy evening with an autumnal nip in the air.

By 1230am, the big autumn constellations are now starting to sink westwards – the mighty flying horse Pegasus is now flying so low the globular Messier 15 is no longer visible from my garden. Of the other winged constellations, Aquila is gone, but I can still see half of Cygnus from over the roof, and so last night observed Messier 39, perhaps my favourite binocular open cluster.

Overhead, the Perseus double cluster was naked eye visible, and of course I had to stop off at Kemble’s Cascade. Then I shifted position, and took in the open clusters of Auriga, all of them plainly visible. The mighty hunter is now visible, at least his burly shoulders, and I spent a fair few minutes taking in the intense vermillion colour of Betelgeuse. You can imagine the sky looking like it was on fire if that star goes supernova in our lifetime; the celestial vault would look like it was bleeding, the blood-light illuminating our skins with its crimson glow.

And then the ground begins to stir…

If any night is ripe for the undead apocalypse, it will be when Betelgeuse goes supernova…or is my imagination getting the better of me?

Copyright cream crackered nature 29/10/2013