What will Scorpius look like for the Big Aussie Star Hunt? August 14, 2009
Posted by astroed in Astronomy.trackback
Starting on Saturday 15th August and running through to the 23rd August, Australians are encouraged to take part in the Big Aussie Star Hunt, this year’s National Project for National Science Week. As I’ve already discussed a key component of this program is getting people across the nation to go outside at night and observe the constellation of Scorpius. They can then compare their naked-eye observations with a series of eight diagrams to find which one best matches with what they see then log their results online via a simple form on the website. With enough observations from across the nation we hope to be able to map out light pollution.
On the website you can download some excellent sky maps and finder charts prepared by Kym Thalassoudis of Skymaps.com. There are eight charts showing what Scorpius looks like at different limiting magnitudes.
Now just to make the observations even more interesting it seems that a couple of stars in Scorpius are going through an interesting phase. Mike Simonsen, regular astronomy blogger and variable star observer reports that both Antares (alpha Scorpii) and delta Scorpii are much dimmer than normal at present. Read this story, the Scorpion’s Heart and Eye Grow Faint on his blog to learn more than go out and check for your yourself next week.
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