With Winter quickly now upon us the night sky becomes magical. The planets start to do their merry dance intertwined with aeroplanes, satellites, comets, meteors, stars and even our closest galactic neighbour Andromeda 2.2 to 3 million light years away. All this with just the naked eye.
I am fortunate enough to live in a less densely populated part of Scotland but make no mistake even in the most densely populated of city's a lot can be gained from casting your eyes up to the sky. The international space station for example can be seen from several thousand locations in the world as it traverses the sky at 17,100mph. Jump on this link if you are intrigued http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/.
My primary tool for star gazing used to be a 'planisphere'. This is a little paper star chart with two adjustable discs that rotate across a common pivot, with this little baby you can display the nights sky for any time or date. May I add that I really sucked using the planisphere but just as I began to struggle with not having someone who could confirm if I was right or wrong along came technology to help me. My favourite app is 'Star Walk' for Apple IOS. This app uses the devices GPS, gyroscope and accelerometer to determine your location and as you point it to the night sky you get bombarded with more information than you can take in. From constellations to planets, large satellites and much more!
Thesec days I use them in conjunction with each other on the increasing rare opportunities I get to indulge in star gazing.
Here is the app if anyone is curious.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/star-walk-5-stars-astronomy/id295430577?mt=8
Named after the big wonderful ball of burning gas turning hydrogen into helium at a rate of 600 million tons every second our solar system is home to the most goldilocks of planets. Of course I am referring to planet earth or mother Gaia if you are a hippy. I find it impossible to look at the night sky on a clear night without getting a little lost in wonder. There is so much unknown yet what mankind has learnt about the universe around us is staggering and beyond anything that I could have imagined!
I have watched one particular star from afar. Its a good thing to be far away from this nasty piece of work his name is 'Betelgeuse'. We will call him Beattie for short.
Beattie is estimated to be about 640 light years away he is the 9th brightest star in the night sky With its distinct reddish colour and is the second brightest in the constellation Orion. Now what fascinates me about this red dude is his temper. This red 'supergiant' ninja boy is ready to start something. That something is thought to be catastrophic self destruction of himself and anything unlucky enough to be caught in his crossfire!
Beattie is a youngster, less than 10 million years old he got chucked out of his galactic neighbourhood of his birth place the 'Orion B1 Association'. Now this dude is a Kamikaze pilot on a tear. Beattie has been clocked at mind boggling speeds of 30 km/s, creating a bow shock over 4 light years wide! Now here is his main party trick he could burst into his 'supernova phase' becoming as bright as a full moon - and last for as long as a year. He could explode as a supernova anytime within the next 100,000 years or may have already done so bearing in mind he is so far away his light takes 640 years to get to Earth.
On average there is one Beattie going supernova per galaxy per century and there is something on the order of 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe!
To give you an idea of the power of a planet going supernova, if earth was less the 30 light years away from Betelgeuse we would all be saying our goodbyes when it exhausts its fuel and puts on it's show!
You can meet beattie any clear night with your naked eye. He is spreading his photons of light ready to give their energy up to the rods and cones of your retina if you would just look at him.
I enjoy pondering mankind's place in the universe and when searching for answers I love Neil degrasse Tyson's perspective. "We are star stuff"
This winter I urge you to look up to the sky and ask questions!
If you got this far please do yourself a favour and click on the link below!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QADMMmU6ab8
Namaste
Peter
