THE SPRING NIGHT SKY
VIEW OF THE SKY LOOKING SOUTH AT 9:00 pm ON 1st APRIL
By April Orion is disappearing over the western horizon and being followed by Gemini (the twins) and Leo (the Lion). The two brightest stars in Gemini are Pollux and Caster the twins. Castor (the more northerly of the two) is an interesting star because it is not just a single star like our sun but a multiple system made up of six stars. Pollux has a companion which can be seen with a small telescope but a larger telescope will reveal a third star. All three stars revolve around each other every 380 years
Leo is one of the few bright constellations that actually looks like what it is named after. It is named after the lion that Hercules killed in Greek mythology. Regulus is the brightest star and is a large, very hot and bright star In Leo there are also some bright galaxies visible these are M65, M66, M95 and M96. They are faint and can only be seen with a telescope.
Ursa Major, The Great Bear or The Plough is almost directly overhead from spring to summer. The Plough is probably the most well known of all the constellations. It looks most like a saucepan with a handle and a pan. The two outside stars forming the pan are very useful because they are the pointers to the Pole Star (North Star) which is always in the direction of the north pole. The North Star can be used to find north if we are lost. Ursa Major is a circumpolar constellation, that means it can be seen all year round. It moves around the pole star making one circuit each year. The middle star in the handle is a double star and the fainter star can be seen with the naked eye in a clear night.
Just above the south horizon is the bright star Spica in the constellation of Virgo. All through, Virgo and Coma Berenices is a cluster of galaxies. Galaxies are huge swirling masses of hundreds of millions of stars. Our Sun which is a star is located in a Galaxy which we call the Milky Way. The Milky Way can still be seen early in the evenings in April but as the evenings begin to get lighter and the Milky Way moves further to the west each night, it becomes harder to see. See the shaded area on the right of the chart. We will have to wait until the Autumn to see it again.