All welcome!
On Friday 15 September 2023, if the weather suits, we should have a good evening for looking at the night sky. Backup days (if it’s cloudy or rainy) are the Saturday and Sunday.
Meet on the beach by the Manga Pirau Street entrance at 7 pm. Dress warm. Bring binoculars if you have them, but you don’t need them, red torch (or put red cellophane over an ordinary torch), and maybe your phone to try taking photos.
What we might look at:
- Mars low in the West
- Scorpius in the West with Antares and Te Matau a Māui (in the north, the tail of Scorpius is interpreted as the fish hook of Māui) and the Milky Way
- Vega in the North (the second-brightest northern star after Arcturus); Altair in the NNE
- Saturn in the NE
- Also: Arcturus, Large & Small Clouds of Magellan, Southern Cross, Milky Way (spans the sky from north to south. It is brightest and broadest overhead in Scorpius and Sagittarius), Canopus in the south (the brightest star in the sky).
Saturn appears as a cream-coloured star midway up the eastern sky. West of overhead is orange Antares marking the Scorpion's body. The Scorpion's tail curls above it like a back to front question mark. Orange Arcturus twinkles red and green as it sets in the northwest. Crux, the Southern Cross, and the Pointers are in the south-west. Canopus twinkles like a diamond near the southern horizon. Vega shines on the north horizon. The Milky Way spans the sky from north to south.
Handy links
- Take night mode photos with your iPhone camera - Apple Support (NZ)
- How to take photos with night mode on all Android phones
- Stellarium Web Online Star Map
- Sky Guide on the App Store (I use the free version)
- Book: Southern nights : the story of New Zealand's night sky from the southern lights to the Milky Way by Naomi Arnold (available at the Levin Library).
