What can be seen in the evening sky? It depends mainly on the time of year. Some circumpolar constellations can be seen all year round: one of these is Ursa Major, the Great Bear, which includes the “Plough”. Others come and go: Orion, for example, can only be seen in the winter. The sky-maps given here show which stars are visible in the evening, for each month of the year. They are drawn for St.Andrews, Fife (latitude 56.3 degrees north), but they apply to much of central Scotland. |
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General sky-maps:
Meteors
On any clear night, we may see the occasional meteor or “shooting-star”, as tiny specks of interplanetary débris burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. Sometimes the Earth travels through a cloud of this dust, and we get a meteor-shower; in this case, the meteors all seem to spread out from a single radiant point. Some of these monthly star-maps include information about meteor-showers occurring in those months: the position of the radiant point, and the approximate date of the shower’s peak. Sporadic (non-shower) meteors may be seen at any time, on any night, in any part of the sky. |
More about the MoonThe
Moon changes
shape, and appears in different parts of the sky, at different times of
the day or night. But it’s not too hard to understand why it
does
this, and to know when and where to look for it.
Here is a general guide to how the Moon behaves at different phases. More detailed information is available for January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December. (The Moon’s orbit also goes through longer-term variations, which can give rise to more subtle phenomena such as a major lunar standstill.) The Moon’s phases repeat on approximately the same dates every third year. These calendars show the phase of the Moon for each day from the start of July to the end of the following July:
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Prepared
by Fiona
Vincent. Please
e-mail me with any comments or suggestions. |