Sunday, January 23, 2011

Orion Reclining


One of my bucket list points this trip is to see the southern satellite galaxies- the Magellanic clouds. I'll have to check my star charts before I get to Bali, but I'm hoping they'll be visible. There are already visible changes to the sky.
 Orion, the hunter (you might recognize it as the constellation with the three stars in a row, making the hunter's belt) lies sideways in the sky. In Yukon he is an upright warrior, grappling with a lion. Sirius rides much higher than in Yukon, while the Big Dipper only makes about 10 degrees above the northern horizon. I spot one very-hard-to-see constellation, Cetus, through our train window. I'll have to get into a real dark area with my iPod sky charts to take a few more constellations off my checklist.
  More obviously, the sun, Moon, and planets rise up, fast, and ascend far higher into the sky than back home. Skywatching will be a joy on this trip.

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