February 2022
The Twins (or Gemini) is an easy constellation to spot because of its two bright points of light to the left of Orion and higher up in the sky. These are the stars Castor and Pollux which form the heads of The Twins. The Romans raised them into the skies as Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome. In Greek myth Castor was mortal but Pollux was not. When Castor was struck down, Pollux refused to accept his immortality unless Castor could share this too. Their fate was to alternate days between the world of the Gods and the underworld. (Hades)
Looking South-East 1st Feb 2022 at 10pm (or 15th at 9pm)
Above is the view you should see. Can you spot other constellations by comparing this photograph with the sky map above? (Image taken from Embsay.)
A closer look shows that it resembles a rectangle on its side.
Castor, viewed with an unaided eye, appears as a single point. With a small telescope two stars can be seen, but in reality it is an amazing system of six stars (3 pairs of binaries), whilst Pollux is one giant star - nine times our sun’s diameter and thirty times as bright!
Central to the star map above there is an open cluster, M35, mostly all hot blue stars but some are orange and yellow. (Photo below.)
Photo N.A.Sharp/NOAO/AURA/NSF
By looking at the cluster and from the stars present, it is clear that it is a relatively young group of stars at 175 million years. Depending on the power of your binoculars or telescope, you should see either a patch of light or a rich field of hundreds of stars! At the bottom right is NGC 2158, a much older cluster of about 2 billion years old.
James Webb Space Telescope Update
Looking back to my previous article you will have seen a link that gives you the latest information on the progress of the James Webb Telescope. Webb's Launch GSFC/NASA It is now just over 30 days after its launch and has arrived at its destination. When operational, expect some astounding discoveries; it has much better eyes! It has a six and a half metre mirror as compared to Hubble’s two and a half. It is powerful enough to detect the heat of a bumble bee on the moon I know that’s not likely to happen!). It is hoped it will catch the light of the first galaxies that were formed and also continue the search for other worlds. For now though, mission control will spend the next 2 months activating and fine-tuning the instruments on board. We hold our breath as the mirrors are focused because when its predecessor, Hubble, was launched, an error of one fiftieth of the thickness of a human hair in the mirror caused it to have blurred vision! Subsequent missions by the space shuttle eventually corrected this.
Dark Sky Festival
As we feel more comfortable about going out and about, there are places that are out in the open and are naturally ‘socially distanced’. This includes a whole month of events in North Yorkshire that centre around the seventh year of its own Dark Sky Festival. Late in 2020 the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors were designated an International Dark Sky Reserve. Below is an overview link to the 2022 festival, followed by two specific links to the North Yorks and Dales events.
Our dark sky is very precious and we all should try to protect it for ourselves and our grandchildren. There are many people who will never see the glory of a beautiful moonless dark sky. So save on electricity and turn unnecessary outside lights off please.
For us in Embsay and Eastby…. just a reminder how wonderful a dark sky can be, here’s that video again!!!!…
New Moon 1st February
Full Moon 16 Feburary
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