Download Northam Sky July 2009

What's in the Northam Sky
Around mid July just after sunset in Northam if you look due east and about 25 degrees above the
horizon you'll see an S shaped collection of stars know as the constellation of Scorpio the scorpion.
From the five stars at the top
making up Scorpios head and
claws through it's bright red
heart, the star Antares finishing
with it's curled tail, the blueish
stars Shaula and Lesath as the
stinger, Scorpio is about the only
constellation that really looks
like it's name sake.
The red star Antares' name
originates from Roman times
with “Anti Ares” meaning the
rival of Mars who was the
Roman's god of war. Mars can
be quite similar in brightness as
well as color to Antares.
Looking just above Antares about two full moon diameters in a typical set of binoculars, you should be
able to see the bright Globular Cluster “M4” or Messier 4 ( pictured below with Antares).
M4 is made up of about a million stars similar to
but older than our sun packed tightly together.
Named after the french comet hunter, Messier
from the 1800's who cataloged most of the bright
fuzzy objects that tended to look like comets and
caught him out but where generally clusters of
stars or Galaxies. Easily visible in binoculars M4
is also a good test of your eye sight as at a
brightness of magnitude 5.4, it should be visible
to the average dark adapted eye. By standing
outside in the dark for 15 minutes or more, just
like in a movie theater when you pause before
finding your seat, your eyes become much more
sensitive and you can see fainter stars in the sky.