Somethin' fishy

Somethin' fishy

Back in July we took the kids stargazing:
"Camping with the grandkids"
"Brekkie 'round the campfire"
"Grandkids find a scorpion" ...plus
"Born to die"
...and saw the constellations Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius.   

Grandad you promised to show us more stars in October but now it's November!

Not to worry. At least we won't have to wait up so late but we are going to have to get well away from any lights because the next four constellations are quite hard to see.....a bit of mystery in the sky really! Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces and Aries…even their names sound a bit mysterious, hey!

Well the first one might have something to do with the Tropic of Capricorn that I learnt about in school, and Aquarius sounds a bit like water. I haven't got a clue about the next two.

I hope you brought our special red torch and star map along. Let's lie down here and look straight up at that brilliant star above us - Fomalhaut.

Fomalhaut??...whatever does that mean?
That's Arabic for 'mouth of the fish' - in Piscis Austrinus or ‘southern fish’.
Now look down there towards our north-western horizon and we find the star Altair in Aquila the eagle.

Huh?...I can't see any fish - or any eagle!

Nevermind. What we're looking for is an upside-down goat between them.

A goat now??

Yep, a dying goat with a fishy tail!....called Capricornus or horned goat. If you look very carefully you'll see some faint stars in pairs: 2 towards the north-west are on its horns, 2 towards the south are on its foreleg and the last 2 are on its fishy tail.

How do you know it's dying Grandad?...you used to have goats didn't you?

Healthy goats use their hind legs first to get up, not their front legs.                       
Now then, when the Sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, the southern limit of the tropics, on...

...I know, the 22nd of December...just before Christmas…

...yes, the Sun used to be in front of Capricornus then - it's running about a month late these days. Now moving toward the east you can see 2 bright stars near each other, on the shoulders of Aquarius who also looks upside down to us....

...let me guess – pouring water!

...yes, out of his flask where those 3 little stars are together in a curve. The water is splashing in front of the fish where there's a sprinkling of stars just east of Fomalhaut.    

Now, can you see a faint ‘V’ of stars east of Aquarius? This has the Latin name of Pisces, because there are 2 more fish, tied by a band on the monster Cetus. His tail is marked by the star Diphda, high up in our northern sky.

This is all very fishy!  That leaves Aries - what does that mean Grandad?

Aries is Latin for 'ram' and there he is - upside down again - north-east of Pisces. The bright star is Hamal on his back and the two close together mark his eyes.

These constellations are sure hard to see and their meaning must be a bit of a mystery too….mmm…fishy-goat, water for a fish, more fish, and then a ram.  

Let’s keep that for tomorrow, hey Grandad.

NEXT:  Hope springs eternal

http://discoveryiopna.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/hope-springs-eternal.html

Image credit: Stellarium