June starcast. Greetings stargazers Were now entering the month of the southern winter solstice. Our reminder that it’s really winter is that the constellation Orion has set on the western horizon. For those who missed the spectacular views of the Orion Nebula, you need to wait until November ( or get up very early). We […]
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Starcast7: 09 April 2021
STARCAST APRIL 2021. Happy belated Easter Stargazers. Before we get into the starcast, let me provide you with a snippet of useless astronomy trivia. Did you know that the date of Easter is based on astronomical factors, explaining why it varies from year to year? Most of us know that Easter has its origins in […]
Starcast 6: 21 March 2021
Its time for a starcast again. As we approach the Autumn equinox, the Milky way is in the best position to see the full extent of the arm of our galaxy, that is visible to us. The solar system is located in an outer arm of the Milky Way, which is a spiral galaxy. Its […]
Starcast 5 of 2021: 1 March to 15 March
Greetings stargazers. We’re almost at the southern autumn equinox. Our night sky at around 9.00 pm has the Milky way now bisecting the sky from north to south, with many of the deep sky delights directly overheard. The great planets are all near to the sun, and you have to get up at about 4 […]
Starcast 4 of 2021. Middle to end February 2021
Starcast 4 of 2021. Middle to end February. Last time I told you about asterisms These are patterns made by the stars that are either within a single constellation, or cut across several constellations. Examples known to most are: 1. Orion’s belt ( in Orion) 2. The Southern Cross ( in Crux) 3. The False […]
Starcast 3 of 2021: 1 to 15 Feb 2021
Starcast 3 of 2021. Looking north at 9.pm, Capella is the bright star just above the horizon traced out by the Swartberg. Joel will miss out on Capella. Looking higher and northwest, a dimming Mars, now only magnitude. 0.5, has drifted out of Pisces and into Aries. Look for the conspicuous pair ( Hamal and […]
Precession – why you’re water carrying sea goat.
Hello Stargazers When the ancients formalised the 12 Signs of the Zodiac, it literally meant that the current sign was the constellation where the sun was located. So, as we are the middle of the Aquarius cycle ( January 20 to February 18), we would expect that looking westwards just after sunset, we would see […]
De Rust Skies 15-31 Jan 2021
Welcome to starcast 2 of 2021. Now that we’re all settled into 2021 and Uncle Cyril had us under curfew for another month, what better than to look to the heavens and at least know what’s going on up there. Facing north: With Jupiter and Saturn now hiding in the sun’s glare, Mars is the […]
De Rust skies 1-15 Jan 2021
New years greetings stargazers. So we bid farewell to Jupiter and Saturn, who have kept us occupied with a stunning display. Darkskyes planetary pickings will be slim until around July/August when Saturn and Jupiter approach opposition and are very visible at a reasonable hour, again. Until then we will have to be happy with Mercury, […]