How to Gaze at the Southern Stars

by Richard Hall

From the Southern Cross to the mysterious dark companions of the Dog Stars, the constellations in this guide will help readers see the night sky in a whole new way, allowing them to enjoy the vast beauty of the solar system.

Genres: Nonfiction, Astronomy, Space

160 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

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Reviews

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aaah look at that lovely use of blue on the cover! Nice one.

“A good pair of binoculars will show you a lot more than a cheap telescope.”

7 x 50 being the best all-round size – it’s what the navy uses for night vision.

This is one of those many areas (like learning the names of more native flowers and trees) that I’ve been meaning to educate myself a bit more on over the years, but have never quite gotten round to it, so I suppose this can be seen as the first step in the right direction?...

“Stars of a constellation often have no actual physical relationship with each other; it is people who have created the connection.”

I understand that pre-Islamic Arabs played a huge part in naming, mapping, and furthering our understanding of the stars, and one of the main things this book does a fine job of is in dispelling many of the myths and silliness which have persisted around astronomy.

“Constellations were named for their symbolism or practical significance, not because they had a likeness to mythological creatures.”

Like in the case of the dog stars, we learn that from the earliest of times shepherds have used dogs to guard flocks and warn of approaching danger, while the Nile flooding was essential for Egyptians’ survival it also represented physical danger to people and animals living on the flood plain. Sirius and Procyon were the shepherd dogs in the sky – their mid-summer rising warned shepherds of approaching flood.

“Sirius means ‘the scorching one’ and in 500 BC its rising before the sun corresponded with the sun’s entrance into the constellation of Leo. This marked the hottest time of the year hence the term ‘dog days’ : a dog day afternoon as the hottest part of a hot and hazy day.”

So this was a short, interesting and handy little guide that I'll hopefully return to and use in the future, to learn a bit more about what you can find up there in the night sky and also discover some more about what else lurks waaaaaaay out there in the great beyond.

“A ride in an elevator will have a greater effect on you than the moon moving overhead.”

“Most meteors are no larger than a grain of sand. A meteor the size of your fist would momentarily turn the night sky into broad daylight.”

“In real terms Sirius is the brightest of the more than 150 stars within a radius of 25 light years from Earth. In visible light it is 23.5 times brighter than the sun, but because of its higher surface temperature it emits so much ultra-violet radiation its total energy output is equivalent to 32 suns.”

“In the Southern Hemisphere Orion dominates the summer evening sky, while the Scorpion is supreme in winter.”

[Kita Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I love learning about the stars. There is heaps of cool information in this book. For example, did you know:
If you drive in a straight line at 100kph you could go around Earth in 17 days. It would take 160 days (5 months) to get to the moon. The moon’s distance away is 30 x diameter of the earth. It would take 171 years to reach Sun, which is about 150 million km away.
Each evening a star will rise and set four minutes earlier than it did the night before. Eventually it becomes too close to the sun to be seen and is lost in the western twilight. It reappears about a month later, rising in the east just before the sun.
Moon’s cycle is 29.53 days.
Julius Caesar and Augustus each stole a day from February to make the months they renamed after themselves longer.
Best time to see Mercury from NZ is in equinox - March (morning sky) and September (evening sky). It is pinkish.
Venus is the brightest “star” in the sky. Aka Morning Star and Evening Star, it can be seen in broad daylight if you know where to look.
Mars varies. Every couple of years it is bright and orange-red. Is associated with war and destruction because of the red colour - not pure and white.
Jupiter is brilliant yellow-white and usually the second-brightest “star” (occasionally Mars is brighter).
A star twinkles more when closer to the horizon.
Orion disappears from mid-May to mid-June.
Our solar system is 4,600 million years old.
Matariki is a star cluster and contains several hundred stars. It is only 50 million years old. Clusters tend to be young. It is 410 light years away. To find it, follow Orion’s Belt to the left.
Follow it in the other direction to find Sirius, the Dog Star. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky after the 2 or 3 planets. In Maori it is Takurua, the Frost Star - if it twinkles furiously when it rises there will be a heavy frost. Sirius’s rising before the sun in mid-summer marked the beginning of the annual Nile flooding. The dog stars were the shepherd dogs in the sky, a warning to move to higher ground.
Southern Cross is the smallest constellation in the sky. In summer it lies on its side.
Our nearest star is Alpha Centauri, 4.4 light years away and one of the pointers to the Southern Cross.

[Carol Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very useful and interesting little book for those of us in the Southern hemisphere with an interest in the night sky. The author includes plenty of local background and relates the stories of the stars and planets to Maori myths

[Tony Jemmett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun. Brought interest to the night. Loved some of the history of why. But in the end I'm not sure I felt a step change to how I feel when looking up.

[Max Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant intro to astronomy for beginners, so easy to read and understand and full of fascinating information; sends you out into the dark with enthusiasm and easy-to-put-into practice knowledge.