Almaak Star
Almaak in the constellation of Andromeda, is easy enough to find in the northern hemisphere, it lies nearly overhead this month between the Great Square of Pegasus (The Winged Horse) and the bright stars of the constellation Perseus.

To find Almaak (also called gamma Andromedae), start at the northern corner of the Great Square at the star Alpheratz, then move to Mirach, then to Almaak.  If you continue the line you’ll reach Mirphak in Perseus (The Perseus).

See the SkyMap for Almmak Star.

Credit by Stefan Seip, Germany.

DO NOT MISS
See the star Mira in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster or Whale) at it’s brightest this week.

Mira is a variable star that can be seen with the naked eye when it’s at maximun, but at other times requires a binocular or telescope.

Click here for more explanation about Mira at Astronomy Picture of the Day.

See Derekscope’s archive :-  Friday 8th October 2010.

Stars twinkle because the light they send towards Earth is bent by air currents moving about in our atmosphere, it moves at around 16,000 mph – if you were to travel above Earth’s atmosphere, all of them – stars would not twinkle at all!

Why do stars shine?
Stars shine because they are hot, just like our Sun. Inside a star, hydrogen gas turns into helium gas that gives out energy to create  light, heat and other invisible rays.

Can we tell the time by the stars?
Yes – Earth spins around once every 24 hours. During the night stars appears to move across the sky that is possible to tell the the time when their changing position are measured.

Where is the best place to see stars?
Bright stars can be seen easily from anywhere on clear nights, but  the best place to see the dimmer stars is in the countryside. Because in towns – artificial light from street lighting fills the sky to make difficult to see them – dimmer stars.

Mira in Cetus (The Sea Monster or Whale)
You could see Mira below Pleiades (Seven Sisters / M45).

Autumn is in full swing with dark nights, Comet Hartley 2 is close to the Double Cluster in the constellation of Perseus (The Perseus). And other highlights include the star – Mira, the best long-period variable star as it’s brightest and Jupiter’s moons.

Click here for more information about Mira and the SkyMap.

Did you know?
Stars would explode if gravity were not holding their material together!

Atom have gravity, which means that they pull things towards them.
After the Big Bang, gravity made atoms clump together to form stars and planets.
Stars are made of hydrogen and helium atoms but solid planets (Earth, Mercury, Venus & Mars) are made of carbon and iron atoms.

Click here for enlarge image.

The Planet of Venus forms a triangle with the two stars are Castor and Pollux in the constellation of Gemini (The Twin) in the evening twilight at the West.

See the Triangle tonight
The First Quarter Moon forms a triangle with the Red Planets – Mars and Regulus Star in the evening twilight from 21:00 / 9pm. (Click here for enlarge image, the map is shown for tonight at 10pm.)

The Sun will pass through the Leo from 10 August to 16 September, so better hunting for more Deep Sky Object lists in Leo by NGC Number and IC number for large telescope before your last views of Leo (The Lion) till back in autumn2010.

See the SkyMap of Leo.

Keys:-
NGC = Abberviation for the New General Catalogue of Nebula, Galaxies and Clusters of stars.
IC = Abberviation for Index Catalogue that still referred the objects by their IC numbers.

In both Ireland and Great Britain, this pattern is known as the Plough.

View the middle star of the Great Bear’s tail – it’s the visual double star (Mizar and Alcor).

Of the seven stars that make up the Plough in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear), the most famous might be Mizar:- Tonight at 22:00 / 10pm to find it, look first for the Plough or the Big Dipper in your northeastern sky.

At nightfall, note that the three stars comprising the handle stand upright over the bowl.

Mizar and Alcor, the middle handle star, shines one star down from Alkaid, the star showing the end of the handle.

See the SkyMap for tonight, but the double stars is visible all nights – all the year.

Click here for enlarge above image.

Look low towards the north for the bright stars of Deneb in the constellation of Cygnus (The Swan) and Vega in the constellation of Lyra (The Lyra).

See the SkyMap and Star Chart Atlas.

Features of Interest :- Zeta Cancri Star
Zeta Cancri (Tegmine) star is a lovely triple of yellow stars through a small telescope from 2-inch, it is seen to consist of two stars – magnitude 5.1 and 6.2.

An aperture larger than 6-inch (150mm) telescope will see the brighter component has a much closer companion of magnitude 6.1 which orbits every 60 years.

From 12-inch telescopes that A-B pair (see the diagram above) appears oblong but it is not separted stars.

(Visible tonight till 20th April 2010)

See the SkyMap.