A Skywatcher's YearCambridge University Press, 1999 M07 8 - 189 pages If you have ever watched shooting stars graze the sky or wondered about a particularly bright point of light near the horizon, then this is the book for you. A Skywatcher's Year is the authoritative guide to visible bodies in the night sky throughout the year. Through fifty-two essays, Jeff Kanipe guides you to celestial events and phenomena that occur or are visible with the naked eye and binoculars for each week of the year. He acquaints you not only with up-to-date astronomical information on stars, nebulae, meteors, the Milky Way, and galaxies, but also conveys the beauty and wonder of the night sky. Covering both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, A Skywatcher's Year helps readers find prominent stars and constellations, bright star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies, and explains how and when to observe prominent annual meteor showers. Kanipe also examines the most frequently-observed celestial body, the Moon, and the intriguing lore surrounding it. A rich and jargon-free look at the sky through the four seasons, this engaging book will give new dimensions to backyard star-gazing. |
Contents
Winter | 11 |
New year new millennium same stars | 14 |
The years first meteor shower | 15 |
The flashing Dog Star | 17 |
The Milky Way in winter | 19 |
The winter clock | 20 |
Who was Auriga the Charioteer? | 23 |
The secondbrightest star in the night sky | 26 |
Autumn | 93 |
Star time | 94 |
The Double Cluster | 96 |
The rescue of Andromeda | 98 |
Shooting stars from Orion | 101 |
Five southern birds | 102 |
A stepping stone to the universe | 104 |
The Leonid meteor shower | 106 |
The Magellanic Clouds | 28 |
A starry hothouse | 30 |
Three star clusters | 32 |
Gemini the Twins | 34 |
The light that hides | 36 |
Spring | 39 |
Finding true north | 42 |
Finding true south | 45 |
The Beehive Cluster | 47 |
A kingly star | 49 |
The surprising Lyrid meteors | 50 |
The Big Dippers many identities | 51 |
The Eta Aquarid meteor shower | 53 |
Bootes the Herdsman | 54 |
A star that bears watching | 56 |
Quest for the Southern Cross | 57 |
A cosmic window | 60 |
A summer place | 62 |
Summer | 65 |
Clouds in space | 67 |
The glorious Milky Way | 68 |
Galactic central | 70 |
Deepsky treasures | 72 |
Dog Days | 75 |
The Summer Triangle | 77 |
A false comet | 79 |
Meteor shower alert | 81 |
The Native American Scorpion | 84 |
Summer holds on as autumn draws near | 85 |
The smile in the sky and the watery realm | 87 |
Time is distance among the stars | 89 |
Fomalhaut solitary star in the south | 91 |
The Pleiades rise at sunset | 108 |
A star that winks | 109 |
Betelgeuse Betelgeux Betelgeuze | 111 |
The flashy Geminid meteor shower | 112 |
Winters eve | 114 |
The Sun Moon and Planets | 117 |
The skywatchers Sun | 119 |
Sunspots and faculae | 120 |
The sunspot cycle | 122 |
Preparing for observing the Sun | 123 |
Observing the Sun | 125 |
the northern and southern lights | 126 |
greatest shadow show in the solar system | 128 |
Total solar eclipses | 129 |
A note on observing a solar eclipse | 131 |
Total lunar eclipses | 132 |
The skywatchers Moon | 134 |
Observing the Moon | 135 |
Predicting moonrise | 138 |
The tides | 140 |
The Harvest Moon | 142 |
Blue Moons | 144 |
Finding and observing the planets | 148 |
Appendices | 153 |
Total and annular solar eclipses 2001 to 2024 | 155 |
Total lunar eclipses 2001 to 2025 | 161 |
General planet locations 1999 to 2010 | 164 |
Oppositions for Mars Jupiter and Saturn 2000 to 2010 | 178 |
The 20 brightest stars in the night sky | 180 |
Further Reading | 183 |
187 | |
Common terms and phrases
Altair Andromeda Annular solar eclipse appear Aquarius Aquarius Neptune Arcturus astronomers Auriga autumn Betelgeuse binoculars Boötes bright stars brighter brightest star Canopus Capella Capricornus Neptune Capricornus Pluto morning Cassiopeia celestial pole comet constellation dark Deneb disk distance Earth east equinox Fomalhaut full Moon galaxy Gemini greatest eclipse Hemisphere Moon horizon January July Jupiter latitude light light-years located look lunar eclipse magnitude Mars morning Mercury morning meridian meteor shower Milky million km minutes Moon at zenith Moon's morning Aquarius morning Capricornus Nebula Neptune Neptune evening Capricornus night sky north celestial Northern Hemisphere o'clock observers Ophiuchus orbit Orion overhead Path of annularity Path of totality Pisces planets Pluto evening Ophiuchus Polaris Pollux region rises Saturn Scorpius seconds Path seen Sirius skywatchers small telescope solar eclipse southern star clusters summer Summer Triangle Sun's sunset sunspot Total solar eclipse Uranus Uranus evening Aquarius Vega Venus morning Virgo visible week zenith at totality