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The planets should provide some good views this month. The reddish planet Mars is in the evening sky below the constellation of Leo in the south-east. On the 9th the Moon is just to the right of the planet. Bright Jupiter is in the west. On the 27th the crescent Moon lies just above Jupiter. On the 26th, the Crescent Moon forms a triangle with Jupiter and Venus. Venus is the brighter of the 2 planets. In the morning sky the yellowish planet Saturn is to the south near the bright star Spica. Saturn, Spica and the Moon are in close formation on the 13th. The constellation of Orion the Hunter lies directly to the South. Four bright stars represent his shoulders and legs whilst a further three form his belt. Above Orion and to the right is a very bright orange star called Aldebaran. It’s the brightest star in the constellation Taurus, the Bull. Looking further upwards and to the right you will see a small cluster of stars. These are called the Pleiades. With the naked eye, people can usually see six or seven stars in Pleiades. However, some people with better eyesight can see more. The cluster contains more than 200 young stars born some 50 million years ago, which means they are only one hundredth of the age of the Sun, our local star. Aldebaran means “the follower” in Arabic, as it rises above the horizon after the Pleiades. Sirius, the sky’s brightest star lies to the lower left of Orion. It appears particularly bright because it happens to lie nearby compared with other stars, at a distance of a mere 9 light years. Sirius is close compared with Aldebaran which is 65 light years away from us and the Pleiades star cluster which is 400 light years away. Astronomy produces beautiful images. NASA selects a “picture of the day” which can be found at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ Dave Thomas
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