Cassiopeia high up on December evenings
6 comments Print Me Email to FriendTonight is Saturday, Dec 06 2008
The constellation Cassiopeia the Queen appears high in the northeastern sky at nightfall, and swings directly over Polaris, the North Star, at about 8 p.m. local clock time. Cassiopeia, famous for her telltale W or M-shaped configuration of stars, displays a starlit M whenever she hovers over the North Star.
When reigning directly above Polaris, Cassiopeia is due north and at her highest place in the heavens. From a dark country sky, you’ll see that Cassiopeia sits atop of the luminous band of stars known as the Milky Way. Arching from horizon to horizon, this soft-glowing boulevard of stars represents an edge-wise view of the galactic disk. On these dark December evenings, this stellar beltway extends past the Northern Cross in your western sky.
As the night marches onward, Cassiopeia – like the hour hand of a clock – circles around the North Star, though in a counter-clockwise direction. By dawn, Cassiopeia sweeps way below the North Star, to sit on or near your northern horizon.
that is awesome. too bad i dont live in a country sky, so i wont be able to see the milky way galaxy.
that is awesome. too bad i dont live in a country sky, so i wont be able to see the milky way galaxy.
that is awesome. too bad i dont live in a country sky, so i wont be able to see the milky way galaxy.
I give astronomy talks on cruise ships, and I call Cassiopeia “MEW3”. During the night it goes through the four symbols M, E, W, 3!
Roy,
How enormously clever, calling Cassiopeia “MEW3”! To benefit our readers, I’ll reiterate what MEW3 means: Cassiopeia looks like an “M” when directly above Polaris, an “E” when directly west (left) of Polaris, a “W” when directly below Polaris, and a “3” when directly east (right) of Polaris.
Roy, many thanks for sharing this cool trick with us. You can bet that I’ll be calling Cassiopeia MEW3 in the future!
Bruce
A lady that I work with is called “The Queen” but until today we didn’t know about Cassiopeia. We are going to look for the constellation Cassiopeia after work tonight. It should be easy to find in the dark northern Michigan sky. Thank You! Cliff