Sky Tours South (FoS)

In this final month of Fundamentals of Stargazing, you revisit the grand constellation Orion using the new knowledge you have gained in this course. As you enter your second year as an adept stargazer, you may find you see the heavens differently. The beauty of the stars remains, but you can now see deeper and understand the nature of much of what ...

This month you get a whirlwind tour of the stars of the far-northern hemisphere, stars which are forever hidden by the Earth under your feet. It’s good to know a little about the other part of the sky because there is much to see there. And with a little luck you may get to travel north of the equator to see the northern skies.
The maps for the nor...

Summer comes to the southern hemisphere in December, and many regions don’t get dark until well after 9 p.m. local time. The stars of southern winter, especially Scorpius and Sagittarius, have set in the west for the year. And the stars of southern summer, especially Orion and Eridanus, are starting to rise in the east. This month you conclude the ...

The Great Square of Pegasus, which looms large over the northern horizon this month, will once again guide our tour of the southern spring constellations. We arrive at the end of the zodiac at the constellation Pisces, then keeping on going to Aries, the first constellation on this band of twelve constellations along the ecliptic. We also look at t...

The only bright star near the zenith in October is Fomalhaut, the chief star of the constellation Piscis Austrinus. The exotic southern birds—Phoenix, Grus, Tucana—are visible, as well as Pavo, which you met last month. Capricornus lingers, and its zodiacal neighbor Aquarius approaches the zenith. North of Aquarius, you find the prominent northern ...