12/7/2023 0 Comments Sunset dusk sky stanfordBoth are blue-white giants, 500 and 700 light years away, respectively. And the cat has a bleary eye Upsilon is fainter than Lambda (they're magnitudes 2.6 and 1.6). They're 0.6° apart and canted at an angle the cat is tilting its head to the right. These are Lambda and fainter Upsilon Scorpii, known as the Cat's Eyes. Look for the two stars especially close together in Scorpius's tail. How low depends on how far north or south you live: the farther south, the higher. ■ The tail of Scorpius is low due south after dark, to the lower right of the Sagittarius Teapot. See page 54 of the July Sky & Telescope, which includes lots of telescopic sights around it. It's 4° above (northwest of) Sagitta's tail and currently poses upside down. For more on Sagitta and its telescopic cluster M71, see the July Sky & Telescope, page 43.Īlso in the vicinity is the lovely little binocular asterism The Coathanger. ![]() The Arrow points lower left past the Dolphin's nose. Look for it closer to Altair's upper left. Sagitta, the Arrow, is smaller and fainter. He's leaping leftward just below the summer Milky Way. Little Delphinus is about a fist at arm's length lower left of Altair. ■ Now that Altair is getting nice and high in the east-southeast, and with the evenings moonless, it's time to greet the Dolphin and the Arrow. That may be why this image (which has a resolution of only a few pixels) appears mottled. ![]() The faster a star spins the stronger its magnetic activity will be, including starspots. The disk of Altair, imaged by the CHARA interferometric array on Mt. It spins so fast that, using interferometry, astronomers were able in 1999 to confirm that it is widened around its equator into a very ellipsoid shape. The third star of the Summer Triangle is Deneb, less bright, left of them.Ībove Altair by a finger-width at arm's length is little Tarazed, 3rd magnitude and orange, which helps to identify it.Īltair is a fast-spinning, white type- A star, somewhat larger and hotter than the Sun, only 17 light-years away. ![]() It's the second-brightest star on the eastern side of the sky, after Vega higher to its upper left. ■ Altair shines high in the east-southeast after dark.
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