Sun rises at 6:19am
Sun sets at 5:34pm
Moon phase: New Moon, virtually absent
November is a wonderful time for star-gazing in St. Maarten, and this weekend the extra dark skies will make the starlight even more spectacular. With the moon at the start of a new cycle, it’s virtually absent and so there will be no moonlight to wash out the constellations. This weekend, enjoy the Winter Circle, a family of constellations easy to learn. Every winter, the northern hemisphere sky is dominated by this feature. And once you learn to recognize them, you can call them out to your friends for the coming months, until March or so!
The Winter Circle
The Winter Circle is composed of eight constellations, each with a notably bright star. Any time after about 8:00pm, you can begin to make out these constellations. The starting point is to find Orion, the Hunter, and his three-star belt which will be just above the eastern horizon at that time, rising higher into the night sky as the evening goes on. Hanging from Orion’s belt are three smaller stars which can be imagined as a knife. The centre “star” of the knife is not actually a star, but a nebula (which is an area of gas and dust). Orion’s nebula is visible with binoculars. Two very bright stars mark the hunter’s shoulder and knee. Betelgeuse is quite red in colour at Orion’s shoulder. Orion’s second bright star is Rigel located at his knee. Rigel is slightly blue in colour.
Betelgeuse, at Orion’s shoulder, marks the centre of the Winter Circle. Directly above Betelgeuse, look for another brilliant star, Aldebaran, in the constellation of Taurus the Bull. Aldebaran is the tip of one of the bull’s horns and is orange in colour. To the left of Taurus is Auriga, the Goat Herder. Its bright star is Capella, which marks the head of a young goat in the herdsman’s arms.
By 9:00pm, more of the Winter Circle will rise above the eastern horizon. Look for the Twins, Gemini, just to the left and slightly below Orion. The bright stars mark the heads of the Gemini Twins: Pollux and Castor. Pollux is brighter and a bit orange in colour while Castor is white.
By 9:30pm, the brightest true star in the entire night sky will be just peeking over the horizon, directly below Rigel. This is the Dog Star, Sirius, in the constellation of Canis Major, or “big dog.” Sirius is white in colour.
From Rigel and Sirius, keep turning around the circle to find a bright yellow star, Procyon, which sits in the constellation Canis Minor or “small dog.”
And with that, our circle is complete. To recap: We have Orion marking the Winter Circle’s centre, at his shoulder, and at his feet is Rigel. Starting from there and going counter-clockwise around the circle, look for Aldebaran (Taurus), Capella (Auriga), Castor & Pollux (Gemini), Procyon, Sirius (Little and Big Dogs) and back to Rigel.
With these basic stars and constellations, you can begin to branch out to many others. The winter circle is best viewed from December to February when it fills the entire sky, but can be seen in parts at other times of the year. As with all the stars, the constellation patterns never change in relation to each other.
Thank you for keeping up with the Night Sky articles. If you are out later on in the week, each star rises about four minutes earlier each day than written here, and the moon rises 50 minutes later. Night Sky is researched and compiled by Lisa Davis-Burnett. Earthsky.org is a key resource for information and images. Questions or comments? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
