Caoimhín's Content

For this show we are looking ahead a couple of days to the end of January, as we have a New Moon at the end of January. As I’m sure you know, certainly if you’ve been following my content for a while, if you are trying to see things out in the countryside, in true darkness, without any extraneous light, it is better to do that if there is no Moon in the sky. We are going to look at the sky out in the countryside and the kinds of things you could see if you are without light pollution and armed with a binoculars. I’m not going to explain the planets much, despite their prominence in the sky. I’m after speaking about the planets, perhaps too much, on this website for a few weeks now. The attached video is in Irish, so I will be saying “I’m after speaking . . .” rather than “I have spoken . . .” and similar dialecticisms throughout this piece.

We are going to be focusing on the things that are sort of behind the planets, the stars, the constellations and other things like that. One of the most famous constellations, Orion or An Bodach, is visible down here, in the south-east as soon as the Sun sets. On the other side of south, in the south-west, we have Saturn and Venus, and right above them is the Square of Pegasus. Last year, just a couple of months ago, I spoke about the Square of Pegasus and how you are able to use it to find the Andromeda Galaxy. You can still do that, but a few of weeks ago this square was right over the south when the Sun was setting. The constellations are after pushing a little across the sky, or rather the Earth is after moving a little further around the Sun and for that reason we’re able to see the constellations at in different places and at different times. A little bit earlier in the night, we’re able, for example, to see the brightest star in Canis Minor and lower down Canis Major. Procyon is already comfortable above the horizon, and Sirius is coming above the ground a couple a minutes after sunset. This is while still there’s a little bit of sunlight in the sky, still in twilight. When all of the Sun’s light is gone, Sirius will be a reasonable bit above the horizon. Straight over the south is Perseus, rather than Pegasus.

Right in between Perseus and Pegasus, is the constellation of Andromeda and right above it, the Andromeda Galaxy. That massive group of stars, as big as the Milky Way galaxy we are in, is up at sunset. A little higher is Cassiopeia, and if you cross from the lowest wester corner of the Square of Pegasus to the top eastern most corner, and you push a little bit ahead, until you are under Cassiopeia, you will be able to find the Andromeda Galaxy. If you are in the city, at least if you are in a city like Cork City, you could see this galaxy with a binoculars, as long as you don’t have too much light pollution. There is plenty of light pollution, in my opinion too much light pollution, in Cork City, but with even more light pollution the Andromeda Galaxy disappears completely, even in the middle of the night. Without any light pollution, not only can see that galaxy far easier through a binoculars, you’ll be able to see it with your naked eye, without any help from a telescope or binoculars. It should look like a sort of smudge that isn’t sharp like a star, it’s not a circle but a sort of odd smeared shape, that’s the galaxy. In dark enough conditions you ca see it with your naked eye, as well as seeing the Milky Way with your naked eye. As long as you are outside, out in the countryside, without any light pollution.

Continuing to use only a small binoculars, we can take a look at the Pleiades or the Seven Sisters. This open cluster is very close to the planet Jupiter inside the constellation of the Bull Taurus. They are a great target for a small binoculars. I’m not going to use anything other than a small binoculars to give the examples today, as I am trying to focus in closely on the things that are easy to see when you are outside of the city, but are tough to see when you are within the city. There are a few things that are easy to see with a binoculars almost anywhere, you’d have to be in a place with a lot of light pollution in order to lose the Sword of Orion through a binoculars. It’s a bit easier for light pollution to block out the nebula that is in Orion’s Sword, the nebula is quite faint and cloudy, in this case a place in which new stars begin. There are a couple of things that are very easy to see as long as you are out in the countryside, you can see the Sword of Orion with your naked eyes and if you have a binoculars you’ll be able to see the nebula clearly. If you are in a city like Cork you won’t be able to see much of the sword with your naked eye, but as long as you have a binoculars and you know what direction you should look, you will be able to see the nebula through the binoculars. If you are in a brighter place, a bigger city, a place with more light pollution, even if you have a binoculars or a telescope, you won’t be able to see the nebula.

There are a lot of things which are hard to see from anywhere, for example, one of my favourite galaxies, the Whirlpool Galaxy. The Whirlpool Galaxy is just under the tail of the Plough or the Big Dipper, so it is easy to find and always above the horizon from Ireland. There’s no chance you’ll be able to see it with your naked eye . Even with a binoculars out in the countryside it is pretty hard to see. You might see a little of the spiral shape with a small binoculars, but it’s still hard, you ought to use a telescope which can be stronger than binoculars. With a good binoculars you should see something, but it isn’t particularly easy. It is invisible if you are somewhere with too much light pollution and even if you are in the countryside you have to use the right piece of equipment in order to see it. With some of the other things that are out in space, you can’t see them from the city with light pollution, but as long as you are out in the countryside they’re easy to spot. Of course the Milky Way is visible with the naked eye, as is the Andromeda Galaxy. There are plenty of things that can be spotted with the naked eye and if you are trying to see a little more, even a binoculars can make a big difference. The Andromeda galaxy looks very nice out in the countryside, even with a small binoculars. This is the important thing, not everyone has a big binoculars. A big binoculars, or even more so a big telescope, can sometimes be very expensive. There’s a cost of about 500 or 600 euros a telescope big enough to see a good amount of the galaxies in our sky easily. If you have a binoculars, they’re useful even during the day to look for birds and other things as well.

Heading towards morning time we can zoom in on Antares, brightest star in Scorpio, the Heart of the Scorpion or Kalb al Akrab. You can see a little of that sort of nebulosity around the red star. You can also see a cluster of stars just a little to the west of the red star. Clusters of stars are very interesting and a lot of star clusters are visible as spots with the naked eye. Globular cluster may appear as spots, while open clusters like the Pleiades are usually more diffuse. If you are out in the countryside, one of the best ones is in the constellation of Hercules, or Herakles. Neither my ancient Greek nor my modern Greek are very good, and Hercules tends to be pronounced in a few different ways in English. I’m fairly certain that Hercules is up at this time of the year, though it is easier to observe in the morning rather than at night. There is a cluster of stars, a big and famous one, within the constellation of Hercules, called The Great Cluster in Hercules or similar variations. If we take a look along one edge of Hercules, the constellation is a slightly lopsided rectilinear-ish shape, there are a couple of spots to be seen and one of those spots is a cluster of stars. You should be able to see a sort of spot even with your eyes, similar to a faint star. It is hard enough, but when you zoom in with a telescope you can see that there is a tight cluster of stars in there rather than just one, and you can see the sort of scattered light of more stars in the cluster unresolved.

There’s no chance that you’d see these things even with a binoculars from within a city like Cork City, with the amount of light pollution that we have. Although most of these globular clusters of stars are hard to see, some of the cluster of stars are there to be seen with your naked eye, they just look like a spot with the naked eye and when you zoom in with a binoculars you are able to see that there is more than just one star involved. This is the sort of difference that light pollution and a binoculars makes. You don’t need to go to the Arctic or the Sahara desert in Africa or anything like that. There are skies as dark as this to be found even in, well not in Cork City but in Cork County there are skies which are dark. Next to us in County Kerry there are official dark skies and in County Mayo as well. Even if you don’t have an internationally recognised dark sky park nearby, there are unrecognised or simply unpopularized areas of almost pristine darkness all around the world.

Regardless of where you are, whatever country you’re in, it is usually a lot cheaper to go out to the countryside and use a little binoculars rather than buying a telescope with which is big enough to see these things through the light pollution. That’s the point I was trying to make in the attached Irish language video, and here in this English language article. If you enjoyed it and if you are after going out into the countryside and using this information, which I am after repeating a few times, please do like this article. If you wouldn’t mind you can also subscribe to this website and my YouTube channel. Thank you for reading, and I’m sure I’ll see you here again.