RocketSTEM Issue #3 - October 2013 | Page 43

swan is clearly visible. On a bright full moon night you may only be able to see one or two stars in Cygnus, but as the days pass and the moon wanes, more and more stars come into view until you can see the entire swan and wing tips. If you are lucky and live in or visit an area where the skies are really dark, with no moon, then you will be able to see millions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy and our Solar System resides in one of the spiral arms. This can be thought of like a plate, when you look at it from on top you can see the whole surface, but when you look at it from the side you will just see the edge. Looking at the Milky Way is like looking at a plate edge on. As the Milky Way is not solid like the plate we can see stars further away in the galaxy shining through. These are often quite dim stars, but the combination of the millions of stars illuminates the vast area of sky giving the appearance of a cloud. The Milky Way is a band that sweeps across our Summer and Autumn night skies cutting through the constellations of Cassiopeia, Cygnus, and Sagittarius. If you can see the Milky Way well than picking out the constellations can become a little tricky as you will be able to see so much more in the dark skies. This can sometimes The make picking out the bright stars forming the symbolic structures problematic, one of the good reasons to start the learning process in light polluted skies. Having discovered the way to learn the layout of the skies you need help to identify them. This is where star charts come into play. Star charts are the maps of the sky, normally printed in a book, they show the relative positions of the constellations. Just like maps they help you navigate around the stars. In this modern day we live mainly in an online society, and astronomy has also found a place in the electronic annals of computers and the Internet. Star charts can be found online in a number of different formats, but as with road maps they are somewhat static images. The next evolution is planetarium software which can show you dynamically the sky at any location in the world, at any time to help you learn and discover the wonders to be seen. You don’t need to wait until the sun sets to start exploring. Of course this planetarium software provides an ideal view of the sky without factoring in light pollution, seeing conditions or the weather. enable you to point th