When you name a star with Name A Star Live you choose the constellation (area of the night sky, such as Aries or Taurus) in which your star will be located. Many people want to name a star in the Big Dipper. But did you know the Big Dipper is not actually a constellation? It’s really a group of stars that are part of a very large constellation called “Ursa Major,” which is Latin for “big bear.”

Various cultures around the world have interpreted these stars in interesting ways. The Iroquois and Micmac peoples of North America viewed the bowl of the Big Dipper as a bear that was pursued by a group of hunters — the stars in the Big Dipper’s handle. The Arabians viewed the Big Dipper as a funeral procession with the Big Dipper’s bowl as the deceased and the stars in the handle as the mourners. The Germans thought of the Big Dipper as a large wagon. And in classical mythology the Big Dipper and the nearby Little Dipper were a mother and son that Zeus, the king of the gods, had transformed into bears and placed in the heavens.

Sailors, pilots and hikers have long used the Big Dipper to navigate. The two stars on the outer edge of the Big Dipper’s bowl are referred to as the “Pointer Stars.” If you draw a line from these two stars, the line will point to the North Star. In fact, American slaves escaping through the Underground Railroad used the pointer stars of the “drinking gourd” (as they knew the Big Dipper) to find their way North to freedom.

When you look at the Big Dipper, see if you can distinguish between the two bright stars Alcor and Mizar in the Big Dipper’s handle. Being able to distinguish between these two, close stars is a traditional test of one’s eyesight. These two stars — a.k.a. “the horse and the rider” — are about 83 light-years from Earth. The brighter star Mizar is actually a quadruple star system, and its dimmer neighbor Alcor is a binary star system.

When can you see the Big Dipper?

The Big Dipper is visible all year from most of Europe, the northern U.S. and Canada. In the southern U.S. it can be seen in the springtime during evening hours. Visit our online Constellation Calendar to see when the Big Dipper (in Ursa Major) is visible from your community.

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If you’re thinking of naming a star in the Big Dipper for someone, consider Name A Star Live’s popular Star Bear Gift Set. This unique gift includes:

• A Star Bear — a cuddly teddy bear holding a star. What more appropriate way to name a star in the “Big Bear”?
• A printed Star Certificate;
• A digital, letter-size Star Certificate that you can download and print right away;
• A digital Launch Certificate we provide to you after we launch your star’s name into space: We’re the only star-naming service that makes you part of a real space mission!

 

Tonight you’re in for a special treat: The mighty planet Jupiter will be near the Moon. Both celestial objects will be in the Name A Star Live constellation Leo all night long.

While no telescope is required to spot Jupiter — it will be the bright, star-like object nearest the Moon — if you have a telescope you will likely be able to see Jupiter’s four large moons. These moons are known as the “Galilean satellites” named in honor of Galileo, who discovered them in 1610 and observed their movement through a telescope. These four moons are known as Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede — Ganymede is larger than the planet Mercury.

If you can stay up late tonight, try viewing the moons twice this evening, about two hours apart. You’ll notice the moons change position relative to Jupiter. In fact you may see the four moons at one time, and see only two or three of the moons a couple of hours later.

Tip: With our Virtual Planetarium astronomy software you can see what planets are visible any night of the year! Specifically, Virtual Planetarium’s “Sky Tonight” module shows you the constellations and planets you can see tonight, or any night. Details….

We get a rare treat in the pre-dawn sky in late January 2016 as the planets Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter form a parade, of sorts, across the sky!  These planets are easy to spot — no telescope required.

If you’re in the northern hemisphere of Earth, wake up a little early and face south-southeast to view these four planets.  Toward the end of January the planet Mercury joins the parade when it becomes visible just over the eastern horizon about 30 minutes before sunrise.

The best display of shooting stars this year occurs December 4-17, peaking over the night December 13 and 14.  This display is called the “Geminid meteor shower”:

• Shooting stars are meteors — small pieces of dust in space that quickly burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.  The dust particles for the Geminid meteor shower (or “the Geminids” for short) are leftover bits of an asteroid called “3200 Phaethon” that flies very near the Sun every 1.4 years.  As the Earth orbits the Sun, every year at about this time we pass through the dust left behind by this asteroid’s many visits to our neck of the galactic woods.
• It’s called the “Geminids” because the shooting stars in this meteor shower all appear to fly toward us from the Name A Star Live constellation Gemini.  The two brightest stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux, are referred to as “the Twins” as they were famous brothers in classical mythology.

So if you’re looking for something romantic to do this month, consider going outside under the night sky with your significant other, and make some wishes upon every shooting star you see!  No telescope or binoculars needed: Just bring along a lawn chair or long towel on which to lie down.  You might want to bring along some food and drink and, depending on where you live in the world, either some mosquito repellant or warm clothing. Then, just look up.  You should see more shooting stars than you normally would on any night of the year.  Under perfect conditions — a clear sky, far from city lights, and viewing during the two or three hours right before sunrise the morning of December 14 — you might see as many as 120 shooting stars per hour.  But you can still see an above average number of shooting stars no matter what time of the night you look, and see a good show any clear night over the Dec. 4-17 time period.

The planets Jupiter, Mars and Venus put on quite an impressive display in the eastern sky before sunrise this month!  Venus is the bright ‘star’ above the eastern horizon, with bright Jupiter above.  Depending on how bright the night sky is in your area, you may also see the red planet Mars between Venus and Jupiter.

Venus and Mars are in the Name A Star Live constellation Virgo, while Jupter lies just inside Leo, the Lion.  The dim planets Uranus and Neptune are ‘visible’ in the early evening skies right now.  But again, they are dim planets that require a telescope in order to view them.  Uranus is in the Name A Star Live contellation Pisces, and Neptune is in Aquarius.

Use the Moon to Find Your Star’s Constellation

Did you know you can use the Moon to help identify constellations (areas of the night sky) like Aries, Taurus and Sagittarius?  Follow us on Twitter where we Tweet what constellation the Moon is in each night.  (Note that during certain times of the month, the Moon will not appear during the night hours, and so we do not Tweet info about the Moon at those times of the month.)

Finding your star in the night sky

Stars are located within constellations, which are just areas of the night sky. Scorpius, Aries and Taurus are examples of constellations. Your Name A Star Live Star Certificate displays the name of your constellation. Log in to the My Sky section of our website to use our Constellation Calendar to determine if you can see your constellation during the evening hours (between sunset and midnight). Of course, you’ll need a telescope to see your star. But you can see your constellation without the use of a telescope. You can also find your constellation by using our Virtual Planetarium™ astronomy software. A planisphere is another useful device.

In late September the Moon will undergo a rare total eclipse visible to most people in the Americas, Europe and Africa.  This Full Moon will also be known by several names, including the “Blood Moon,” the “Harvest Moon,” and the “Supermoon”! Continue reading “The Super “Blood Moon” Eclipse of 2015″

The shimmering colors visible in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image show off the remarkable complexity of the Twin Jet Nebula. The new image highlights the nebula’s shells and its knots of expanding gas in striking detail. Two iridescent lobes of material stretch outwards from a central star system. Within these lobes two huge jets of gas are streaming from the star system at speeds in excess of one million kilometers (621,400 miles) per hour.

The cosmic butterfly pictured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image goes by many names. It is called the Twin Jet Nebula as well as answering to the slightly less poetic name of PN M2-9. Continue reading “Hubble sees the wings of a butterfly: The Twin Jet Nebula”

This is a great time of the year to get out under the stars and see the Milky Way. But even if you’re located dozens of miles away from bright city lights, it can be difficult to find the beautiful, hazy band of our galaxy spanning across the nighttime sky.

But you can use the Name A Star Live constellation Sagittarius to find the Milky Way during the summertime.  Just face south and look for the “teapot,” next to the Name A Star Live constellation Scorpius.  Like steam rising from your teapot at home, the countless stars of the Milky Way will appear to rise from the Teapot and over your head. Continue reading “Exploring the wonders of Sagittarius”