All articles tagged with #big dipper
Tonight after sunset (March 30), look northeast to spot the Big Dipper. Use its bowl-to-handle arc to guide your gaze to Arcturus, then follow up to Spica for another bright spring star—a quick, naked-eye sky-navigation trick ideal for learning the spring constellations; binoculars help reveal fainter stars if you want a closer look.
After dark on March 24, the Big Dipper rises in the northeastern sky while the Moon sits about 40% illuminated in the southwestern sky; use the Big Dipper’s pointer stars, Merak and Dubhe, to find Polaris in the north, and note the handle points toward Arcturus in the east-northeast as spring skies unfold.
The Strawberry Solstice Moon will shine tonight, marking the first full day of summer on June 21, 2024. This full moon, also known as the Rose Moon in Europe, will appear nearly full for a few days around this date. The Big Dipper will also be visible in the northwest sky. The moon's golden appearance is due to atmospheric reddening, similar to the effect seen during a total lunar eclipse.
A new supernova called SN 2023ixf has been spotted in the Pinwheel Galaxy, also known as M101, which is about 21 million light-years from the solar system. It is visible through any small telescope and can be found by star-hopping from Alkaid in the Big Dipper's handle. The Virtual Telescope will stream live images of SN 2023ixf on May 25, and smart telescopes such as the Unistellar eVscope or eQuinox or Vanois Stellina or Vespera can easily find and image SN 2023ixf just by typing in M101 or "Pinwheel Galaxy" to the smartphone app.