View On Astronomy: Observing the Winter Circle is quite the seasonal sight – The Independent

I never tire of observing shooting stars, as long as the activity keeps up so I dont fall asleep. So with exceptionally clear skies and a relatively warm temperature of 42 degrees (not bad for the Geminids), last December I settled down in a lounge chair on my back porch to scan the heavens for meteors blazing across the sky.

I started my observing session on Dec. 13 at 10 p.m. and ended it at 11:30 p.m. During that 90-minute span I counted 20 Geminids. Nothing spectacular. No brilliant fireballs. A few shooting stars rivaled the brightness of Orions Rigel. Many were much dimmer. Regardless, the frequency of these meteors streaking through the Earths atmosphere was sufficient enough to maintain my interest.

As the night progressed, a slight breeze came up. Considering it was December, it was still fairly mild. Ive observed Geminids in the past when temperatures were in the lower 20s, with me snuggled up in a sleeping bag. Some high thin cloudsbegan to encroach the sky just before 11:30 p.m., so I called itquits.

As I sat facing east around 10 p.m., the constellation Gemini was already above my tree line. Orion the mighty hunter was high in the southeast. Soon, seven of the brightest stars we can see from the Earth would be in full view as the star patterns continued to rise higher into the sky.

I looked out at 4:30 a.m. to see if it was clear and if the activity had increased. It was totally overcast.

I hope you took advantage of the optimum observing conditions to observe a few meteors yourself.

Im sure youve heard of the Summer Triangle. This shape is formed by connecting three bright stars Deneb (in Cygnus), Vega (in Lyra), and Altair (in Aquila). This triangle of stars is high overhead during mid-summer.

Well the winter sky has its own special asterism, and this one is huge. Its called the Winter Circle or Winter Hexagon. Ill explain why you can get both shapes from the stars.

Please examine the basic star map accompanying this article. This chart represents the sky for Feb. 1 at 9 p.m., looking from a point directly overhead (zenith) toward the southern horizon. A circle or, actually, an ellipse can be drawn through each of the labeled stars. However, you can also draw a straight line from one star to the next and create a hexagon. Betelgeuse, though inside either pattern, is still considered part of the asterism.

Before we examine each of the stars in the Winter Circle, lets review three important terms. First, the brightness of any celestial object is called its magnitude. The basic idea is that the more negative the magnitude, the brighter the object. The more positive the magnitude, the dimmer the object is. So, the Sun is -26.74, the Full Moon -12.92, Venus -4.89, Saturn approximately 0, well-known Polaris (the North Star) is magnitude +2, and the naked-eye limit with no light pollution is magnitude +6. Pluto is about +13.65. (Usually the plus sign (+) is assumed and not used, but I do so in this column for clarity.)

Second, a stars distance is measured in light years. One light year is equal to just under six trillion miles. Third, the spectral classification of a star is categorized using the following letters: O, B, A, F, G, K, M, and often followed by additional numbers and letters to further refine the classification. O stars are the hottest, while M stars are the coolest.

Lets start our tour of the Winter Circle with the brightest star we can see in the sky (besides the Sun of course) Sirius. Sirius is in Canis Major, the Big Dog. Sirius shines at magnitude -1.44 and it is 8.7 light years away. Do the math and this fairly close neighbor to our Sun is 52.2 trillion miles from us. For you Rhode Islanders, thats much farther than Newport or Westerly! Sirius is a hot, blue-white star (spectral class A0) about 1.7 times the diameter of our Sun.

Next, we move northward and clockwise in the sky to locate Procyon in Canis Minor, the Little Dog. Procyon is a white star (F5) shining at magnitude +0.40 and is 11 light years distant. Its about twice the diameter of our Sun. Moving farther northward we encounter the Gemini twins, Pollux and Castor. Pollux is 34 light years distant, while Castor is 18 light years farther away at 52. Pollux is a cool, orange giant (K0) ten times the Suns diameter, while Castor is a hot, blue-white star (A1) only twice the diameter of the Sun. Pollux and Castor shine at +1.16 and +1.93 magnitude, respectively.

Now we swing up and over to a constellation almost directly overhead Auriga, where we find +1.93 magnitude Capella. While Capella (G6) is a class G-type yellow star like the Sun (G2), it has three times more mass and is just over seven times the Suns diameter. Next, we proceed south to encounter the orange giant (K5) Aldebaran in Taurus. Aldebaran represents the bulls eye in the star pattern known as the Hyades star cluster (shaped like a V). Aldebaran, 65 light years away, is a cool star which has expanded to be just over 44 times the diameter of the Sun with only 2.5 times our Suns mass.

Continue to swing southward in the sky until we arrive at the bottom right star representing Orions left foot. (Please note: Orion is facing us.) This star is +0.18 magnitude Rigel, a blue supergiant (B8) 800 light years away the most distant of the Winter Circle stars. Rigel is 62 times the diameter of our Sun and contains 17 times more mass. We now complete the tour of the Winter Circle by swinging back to Sirius.

But wait. No, I didnt forget about Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse is the red supergiant (M2) star that marks the top right shoulder of Orion. It shines at magnitude +0.45 and resides at a distance of 520 light years. Betelgeuse is also a very large star, measuring in at a conservative 950 solar diameters. If you replaced our Sun with Betelgeuse it would extend out to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

As you can see by this small sampling of stars that comprise the Winter Circle, stars are a lot like people: They are all different, but their differences make them unique and important.

The next time you have an opportunity to observe the Winter Circle, you will have a better understanding and appreciation of the scale and diversity of our stellar neighbors in this region of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Keep your eyes to the skies.

The author has been involved in the field of observational astronomy in Rhode Island for more than 35 years. He serves as historian of Skyscrapers Inc., the second oldest continuously operating amateur astronomical society in the United States.