Beyond Bones

Today on Beyond Bones, HMNS’ resident astronomer James Wooten shows us what to look for in the night sky this month. Mars is low in the west northwest at dusk.  This is the last month to see it easily, as it now sets in twilight. Mercury enters the evening sky, approaching within ½ degree of […]

April is the last month to see the full set of brilliant winter stars which now fill the western evening sky.  Dazzling Orion is in the southwest at dusk.  His three-starred belt is halfway between reddish Betelgeuse and bluish Rigel.  Orion’s belt points rightward to Aldebaran in Taurus the Bull.  To Orion’s upper left are […]

  Constellations in the November southern sky are almost entirely devoid of bright stars.  They represent beasts and gods related to water, indicating that they are part of the ‘Celestial Sea’.  Examples are Aquarius, the Water Bearer and Pisces, the Fish.  Even Capricornus, the Goat, has a fish tail because he’s originally Ea, Babylonian god […]

      Autumn represents sort of an ‘intermission’ in the sky, with bright summer stars setting at dusk, while bright winter patterns such as Orion have not yet risen.   The ‘teapot’ of Sagittarius sets in the southwest early in the evening.  The Summer Triangle is high in the west.   Meanwhile, the Great Square […]