The natural Navigation: The Right Course, Naturally

Awoke this morning and took the newest member of the family, a miniature Schnauzer puppy called Dreyfus, out for his constitutional.

Then it was time to look southeast and to watch Virgo melt back into the dawn light as Venus rose above the thin slither of a waning crescent moon. Below them pink and orange light bounced through under the dark blue sky and above the white of the hills.

My kind of music. Probably what Dreyfus was thinking too.

The frost crunched under the Ugg boots this morning and the cold crept in under the ridiculous hat as I helped myself to views of the waning moon, Sirius and Venus. In this picture Venus can be seen just above the contrail.

You may also just be able to see a star to the right of Venus and slightly higher. This is Spica in the constellation Virgo. Minutes after this picture was taken Spica had disappeared from view, drowned in the dawn’s growing light. Venus would not be bullied so easily from the sky and remained beacon bright. This is one of the easiest ways of telling that you are looking at a planet, they are usually the first to arrive and the last to leave the night party.

Saturn was visible earlier on, higher in the eastern sky than Venus or Spica, but is far from its brightest at…

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I crept outside this morning, trying not to wake the kids, and treated my self to a pre-heliacal viewing of Saturn. He was happily nestled under the star Porrima, that is to say between Virgo’s armpit and her shoulder.

If you are awake shortly before sunrise over the next couple of weeks, look just south of east. If it is clear then you should see what appears to be white star on top of a yellow one, both of them sitting not far above the horizon. The higher of the two is Gamma Virginis, or Porrima, in the constellation, Virgo. Below that will be the orangey-yellow Saturn. Neither of them are especially bright and so they will not stand out with the confidence that Jupiter is doing at night at the moment, but they should still be easy to find until the first light of dawn swamps them.

NB. Try…

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For better or worse I seem to have a sixth sense for when conditions are great very early in the morning. I woke at 5.30am and was instantly drawn out into the neighbouring field to take in the scene and to take a picture. The snow was being lit up from the south by the waning crescent moon, the stars were out in force and Mars was peering down in red confidence from high in the west.

I stepped over the style into the field, camera in one hand, tripod in another and then it all went wrong. To avoid waking anyone I had not stumbled around for my clothes in the dark, but opted for the worryingly standard kit for this time of day: pyjamas, thick coat and wellies. My left foot slipped a bit on the style’s ice and a successful bid to save my skin and camera…

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First thing this morning our bathroom was bright with diffused light from the blinds that had been filled with moonlight from the west. I put on a thick jacket and pair of Ugg boots and wandered outside. Looking up I was spoilt. The moon was indeed throwing her weight around and this can sometimes make for imperfect stargazing, but the cold air was clear enough that between the first glow of dawn in the east and the moon’s light in the west there were riches to choose from. Gemini, Leo and Virgo were high in the sky. The dark spaces between them were punctured with Saturn and the reddish Mars. In the east another tinge of red was clear in the form of Arcturus. (It was less than two months ago that I was wondering at Arcturus and Bootes in the western evening sky.) Low in the southern sky…

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