![]() Get your eyes as dark-adapted as possible averted vision will bring out hints of the spiral arms. Although faint, two cores are visible the second, less bright core is NGC 5195, a smaller galaxy interacting gravitationally with its large neighbor. ![]() This is a rare example of quantity equaling quality: time spent with M51 reaps rewards, with brief flashes of clarity that slowly build in your mind's eye to a fascinating whole. In my 8" reflecting scope, M101 is a challenge even on a good night.Ī little easier is M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. A row of stars leads down from Mizar and Alcor to relatively dark area of the sky where two parallel rows of faint stars will help you locate the galaxy's core. M101, the Pinwheel Galaxy, is a difficult spot. This part of the sky floats above the celestial north pole (which sits very close to the end of the little dipper's handle) so there's much less interstellar dirt obscuring our lines of sight to some interesting, though quite faint, galaxies. However, aim even a small scope toward Mizar itself and you'll see it's actually two stars separated by 14". Mizar and Alcor make for a great introduction to the night sky, and to how things are often more interesting than they first appear.Įveryone knows the Big Dipper (just one section, or "asterism", of the constellation Ursa Major) and most people can easily see that the middle star of its handle, Mizar, has a fainter companion, Alcor. More about those in April's Starry Night Times. A new tab in the OPTIONS:STARS panel allows you to set the quality of display, or you can turn it off completely.īesides AllSky, the latest version of Starry Night Pro Plus contains a host of improvements and new functions. If you find that AllSky isn't your cup of tea, like everything else in Starry Night you have complete control over its display. Sewn together from 20,000 individual images, the AllSky Image contains 6.44 billion pixels, spread over five levels of resolution, meaning you can now plan your night's viewing with both the precision of Starry Night's charts and the realism of, well, reality! Main Sequence Software spent 5 years creating the AllSky Image. You can see below the difference between the old sky and the new. You simply launch Starry Night as you normally do, but the sky that fades up is superbly naturalistic. The AllSky CCD Image Mosaic has been painstakingly mapped to overlay precisely with the existing Starry Night databases. The latest release of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 5.0, has an astounding new feature that really blew me away: a full-color image of the entire night sky. If you have trouble viewing this newsletter, click here.Īttending NSTA Convention in Dallas? Get a sneak peek at Starry Night Middle School and High School - complete space science curriculum solutions written for teachers by teachers. ![]()
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