Sky Guide February 2024
‘With 29 days in February, 2024 is a Leap Year, or more precisely a Bissextile Year thanks to the naming conventions introduced under the reign of Julius Caesar in 46BCE. This extra day affords more time to enjoy the constellation of Orion in the north with the star forming cloud, M42 the Orion Nebula and the planet Jupiter in Aries to the northwest.’
Constellations
Constellations are groups of stars that represent mythological figures, fanciful beasts or old scientific instruments. Some have been used for millennia as a tool to share significant cultural stories and to track the passage of the weeks and months. Today they also help astronomers mark out portions of the sky and locate astronomical objects. Those listed below have been selected for their visibility in the evening up to two hours after sunset in the southern hemisphere.
Canis Major the Greater Dog and companion to Orion the hunter is the brightest star in the constellation Sirius (also known as the Dog Star). It is also the brightest in the night sky as it is close to us – only 8.7 light years away or about 82 million million kilometres and 25 times brighter than the Sun. In about 64,000 years it will be seen as the southern polar star due to the Earth’s wobbling axis of rotation and the star’s proper motion.
