Sunday 19 February 2012

The Scorpion Rises

Was up very early for work as usual - left the house at 0610 to find a spot of indigo-green twilight in the sky (hooray!) and the thinnest slice of a waning moon glowing orange scraping a rooftop.

Virgo and Saturn were visible, but are already starting to set. What I could see, low in the South South West and red as a hot coal, was Antares, Alpha Scorpii, sat viciously beneath his claws. Alas from here, his sting is never visible.

To quote Death in Vegas, "Scorpio Rising". Signs that winter is perhaps on the way out. A sign of a chance to hunt star clusters and the centre of the galaxy low down. Fat chance in he orange smog above the rooftops!

Have just had a little stint with binoculars. Despite the neighbours security light, the starfields of Orion, Monoceros, Gemini and Auriga were beautiful. Had a look for Messier 41 and Messier 50, but low down, and no joy I think. Luckily the sky in this part of the universe is one massive star cluster.

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