The positions of the stars on other nights can be found from previous charts (our last appeared on October 3), for they rise two hours earlier each month. Thus, the appearance of the sky at 10 pm at the beginning of June (except for the Moon and planets) is identical to that a month ago at midnight. The Moon, which will be full on the 10th and new on the 25th, is shown in its various phases. The hazy area represents the billions of stars of the Milky Way. Constellations are in capitals, and the brighter stars are in lower case. The larger the circle denoting them, the brighter the star.
This picture looks fit for a poster advertising a horror film. Whether it represents the jaws of a killer shark or Dracula opening his blood-filled mouth to reveal savage fangs, it appears appropriately startling and terrible.
It is in fact the central part of the Orion Nebula (M42), just coming into view in the east with the coming of winter. (The picture can be seen above and at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110913.html) At a distance of 1,500 light-years and 45 light-years across, the nebula is the most spectacular and easily seen example of a stellar nursery in which new stars are being born. Here, in William Herschel's pungent phrase, is the "chaotic material of future suns."
The nebula can be seen with the naked eye even in areas mildly affected by light pollution. Through binoculars it is visible as a fuzzy blob just below Alnilam, the middle star of the three stars that make up Orion's Belt. The fuzziness makes it obvious that this is no single star but a vastly more complex and interesting object.
Remarkably, nobody seems to have recognised the nebula for what it was until about 300 years ago. To the early astronomers it was just another star. Only through telescopes was it seen as truly extraordinary.
Orion is the most splendid of all constellations. Its two brightest stars, Rigel and Betelgese, are like cosmic searchlights, respectively 60,000 and 15,000 times brighter than the Sun. Betelgeuse is one member of the famous Winter Triangle—less famous than the summer figure, but just as spectacular—made up by Procyon in the east and Sirius to the south.
Most of the bright Orion stars are bluish white. Saiph, or Kappa Orionis, is in reality just as bright as Rigel. But being twice as distant disguises this fact. The Romans used to think the stars of Orion caused storms, but in reality they appear at the time of year when storms occur!
This is also true of Capella, the brightest star in Auriga the Charioteer that lies to the north of Orion. Capella has no other bright star close to it. As the 3rd century BC Greek writer Aratus tells us, the sight of Capella impresses landsmen with its loneliness and melancholy, but sailors, being of more practical bent, fear storms, “hating her inauspicious face.''
The opposite is true of the Twins, Castor and Pollux, the two bright stars of Gemini that lies further east. They have always been regarded as the protector of seamen. When St Paul sailed from Egypt to Rome without shipwreck it was said to have been because he carried images of the Twins on his sails.
Castor and Pollux are not true twins since they are in no way connected with one another. Pollux is the brighter of the two, partly because it is only 36 light-years away compared with Castor's 46. Pollux is a single star, while Castor is a fine double. Its companion star can be found with a small telescope.
Of the planets, Jupiter is visible all night in Aries, its four giant moons visible through a pair of rigidly held binoculars on a dark night. It is believed that billions of years ago Jupiter was much closer to the Sun. It gradually migrated outwards under the pull of Saturn.
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