Starry Starry Night: Guam's spring sky

Hello everyone! I’m sure you’ve noticed that Venus and Mercury are no longer in the evening western sky.

Venus passed directly between us and the sun last Sunday and Mercury passed between us and the sun on Tuesday. They will reappear in the early morning sky with Saturn next month.

You can still find Jupiter and Mars in the evening sky. Jupiter is two fist-widths to the right of Orion’s shoulder high in the western sky and Mars is almost straight overhead at one hour after sunset

And now, since there’s no bright moon in your early evening sky, this is the time of year when I tell you how to find what used to be the sky’s largest constellation, the Great Ship Argo Navis. The Great Ship sails backward across our southern sky, so to go sailing on the biggest ship in the universe, face due south and locate Orion the Hunter high in the sky to your right.

Below him is Canis Major, the Big Dog, Orion’s hunting companion. Sirius, the sky’s brightest star is to the southeast of the Hunter’s feet, and Sirius is the Big Dog’s head. Below Sirius is a triangle of stars that forms the dog’s hind legs. That’s your jumping-off point. Two stars to the left and slightly above the triangle form the top of the ship’s high stern. The ship then sweeps down toward the southern horizon, virtually filling Guam’s spring southern sky with stars.

The constellation Puppis the Poop is the high stern of the Great Ship Argo Navis. The Milky Way runs right through the middle of this constellation. At right angles to the deck of the Ship is a faint line of stars. That’s Pyxis the Ship’s Compass. Since no compass is a straight line, there are those who call Pyxis the Ship’s Tiller.

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Above the deck of the Great Ship Argo Navis is a ragged circle of stars. This is Vela the Sail, fully opened to catch the wind. Although many references call this constellation Vela the Sails, there appears to be only one sail. The Milky Way runs through Vela from northwest to southeast and Vela contains what appears to be the only complete break in the glowing band of light. It’s called the Great Rift, and it’s made of dark nebulae of dust and cold gas.

Carina the Keel is the bottom of the Great Ship Argo Navis, and it can be seen in its entirety only from south of 15 degrees north. The Milky Way flows through the entire constellation and the whole area is full of many astounding deep sky objects. Carina also contains Canopus, the sky’s second brightest star.

Canopus isn’t visible from most of the mainland U.S. and is the only star named for a real person, the pilot of the Greek fleet who sailed the ships to the destruction of Troy. Canopus is a blue-white super giant, and it’s 309 light years away. Sirius and Canopus are our sky’s two brightest stars, but Canopus is actually much brighter than Sirius.

The prow of the ship contains four stars that are often called the False Cross. From Guam’s latitude these stars look more like a house roof viewed in perspective. The real Southern Cross is immediately to the east of Carina.

What’s that you say? The Southern Cross? Can you see the Southern Cross from Guam? Don’t miss a single Starry Starry Night and I’ll tell you all about it!