Learning about the southern sky

[Skybear]

Can anyone recommend some good websites for learning about the southern sky? I live in Portland, Oregon, USA, so would appreciate any tips. I've read a bit about Southern Cross (Crux?) and seen a few sky charts.

I'm using the web version of Stellarium. I was having a problem when I downloaded the program onto my Mac.

Thanks and happy stargazing!

[astro744]

Welcome to the South!

Stellarium is your best option for PC or Mac. On a tablet then Stellarium or Sky Safari. I have both and prefer the way Stellarium handles time in the App; you simply drag the sky forward or backward although I do use Skay Safari more often simply because it has a very good map display and a lot of info on most objects. I have both free and Pro versions.

Any planetarium program will show you what is up anywhere in the world. Set your latitude to between 30-40 deg. south. Crux is circumpolar and will be high in the south in the evening sky in winter and low in south in the evening sky in summer. In fact you can use it as a clock if you know the seasons well. Enjoy!

[redbeard]

This website iceinspace.com.au is actually a great place to start and you are already here.
Many articles about every astro and from what I read, covers a vast array of southern sky..

People here also will have many links to interesting websites when they post articles so you could start right here and never have enough time to cover everything.

I don't know of a better website in the southern sky to look at. Apart from a google search if you know what topic you are interested in.

All the best and happy reading.

Cheers,
Damien

[Outcast]

Hi Mike & welcome to IIS...

Not websites but, a few books that I have found useful in learning about the southern skies are:

A walk through the southern sky: Milton D. Heifetz & Wil Tirion - ISBN-10 : 9781107698987

Atlas of the Southern Night Sky: Steve Massey & Steve Quirk - ISBN-10 : 1925546373

I have found these invaluable in both learning what is in my Southern Sky as well as navigating to them. I've been struggling with picturing the constellations though & now have a book on order that was recommended on this forum:

The Stars: A new way to see them: H.A. Rey -ISBN-10 : 0544763440

I haven't received this book as yet but, am looking forward to making more sense of the constellation images & 'connecting the dots' to reduce my reliance on technology when navigating the stars...

This last book is universal, not Southern Hemisphere based so, might be useful to you in other ways...

Hope you find this helpful

Cheers

[Skybear]

Thanks!

[Skybear]

By the way, nice quotation from Life of Brian, if I remember correctly.

[Outcast]

:thumbsup:

Yes indeed, Life of Brian

[Skybear]

Just an fyi, but I was looking through Amazon and found an e-version of Atlas of the Southern Night Sky. I'm tempted to buy that version, although having an actually book is appealing too.

[AdamJL]

Hi Mike. I would troubleshoot getting Stellarium sorted on your Mac.
Nothing beats it, to be honest. Once you've loaded up the appropriate sky-survey, you'll see everything; many things that the default view misses.

It's one of my favourite programs of all time, even with it's older GUI.