How many stars can you see with naked eye inside the rectangle of Orion?
Thousands of people will be attempting this count. It’s a survey run by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, and the British Astronomical Association, as a means of mapping levels of light pollution. It will go on for three weeks, February 2 to 23.
You can do it, wherever you are, but to contribute to the survey you have to be in England. The newspaper article I first read about it failed to tell us where we can send our reports; the least annoying link I found is to the B.A.A. Consult this for the procedure to follow.
Orion is a natural choice for this exercise: it’s high on the meridian in January nights, and is easily recognizable, by the sloping three-star belt, and by the gigantic quadrangular body – Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel, and Saiph. So the idea is to count stars within that quadrangle.
My chart is centered on the middle star of the belt, Epsilon Orionis (Alnilam). The boundaries are of neighboring constellations; parts of Orion stretch out of the picture. Shown are stars down to magnitude 6, which is near the limit for good conditions.
You’ll be lucky if you see as many as are in the chart. “In 2014, six out of 10 participants could only see 10 stars or fewer …, indicating severe light pollution. Only one in 20 people could see more than 30 stars, which is an indication of truly dark skies.”
The first of these surveys was in 2006, and this is the sixth (so they haven’t been at regular intervals).
“Clear skies” are expected during the three weeks; presumably this is the continued winter high predicted by the groundhog when he saw his shadow this morning.
I’ve never quite figured out the groundhog algorithm. If the rat (Bill Murray’s term) sees his (or her) shadow, spring will come in six weeks, but if he (or she) doesn’t, we get another month and a half of winter. Or is it vice-versa?
If there is a shadow, the sky is clear. A clear sky in winter is characteristically associated with cold weather, because heat rises. Hence, longer cold weather. It’s of course a rough rule, folklorish. I should have explaned more fully, so that the question wouldn’t be repeated. See my reply to similar comments, and reference to my fuller post on this in I think 2014.
The way to remember it is that if the whistlepig sees his shadow he is startled by it and goes back into his burrow for 6 more weeks.
This project is racist. “You can do it, wherever you are, but to contribute to the survey you have to be in England. “
I hope you’re joking. Anybody of any race in England can contribute. Data are being collected in England because the light pollution map being made is a detailed one and is of that country. Trying to do it for the whole world would requite perhaps 300 times as much labor.
I count 41 stars in the diagram above, though it’s early and my eyes still be a bit blurry…..
Shubenacadie Sam, Nova Scotia’s Groundhog Day darling, grudgingly clambered out of his shelter just after dawn, saw his shadow, and retreated into hiding.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/groundhog-day-ont-premier-doug-ford-1.5003507
Puxstahawney Phil did NOT see his shadow, but Buckeye Chuck (in Marion, Ohio) DID see his shadow.
Correction: Neither Punxsutawney Phil nor Buckeye Chuck saw his shadow.
“Faithful followers, there is no shadow of me and a beautiful spring it shall be,” a member of Phil’s Inner Circle read from the groundhog’s prediction scroll to the cheers and applause from the crowd.