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when the Moon is a little less bright. Why not try to make a record of meteor activity one night. Armed with a blank piece of paper and a small red light torch, simply draw the apparent position and direction of each shooting star you see. Make a note too, on your drawing, of the time you observed each meteor. Alternatively, if you have a DSLR camera, a wide angle lens and tripod, set these up in a dark area of your garden. Focus on Jupiter or a bright star. Then aim the camera at an angle of around 60 degrees close to the constellation of Orion. Set your camera to Manual. Set your ISO to 1600 or above depending on how dark your sky is.. Take a series of 20 second images. The more images you take the more chance you have of capturing a meteor in one of them. It is easier to do this with an intervalometer which can be setup in advance to take lots of images while you sit back and enjoy the view. Look back through your images later and see if you have been lucky enough to catch a falling star!

Constellation of the Month: Auriga

Auriga, 'The Charioteer' is well placed for viewing this month. To find the constellation, start by facing south after dark. It is sitting amongst the dusty cloud lane of the Milky Way east from the 'W' of Cassiopeia. The very bright star Capella (magnitude 0.08), also known as Alpha Aurigae or 'She Goat', is the lead star of the constellation and the sixth brightest in the night sky. It is very easy to find sitting towards the northern part of the formation as your eye travels from west to east from the constellation of Cassiopeia. While this month's constellation is hard to imagine as the Greek charioteer 'Erichthonius', it is a simple form whose main stars are easy to see. Capella, Menkalinan, Al Anz, RT Auriga create the main shape. Elnath to the lower left, which is really part of the constellation of Taurus, marks the position of the 'left foot 'of the charioteer. We now know that the light of the star Capella is actually a system of four stars bound in orbit around one another. Just below Capella are three others which are known as 'The Kids' (of the goat!). These stars mark the 'right elbow' of the charioteer. With a telescope it is possible to observe three beautiful Messier objects; M36, M37 and M38. They are open star clusters and are located towards the southern end of the constellation, arranged in a haphazard line across Auriga.

They are open star clusters and are located towards the southern end of the constellation, arranged in a haphazard line across Auriga

This month in Astronomy and Space History

64 years ago on October the 4th 1957: The Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite 'Sputnik 1', marking the start of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. The satellite weighed 183 pounds and orbited the earth in 98 minutes. As a result of this Congress passed the Space Act in 1958, leading to the creation of N.A.S.A. - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 14 years ago on October the 23rd 2007: N.A.S.A. launched the space shuttle Discovery on the STS-120 to the International Space Station. This is the first time in N.A.S.A. history that two women, Commander Peggy Whitson and Commander Pamela Melroy, would be commanding two spacecraft at the same time. The International Space Station continues its orbit around the Earth where astronauts from many nations cooperate to advance our understanding of science and humans in space.

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