Lyrid meteor shower is this week! Click here for more info
In April 2012, the golden planet Saturn and the sparkling blue-white star Spica can act as your guide to the Omega Centauri globular star cluster. You can see this cluster with the unaided eye. Omega Centauri looks like a fairly faint (and possibly fuzzy) star. It’s a beautiful and very special star cluster, and Saturn and Spica can help you find it.
To find Omega Centauri, first find Saturn and Spica. Saturn and Spica are close together in the southeast every evening now, and their closeness on the sky’s dome will help you spot them. You can spot the pair by extending the curve of the Big Dipper handle, as illustrated on our chart to the right.
Saturn transits – climbs to its highest point in the sky – around midnight (1 a.m. Daylight Saving Time) tonight for all locations around the globe. Why? Because we passed between Saturn and the sun yesterday, and this planet is now opposite the sun in our sky. Spica transits at much the time same as Saturn. You can find Spica’s precise transit time for your sky at the US Naval Observatory.
As seen from the Northern Hemisphere, Spica and Omega Centauri transit due south at the same time. That means that – when Spica is highest in the south – Omega Centauri is, too. Look for Omega Centauri about 35 degrees directly below Spica. A fist at an arm-length approximates 10 degrees.
Omega Centauri star cluster. Image Credit: Jean-Paul Longchamp via Meade.com
Omega Centauri is special in part because you can see it with your eye alone. Very few of the Milky Way galaxy’s 250 or so globular star clusters are readily visible without optics. Globular clusters are large, symmetrically shaped groupings of stars, fairly evenly distributed around the core of our Milky Way galaxy. Omega Centauri is the largest globular and finest globular star cluster visible to the eye alone.
People living south of 35 degrees north latitude have a realistic chance of spotting Omega Centauri, though it’s been seen as far north as Point Pelee, Canada (42 degrees north). Best appreciated with a telescope, Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest of all globular star clusters, is a globe-shaped stellar city, teeming with millions of stars!
Bottom line: Use Saturn and Spica to locate Omega Centauri on these April 2012 nights!
Spica, Saturn and visual irony from EarthSky Facebook friend Lyndsay Saunders in Memphis. Picture taken last night (April 15, 2012). Lol, Lyndsay! Thank you.
Spica is a whirling double star
Amazing like always, clear skies tonight I’ll be ready to look for it :)
Will i be able to see this if im in texas on the coast?
Jesse,
Yes!
Bruce
Yes, I’m sure you can see it with the eye alone if you are in a suburban sky –limiting magnitude 5 or better– but NO WAY is this cluster visible in city skies without at least binoculars! Anyways, I have my binoculars ready to try and see it in my city sky. If the LM south tonight is 4 or better, I hope I can see a bit more than just a very blurry and small spot!
I got a great view of the cluster tonight with my Celestron 15×70 binoculars. Our location is in coastal Alabama (30 degree latitude) near the Florida line. It was surprisingly large in the binoculars. Can’t wait to try a larger scope on it.