The Acorn Tree at Night

Southern Hemisphere Skies, New Zealand
March 1st, 2002 - 10pm
Map as from Auckland skies

* Printable black and white skymap(125k) *

Key to Chart Above
Note: The Ecliptic is the plane of the Earth's Orbit

Planets
(green text), including their natural satellites. Note: size not to scale.

Constellations
(pale blue text)- lines indicate imaginary shapes formed by stars

Stars
(yellow text)

Galaxies
(white text)

Jupiter. This planet really is a must to see at the moment. View its moons through a telescope for a few nights and notice the change of their orbit.

Moon (Earth's natural satellite):-

Moon March 1st:
Moonrise March 1st: 2129hrs (29 minutes past 9pm)
Moon Set March 1st: 0958hrs (2 minutes to 10am)
Moon March 14th (new moon):
Moonrise March 14th: 0654hrs (6 minutes to 7am)
Moon Set: 2008hrs (8 minutes past 8pm)

Saturn. Another brilliant sight. Saturn's rings are spectacular at the moment. Easily seen even with a small telescope, and very bright.

Mars, the red planet, setting early in the western sky now.

Carina
Centaurus
Cetus
Eridanus
Gemini
Leo
Pavo
Phoenix
Pisces
Piscus Austrinus
Crux (Southern Cross)
Triangulum Australe

Achernar
Acrux
Alpha Centauri (Rigel Kentauri)
Beta Centauri (these two latter stars are the "pointers"
Betelgeuse
Canopus
Castor
Fomalhaut
Pollux
Procyon
Regulus
Rigel
Sirius

Star Clusters: (shown as hollow yellow circle, text in upper case)

The Pleiades (also called "Seven Sisters") - six or seven stars of this star cluster can be seen with the naked eye.

The Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

The Small Magellanic Cloud, another satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

The Milky Way (our own galaxy, it is a spiral galaxy).

M42 (Orion)