Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Expanding Stories

Evolution of the Castle Hill site from botanical research station to Museum Discovery Centre

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

Sky Guide May 2023

Sydney Observatory's monthly guide to the southern sky

Powerhouse Renewal

A transformative renewal program across four sites

We Rise

Blak Powerhouse

Powerhouse-1 Mission Launch to the ISS

An initiative of the Powerhouse: Future Space program

2024

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

Powerhouse Parramatta Topping Out

Major construction milestone achieved for the new museum

2023

Stories

Sky Guide May 2023

Sydney Observatory's monthly guide to the southern sky

With Dr Sarah Reeves

‘The best time to observe any meteor shower is after midnight, usually a few hours before dawn, so on the morning of the 7th, look towards the east.’

Dr Sarah Reeves, Science Curator and Astronomer

The peak of the Eta Aquarids shower this month unfortunately coincides with the full Moon on the 6th so overall viewing conditions may be better in the first three or four days of May, after the Moon has set (Moonset 1:44am on 1 May; 5:41am on 5 May).

Constellations

Constellations are groups of stars that form a picture. These pictures were given names and for millennia have been used as a tool for navigation and to share significant cultural stories. Astronomers use these constellations to delineate portions of the sky and as a way for locating astronomical objects. In May the following constellations dominate the autumn sky.

Glass plate slide with a hand-drawn illustration of the stars of the Orion constellation and an artistic representation of Orion ‘The Hunter’ raising a club above his head. A dead bull lies to his right. — 1/2
Glass plate slide depicting a visualisation of the Orion constellation. In Greek mythology, Orion was the great hunter, who declared that he would kill every animal on Earth. Angered by his actions, goddess Gaia sent a giant scorpion (Scorpius) to kill Orion. This is why Orion and Scorpius are on opposite sides of the sky and will never be seen at the same time.
Object No. 85/59-24/11

Glass plate slide with positive photographic image of a patch of stars in the sky. — 2/2
Lantern slide showing a portion of the Orion constellation
Object No. 85/59-20/21

Orion the hunter is on his side, low in the western sky after sunset. Orion is easy to find, with the best-known feature of this constellation the ‘Saucepan’ asterism. This is a familiar group of stars for those of us in the southern hemisphere and is Orion’s belt and sword.

Canis Major the great dog is high in the western sky in the early evening. The brightest star in the constellation, Sirius, is also the brightest in the night sky. It is bright as it is close to us, only 8.7 light years away or about 82 million million kilometres from us.

Carina is high in the southern sky and represents the keel of a ship. Carina was originally part of the constellation Argo Navis (Argo was the ship of Jason and the Argonauts) and the nearby constellations of Vela (the sails) and Puppis (the stern) formed the rest of the ship. In 1756, Nicolas Louis de Lacaille published his catalogue of the southern stars showing Argo Navis divided into the three constellations we see today. Canopus, the second brightest star in the sky, can be found in Carina and is a white supergiant star about 313 light years away.