Southern Hemisphere Skies

Flukey

Tomorrow evening I fly to Amsterdam, then Nairobi overnight and then to Lilongwe in Malawi, to do some voluntary work. (See my link below. Donations are still welcome). I've never crossed the equator before. The furthest south I have been was in New Orleans in 2005. In the context of this forum it will be very interesting to see constellations I've never seen before and the noticeably different locations of those I am familiar with and the absence of others. Even in New Orleans, it was strange to see the constellations so differently located. Where I will be is about 15° south of the equator. There are going to be many aspects of interest to my trip, but along with my sun tan lotion and insect repellent I'll be bringing my binoculars and my trusty star atlas. Here's hoping for clear skies.

Mahatma coat

theres many kewl things in the sky down this end, like the cross n stuff but the one that wierds me out is Orion standin on his head.

*(failed attempt at drawing it )

kinda like that, but its still bright here so I might edit it later, actualy


screw that I'll just take a photo from the farm at the weekend.

guinnessdrinker

Yeah its pretty cool in the southern hemishpere, with the southern cross. We werent sure but we thought we saw the plough is upside down too! That was north of austraila.

Flukey

It was strange to see some familiar constellations looking slightly different to the way that we normally see them. Seeing Orion, looking smaller and almost directly overhead was strange too. Where I was staying was high up, but there was a lot of trees around blocking some of the sky, but I did see some good stuff. It was great to see completely "new" constellations, that I'd only ever read or seen photos of. It took me a while to get my bearings and recognise what I was seeing. I'd have like to have been in a place with a broader view and had more time to do some star-gazing.