Down to earth Keeping your eye on the Hunting Dogs

Kevin Quinn is a Dark Sky Custodian for the Cranborne Chase Dark Sky Reserve who lives in Piddletrenthide. Read his blog at theastroguy.wordpress.com

Amongst all the well known constellations in the night sky, many of which, like Leo or Orion, resemble their mythical counterparts, there’s an innocuous little stellar group of stars (only two of which are bright enough to see with the naked eye) called Canes Venatici – the Hunting Dogs. Located below and to the right of the handle of the Big Dipper, the brightest of the two stars is called Cor Caroli, and is a stunning yellow/white double star system. The other visible star is called Chara, and its most interesting aspect is that it’s very similar to the Sun. Despite its rather uninspiring appearance, Canes Venatici is one of my favourite constellations, and contains within its borders some of the most amazing sights in astronomy. For example, there’s the deep red ‘carbon’ star known as La Superba (what a great name!) You’ll probably need binoculars to see it (I know I do these days), but it’s a great sight. Then there’s Messier 3, a globular cluster containing around 500,000 stars. It’ll appear as a soft and fuzzy ball when viewed with binoculars, but even a small telescope will resolve stars to the core.

The main attractions amongst the hunting dogs are galactic, however. There’s the Sunflower galaxy, the Whirlpool, Cocoon and Hockey Stick galaxies, and the stunning Silver Needle and (my favourite) the Whale galaxies. The stars of the constellation may not resemble a pair of hunting dogs, ferociously hounding the Great Bear, but the latter galaxy definitely resembles a

Anyway, Canes

Venatici is just rising high enough now to allow for decent views of the objects within.

There are a couple of spectacular planetary conjunctions coming up. On the evening of February 15, just after sunset, look to the western horizon for a very close conjunction between Neptune and Venus. The latter will probably be too bright to allow for seeing Neptune, but you never know… Then, on March 2, just after sunset, look again to the western horizon for a very close conjunction between Jupiter and Venus, with only around half a degree separation. Should be quite a sight. There are also a couple of close passes of the moon during February: the very slim waxing crescent lines up with Jupiter and Venus on the 22nd, very low in the west; the waxing crescent and the Pleiades on the 26th; and the very next evening the moon lines up very close to Mars. Happy hunting!

different species but they’re all quite fascinating

Both component species will have a Latin name, though it is that of the more visible fungus by which the lichen as a whole is semi-informally known.

Few have common names, and no one serious about lichens would be seen dead using one. The algae are often visible in the green coloration one sees in some lichens, but many, such as the ubiquitous Xanthoria parietina, sport bright yellows and oranges, the colours provided by carotenoid pigments that protect the delicate algae from ultraviolet light. Incidentally, you can easily tick Xanthoria parietina off you list by looking at your (or anybody else’s) roof, where it forms irregular discs.

The fascinating cyanobacteria lichens I must leave for another day.

We are extremely fortunate in West Dorset in having relatively clean air. In London they were once down to a single species in the 1950s before legislation reduced pollution. There has been a recovery to the low hundreds, but lichens are famously sensitive to air quality and London will never support more that a fraction of British lichens. By comparison, my knowledgeable friend showed me a gnarled beech tree that had once been part of an old hedge near our village. He named twenty-six species of lichens on this single tree, two of them rare, and now doubt a ladder would have found more.

Down to earth

by JO BELASCO

I am old and it is winter. If I were young and it were spring, Kingston Russell stone circle would be a grand destination for a chariot race.

The stone circle was built some 4,000 years ago, according to English Heritage, and that would encompass the time the Celtic Durotriges tribe lived in Dorset.

After much research I conclude that the name Durotriges is best understood to mean two rigs – ie: a two-horse chariot – of course that got my mind racing.

As I trudge along in the mud and ice in this lonely, desolate place I reimagine it some 3,000 years ago. The main focus on this walk is of course the stone circle at the end of the lane – it is easy to do and I have been guilty of missing the huge crossroads there. But one winter I got lost in the fog at St Luke’s chapel near Ashley Chase Dairy and, maybe led by a pixie, found my way home to Portesham via Kingston Russell stone circle.

I was amazed to see it loom out of the mist and I realised it was central to many paths – an ancient crossroads.

Along the way to the stone circle and the adjacent crossroads are even more