During the nights of August, the Moon will serve as a guide to identify the star Spica that will shine in the sky starting today. A couple of the crescent Moon accompanied by a star that has many secrets to tell us, will appear in the celestial vault and will be very easy to identify.
Navigating among the thousands of stars that are visible in the sky can be an extremely satisfying task when you can successfully identify them. Developing the ability to identify celestial bodies can be a little confusing when not done with the right guidance, however, once the target is located, the satisfaction grows in spurts.
How to watch Spica
The nights of August will be an opportunity for those interested in learning more about the star map that moves vertiginously above us. The Moon will take the role of night guide when it appears in the east at sunset starting August 3. The satellite will be accompanied by a bright star, a panorama worth capturing.
On the night of August 3 when the Sun sets in the west, the Moon can be seen already high in the sky and will be accompanied by the bright first magnitude star Spica. It will be very easy to identify because it will seem that both will travel the ecliptic together, one next to the other.
*Spica and the Moon on August 3. Stellarium.
But starting August 4, our guide will raise the difficulty of finding Spica a little more, because the Moon will move away from the star to the east and continue to grow until it reaches the crescent phase. Finally, on August 5 at 11:06 UTC, the satellite will reach its crescent phase and will be even further away from Spica, however, it will set the tone for being able to identify it in the sky.
To look at Spica you just have to look for the Moon during the nights starting August 3 and keep track of it. You can use apps to search for stars in the sky or guide yourself with the maps that you can see below.
*Spica and the Moon on August 4. Stellarium.
Spica, the brightest star in Virgo
They all have hierarchies in their stars that range from the brightest to the smallest. Spica is precisely the brightest star in the Virgo constellation and is also the fifteenth brightest in the entire night sky. The brightest of the entire celestial vault is Sirius in the constellation Canis Maior.
It must be understood that even if one star is larger than another, it may appear less bright in the sky if it is at a greater distance. This stellar magnitude is called absolute magnitude, but it is not used in astronomical observation with the naked eye because it is not consistent with what we observe in the sky.
For these purposes, the apparent magnitude is used, which does not take into account factors such as size and distance, but rather the perspective of the observer. It could be said that apparent magnitude refers to how big or small a star looks in the sky with the naked eye, that is, it depends on the amount of light that is observed from our terrestrial perspective.
The apparent magnitude scale goes from 1 to 6, with those of 1st magnitude being the brightest stars and those of 6th magnitude being the least noticeable. Spica is a star of the first magnitude and the only one of this level belonging to the constellation of Virgo, it is for this reason that the observation of the star is a fact that excites cosmonauts, since it can rarely be seen next to the Moon. .