Stardome Observatory and Planetarium
Look up! The skies above us are home to stars, satellites, planets, galaxies and a wealth of amazing insights into the world we live in. At the Stardome Observatory, we bring together astronomers and enthusiasts, creating an environment that inspires a love of the sky and the science behind it in even the smallest stargazers. Situated in Auckland's One Tree Hill Domain, our facilities include an amazing 360° digital dome theatre and the 0.5m Zeiss telescope. As New Zealand's leading astronomical attraction, we use the best blend of education and entertainment to share our passion with close to 60,000 New Zealanders every year.
We invite you come and enjoy the view!
Sky Guides
March Star Charts |
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Northern Sky
Towards the north in March evenings, we find two bright stars pointing diagonally upwards. These are called Castor and Pollux, the two brightest stars of the constellation Gemini. the bottom one of these, Castor, is particularly interesting because although it appears to be one star to the naked eye, it is actually six stars all gravitationally bound to each other in three orbiting binary pairs. The rest of the constellation Gemini consists of two trails of dimmer stars going up and across from Castor and Pollux, marking the bodies of the twins.
The Milky way is in a good position for viewing this months as it stretches across the sky from north to south. When we look at the Milky Way, we are looking at the combined light from billions of stars in the nearest spiral arm of our galaxy which is diffused by interstellar dust and gas. Under good viewing conditions, the long constellation of Hydra (the snake) can be seen stretching across the sky from high in the north to low on the eastern horizon. It has the largest area of the 88 official constellation, but contains very few bright stars. The head of the snake makes a vaguely circular pattern slightly east of Canis Major. |
Southern Sky
 Just below the False Cross in March, we find another pattern of stars which can be mistaken for the Southern Cross. We call this asterism the Diamond Cross. It is about the same size as the False Cross, but is orientated the other way. At its easterly point we find IC2602, an open cluster surrounding the star Theta Carinae. This cluster is commonly known as the Southern Pleiades, although it is much harder to see with the naked eye than The Pleiades.
The region around the Southern Pleiades is very interesting to explore with a telescope. The Milky Way flows between the False Cross and the Southern Cross, making this area rich in interesting objects such as clusters and nebulae. West of the False Cross, we find the second brightest star in the sky, Canopus. It is a bright supergiant star 13,600 times more luminous than our own sun, and just over three hundred light years away.
To the east near the horizon, we find four bright stars in a distinctive quadrilateral pattern. This is the constellation Corvus, the Crow.
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