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IN THE northern hemisphere, winter is still with us. That means dark nights and plenty of opportunity to look for fainter targets in the sky. In the southern hemisphere, nights are short, but stargazing is still possible. This week, we have two activities, one for the amateur astronomers of each hemisphere.

In the north, we are looking for the Double Cluster. No prize for surmising that this is a pair of star clusters close together in the sky, from our perspective. They are young clusters that are, in fact, 800 light years from each other. But if you have a pair of binoculars, you will be able to get your eyes on both at the same time.

The dark nights of February are a great time to look for the Double Cluster, especially around the new moon on 1 February, when there will be little-to-no moonlight. As usual with fainter targets, make sure you are away from light pollution and give your eyes plenty of time to adjust to the darkness – about 40 minutes. The Double Cluster is in the constellation Perseus and it can be found by first locating Cassiopeia, the small W or M-shaped constellation that we have previously used to spot Andromeda (2 October 2021).

You will need to draw an imaginary line between the star at the centre of Cassiopeia, known as . Continue this line and, just over halfway to the first bright star you come to – Mirfak, in Perseus – is the Double Cluster. You should be able to see the clusters with the naked eye, but binoculars will show much more fascinating detail. Both clusters are about 12.8 million years old, much younger than the Pleiades or Hyades clusters. They each contain a few hundred hot supergiant stars thousands of times brighter than our sun.

For readers in the southern hemisphere, February, March and April are great months to look for the , in the constellation Carina. It sits between the bright star Canopus, also in Carina, and the Southern Cross, in the constellation Crux. The nebula is 7500 light years from Earth and is one of the biggest star-forming regions in our galaxy. It has a binary star system at its centre.

To spot the nebula, first find the Southern Cross and then its stars Acrux, the brightest star in the cross, and Delta Crucis, next to it looking anticlockwise around the cross. Draw a line perpendicular to a line between these stars and follow it in the direction away from the other two stars in the cross. After roughly 5 degrees – about the width of your three middle fingers held at arm’s length – you will be at the nebula (it is near the Southern Pleiades, a small cluster of stars). This is one of the largest nebulae in the night sky. Once found by eye, grab your binoculars for a clearer view.

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