Fomalhaut (alpha [α] PsA), the principal star of Piscis Austrinus, the ‘Southern Fish’, and the eighteenth-brightest star within the heavens, is essentially the most southerly first-magnitude star seen proper throughout the UK. It takes its identify from the Arabic phrase that means ‘the mouth of the southern fish’. It’s at all times nice enjoyable to attempt to observe these horizon-hugging southern stars.
Learn how to observe:
Fomalhaut has a declination of –29.5°, which suggests when it culminates (crosses the southern meridian) it achieves at greatest a tree-scraping elevation of simply 9 and 5.5 levels from London and Edinburgh, respectively. Ion early October, end result happens at about 11.15pm BST.
For those who can safe an observing location with an uninterrupted southern horizon then Fomalhaut needs to be straightforward to identify, shining at magnitude +1.16. Piscis Austrinus lies virtually 45 levels beneath Markab (alpha [a] Pegasi), the star marking the south-western nook of the Nice Sq. of Pegasus. Observe an imaginary line down by western Pisces and Aquarius to land on Fomalhaut. A pair of binoculars might come in useful in case of skinny cloud or extreme haze near the southern horizon.
GRAPHIC] Fomalhaut finder.jpg
DESIGN] Please present a wide-field finder with the Sq. of Pegasus included per textual content in my penultimate paragraph.
CAPTION] Fomalhaut is the principal star of the southern constellation of Piscis Austrinus, the ‘Southern Fish’. Discover a flat observing horizon and look there south of Markab in
.jpg){kind=small}
