Starry starry night

Meant to mention last week but the thought was drowned out by fiddles - this picture-of-the-day from NASA is helpful for those stargazing at this time of year.



Over at their site, 'A Spring Sky Over Hirsau Abbey' is interactive, and perfectly explained, but the basic idea is a 'fisheye' image looking up from the courtyard of the ruins of a purdy Benedictine Abbey; the image tells you what you're looking at, but the explanatory 'science bit' offers a good method of getting from one constellation to another, when you're just staring up, without the benefit of magic lines joining the dots overhead:



Now all I need is a cloudless night :-)