Stargazers and night-owls alike; this is your opportunity to look to the skies as part of an internationalamateurastronomy event. All you have to do is find a centaur shooting an arrow with a teapot.
The 2011 Great World Wide Star Count encourages budding Southern-hemisphere astronomers to study the Sagittarius constellation and make their observations.
Locating the formation is easy, just look west an hour after sunset and you'll see the teapot asterism - a collection of stars roughly halfway between the horizon and Zenith (the point directly above you). At this time of year, the stars align to visibly display Sagittarius, the Archer of the skies. Scientists are asking contributors to count the number of stars they see within the constellation.
With your observations, researchers can map how external and unnatural lighting is limiting visibility of the milky way. This contribution may seem small - but who knows? Perhaps you'll discover something bigger.
Blue Mountains Reverend Bob Evans, a keen amateur astronomer, holds the world record for most supernovae discovered visually. Bill Bradfield, of South Australia, is also quite an enthusiast - finding 18 comets with his eyes only.
Real astronomers are limited by time and resources, so it's studies like these that map valuable information. Last year's results found that remote Australia is one of the best areas for stargazing... as if we didn't know that already!
So what are you waiting for? Get outside tonight and contribute to this cosmic cause.
