If you set up a telescope somewhere along the equator can you see the North Star along with the furthest southern hemisphere constellation?
In: Planetary Science
It depends on your elevation and local horizon, but it’s not impossible. On a smooth and round planet you would see more than 180 degrees of the celestial sphere as the horizon curves slightly downward. You wouldn’t need a telescope, of course…the North Star is a naked-eye star and there’s nothing on the southern celestial pole to see.
only under ideal weather and geographic conditions. if you stand precisely on the equator the north star should be just on the horizon….so any small hill in the way or going below sea level would remove it from view.
gaining elevation would certainly help
Due to the curvature of the Earth, if you are at a high elevation at the Equator near the equinoxes (when the Earth’s rotation axis is aligned with the edge of the Sun’s light on the Earth), it is possible to see both Polaris and the Southern Cross just at the horizon. In theory, any point within the tropics (the places on Earth where it is possible for the Sun to be at zenith, meaning, perfectly “directly overhead” for a few days each year) can achieve this effect, briefly.
Most of the time, however, such visibility is limited at best or even impossible. E.g. if the best viewing time happens while the Sun is actually directly overhead, you aren’t seeing those stars. Or, as others have noted, hills and mountains may interrupt your view. This is one of the reasons why we built telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii: it’s a tall mountain *surrounded by ocean,* meaning it is completely immune to the “hill/mountain got in the way” problem.
Yes, but they would both be on the horizon, so you’d need to be pretty high up (to avoid hills and trees from getting in the way), and you’d be looking at them through a lot of air mass. (Approximately 38 air masses)
Ideal observation takes place near your zenith (right above your head) because there’s only one air mass above you.
The atmosphere adds a lot of extra distortion and scattering, hence why sunrises and sunsets are red/orange
Definitely gives you the best view of everything, but the specifics you can see will be limited at each time. The earth has a slight tilt, so night time will be slightly north or slightly south facing depending on the time of year. If you are at an elevated point, on a clear night, around spring or autumn, then you could likely see the north star over one horizon and southern stars at the other.
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