Matariki

This weekend we saw the first official celebration and statutory holiday for the Māori new year - Matariki.

Matariki is the Māori name for the cluster of stars known as the Pleiades. We can see the constellation in our skies for most of the year, but it disappears for about a month then reappears around winter solstice, its reappearance being celebrated as a new year in Māori culture.

I was out early this morning, making a trek up Auckland's North Head in Devonport, and I managed to capture Matariki, along with the waning crescent moon, and Venus. When I say capture, I mean that it was my DSLR camera that captured it. I wasn't exactly sure where to look, and the moon was fairly bright, and there were a few clouds about, so I thought I'd missed the display. It wasn't until I got the images onto my computer that I realised that I got some good shots.

So, here I present my own image, showing Matariki just below and to the left of the moon.

One of my friends was intrigued to be able to see the whole of the moon, even though it's in its waxing crescent phase. As I understand it, there's a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, while the sun is shining directly on the crescent portion of the moon's surface, it's also receiving reflected light from the Earth - known as Earthshine. Additionally, from the way digital cameras work, it turns out that the crescent part of the image is actually overexposed, and the camera is sensitive enough to light up pixels in the rest of the surface of the moon.

It's always been a problem with photography - having enough dynamic range in the camera's sensor to faithfully capture both the light and dark parts of a scene. Our eyes really are wonderful things - and I know from experience that successfully capturing a stunning scene you see with your eyes in a photograph is often a challenge, and more often than not, results in disappointment!

The cluster of stars is such a prominent feature in the sky that it's been known to many cultures since antiquity, and interestingly, it's known as Subaru in Japan, where it's also featured in the logo of the car manufacturer. Being so prominent has meant they've also been featured in pseudoscience - with various psychic mediums claiming that they have contact with beings from Pleiades, including the notorious UFO hoaxer Billy Meier.

From a cultural perspective, Māori mythology gives names to each of the main stars in the constellation, and claims that each of those stars is a god with a particular responsibility. Obviously, as skeptics, we'd disavow any notion that the stars in the sky are literally deities, and most of us would likely dispute the notion of deities in any form. Nevertheless, I see value in celebrating the cultural traditions of our indigenous people. And, the scientist in me likes the idea that it gets people interested in looking at the sky and may lead people into an interest in astronomy.