A beginner’s guide to finding Matariki
Posted 5 June 2008 // Basil Keane
Matariki (the Pleiades)
Happy New Year!
The pre-dawn rise of Matariki, also known as the Seven Sisters or Pleiades, traditionally signals the Māori New Year under the maramataka, or lunar calendar.
In general, celebration of Matariki starts when the first new moon can be seen following the pre-dawn rise of Matariki. (UPDATE: this will happen on 21 June 2012) The new moon can be seen on 5 June in 2008, and celebrations kick off from 6 June. Traditionally, Matariki was both a time to commemorate those who had passed on, and celebrate a time of plenty when stores were abundant from horticulture, hunting and fishing.
For some iwi, Puanga (Rigel), rather than Matariki, was the signal for the new year. For instance, Whanganui iwi are having a Puanga festival. In the South Island it is Puaka (which is Puanga in Ngāi Tahu dialect) that heralds the new year.
Whether you’re celebrating Matariki or Puanga, here’s an easy guide to try to find the stars.
How to find Matariki
Matariki is found low on the horizon in the north east of the sky. Try looking here between 5.30 a.m. and 6.30 a.m.
The pot
1. First find the pot (the bottom three stars of the pot are also called Tautoru, or Orion’s Belt). To find Puanga (Rigel) look above the pot until you see the bright star. To find Matariki, keep going.
2. To the left of the pot, find the bright orange star, Taumata-kuku (Alderbaran).
3. Follow an imaginary line from Tautoru (the bottom three stars of the pot), across to Taumata-kuku and keep going until you hit a cluster of stars.
4. That cluster is Matariki. If you have good eyes you should be able to pick out individual stars. If it looks fuzzy, look just above or just below and the stars will be clearer.
Matariki in the night sky
This picture, from AstronomyNZ, shows the relative position of Matariki (Pleiades) to Taumata-kuku (Alderbaran), Tautoru (Orion’s belt), Puanga (Rigel) and Takurua (Sirius).
Let me know if you find it.
Great webpage, first time i have looked for Matariki, it was such a buzz to find it, tried looking from the hills in Whanganui but the city lights made it hard to see the stars clearly, i went out towards the east of Whanganui, Fordell country side and the stars were beautiful. Matariki was fuzzy’ish and i could only make out 6, couldn’t find the 7th but it may have been because it was the first time looking for them. I’m interested in learning more to why we look to these specific cluster of stars? Cheers
i think that we should try to find matariki
this is a awesome thing to do with family
this website is amazing, i used this for home work, its straight to the point and easy to understand
thanks for this very useful information about matariki…..I’m using it as a teaching module for adult learners of tikanga Maori…..Tino pai rawa atu!
Awsome web site !! very usefull, great to see the 7 sisters thanks