Conjunction of Venus and Mercury

On 9^th March, look out for a conjunction of Mercury and Venus, emerging from the west during dusk; Mercury will lie at the 7 o’ clock position to the bright planet.

Partial Solar Eclipse

On 29^th March, there will be a partial solar eclipse in the UK. In Mid Wales, 35% of the Sun will be obscured by the moon. The eclipse will commence at 10am as the Moon passes in front of the Sun, with the maximum occurring at 11am, with the Moon leaving the face of the Sun at midday.

The Elan Valley Dark Sky Team will be setting up just outside the Elan Valley Visitor Centre with their viewing equipment and solar glasses and you are welcome to drop in and watch the eclipse with us. Weather permitting, we will be there between 10am and 12 noon.

Animation credit: Stellarium

This month, we will look at the constellation of Ursa Major.

Ursa Major is a well-known constellation in the night sky. It is also known as the Great Bear, the Big Dipper or the Plough.

This constellation is circumpolar, which means it never sets and this time of year, it is very well placed in the night sky. It can be found easily by looking out for a ‘saucepan asterism’, which is the main body of the constellation.

According to Greek mythology, Ursa Major represents Callisto, who Zeus fell in love with and had an affair. When they were found out by Zeus’ wife Hera, Zeus, wanting to protect his mistress, turned Callisto and her son Arcas into bears, picking them up and throwing them among the stars. Callisto is represented by Ursa Major (Latin for Great Bear) and Arcas being represented by Ursa Minor, the small bear.

Messier 81 & Messier 82 – ‘Bode’s Nebula’

M81 Coordinates: RA 9h 55m 33s | Dec +69° 3′ 55″
M82 Coordinates: RA 9h 55m 52s | Dec +69° 40′ 47″

The easiest to find is ‘Bodes Nebula’, which comprises M81 and M82, two galaxies that interact with each other. This means they are gravitationally locked together in a cosmic dance.

M81, the larger of the two galaxies in this beautiful image, is also a ‘grand design spiral galaxy’ because of its intricate and well-formed spiral arms, which nearly wraps around its entire circumference.

It was discovered by Johann Bode in 1774 who classed these objects as nebulae – as there had not been any official classification between galaxies and nebulae.

Nebula is Latin for cloud or fog.

By Nielander – Own work, CC0

Messier 51 – ‘Whirlpool Galaxy’

Coordinates: RA 13h 29m 53s | Dec +47° 11′ 43″

Messier 51, or the Whirlpool Galaxy, lies just below the end of the handle end of the saucepan asterism at 31 million light years away from us. It also comprises two interacting galaxies and can be seen with binoculars.

By NASA and European Space Agency

Messier 97 – Owl Nebula

Coordinates: RA: 11h 14m | Dec: +55°01′

For a dark sky challenge, look for the Owl Nebula (M97) – you will definitely need dark skies and a telescope larger than eight inches of aperture to spot this one.

With the aforementioned telescope size, you may see a faint patch of light but larger apertures may tease out one or two of the large holes that makes this planetary nebula resemble the face of an owl.

This object lies relatively close to us at a distance of 2600 light years.

By NOIRLab / NSF / AUR

If you have a smartphone with night sky photographic capability and a tripod, the Zodiacal light does photograph well – more so with cameras with high ISO capability and a sturdy tripod. Use a lens between 14 and 24mm of focal length, an aperture open at around ƒ/2.8 or wider, and set your lens to focus to infinity. Start with an ISO of 1600 and a 30 second exposure. Increase or decrease the settings as needed.

Constellation of the Month

Each month, we will feature a constellation and the mythology behind it. There are 88 IAU recognised constellations in the night sky and around 36 that are observable in the northern hemisphere. With the advent of science, critical and rational thinking, and more of a focus on the observable world, we do not use the night sky as an aid for the farming calendar, for navigation or conveying social or religious values. Some of the names of the 88 IAU recognised constellations are several thousands of years old. So, get outside and see if you can spot these constellations. The best time to see each constellation we feature is around 90 minutes after sunset.

In Greek mythology, this constellation represented the twins Castor and Pollux, who were inseparable and were known as ‘the Dioscuri’, which means ‘the sons of Zeus’. As with all figures in Greek Mythology, they were famed for feats of great strength and many skills. They were known to have accompanied Jason and the Argonauts on his famous voyage to seek the Golden Fleece. One day, Castor was killed in battle. Pollux, who could not be consoled over the death of his beloved brother, asked Zeus to make Castor immortal. Zeus granted his request on one condition: that Pollux would also become immortal and the brothers spend half their time on earth and the other half in the heavens. Pollux agreed to this and Zeus placed them in the stars.

To find it with your binoculars, look for 1 Geminorum, or the left foot of Castor and slowly scan your binoculars eastwards if you cannot see it within the field of view.

Lion Nebula (NGC 2392)

RA 7h 29m 11s | Dec +20° 54′ 42″

NGC 2392 was discovered by German William Herschel in 1787, an accomplished astronomer and composer. In brief, he was known for his discovery of the planet Uranus and its moons, theorised about the composition of nebulae and founded sidereal astronomy, he also catalogued over 2500 celestial objects and 9,000 stars, among many other achievements.

NGC 2392, known as the Lion Nebula or Clown Face Nebula, lies 6500 light years away in the constellation of Gemini and is a planetary nebula.

Through a small telescope, resembles a head surrounded by a mane of hazy light. A larger telescope may reveal a slight hint of filaments.

Credit: Michael Vlasov of Deep Sky Watch

The Full Moon occurs on 15^th December. There are two New Moons this month: the first is on 1^st December and the second, also known as a black moon, falls on 30^th December. 

The Winter Solstice falls on 21^st December 2024, which is the shortest day of 7 hours, 39 minutes and the longest night of 12 hours and 5 minutes. Plenty of time for stargazing!

Credit: Sorcha Lewis

Known to produce around 150 meteors during the peak, the meteors are fast, bright and colourful, lighting the sky up with red, green, white, yellow and blue shooting stars. Radiating from the constellation of Gemini, the shower is thought to originate from debris left by asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Unfortunately, the Full Moon will hamper seeing the meteor shower in all its glory so it is worth looking up in the days before and after the peak.

Image: NASA/JPL

The Moon will be 12% illuminated so look out for the lovely Earthshine, where the sun’s light reflects off the surface of the Earth, illuminating the the darker part of the Moon. This occurs for a short while after sunset.

Credit: Sam Price

On the night of 18^th December, the Moon will pass close to Mars. The best time to see this is in the morning before sunrise.
 

Orion Nebula (M42) 

RA 5h 35m 17s | Dec -5° 23′ 28″

The Orion Nebula is always worth a mention this time of year as it’s simply the most beautiful nebula to study, whether you have binoculars or a telescope.

Even with the unaided eye, this nebula appears as a gleaming, bloated star, like a jewel in the sword sheath that hangs from the belt of the Constellation of Orion.

Credit: NASA ESA M. Robberto Space Telescope Science Institute ESA and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

Just below the belt hangs three, tiny stars that dangle vertically like a sword. Look for two bright stars that are either side of the sword, representing Orion’s feet and three above the belt, which comprises the shoulders and head. It should resemble an angular hourglass.

Credit: Sam Price

37 Cluster (NGC 2169) 

RA: 06h 08m 24.3s | Dec:  +13° 57′ 53″

This is a fun object to discover. Situated 3600 light years from Earth, this open cluster is located in the constellation of Orion and is a challenge to find. Look for the red supergiant Betelgeuse and in dark skies, you will see Orion’s raised arm.

Look through your eyepiece; these stars should resemble the number 37, or depending on the telescope, XY, or LE or even a mirrored version of the number 37.

Credit: ScottRak – Own work CC BY-SA 3.0

The stars can be easily seen but the Cone Nebula may be a bit of a challenge – mainly because it is tiny! Use your averted vision to see whether you can spot the cone.

You can see from the image that this open cluster resembles lights on a Christmas tree. At the top of the tree, lies the Cone Nebula at a distance of 2700 light years. It just so happens that both these objects appear to form this festive shape from our viewpoint in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Credit: ESA

The New Moon falls on 1^st November and the Full Moon on 15^th November.

This meteor shower has an interesting cycle: every 33 years the ZHR increases dramatically as there is an outburst and often there can be many hundreds of meteors per hour. The last such storms were 1799, 1833, 1866, 1966 and 1999-2001. The 1833 storm was notable as 3000 meteors per hour was seen by terrified spectators:
“On the night of November 12-13, 1833, a tempest of falling stars broke over the Earth… The sky was scored in every direction with shining tracks and illuminated with majestic fireballs. At Boston, the frequency of meteors was estimated to be about half that of flakes of snow in an average snowstorm. Their numbers… were quite beyond counting; but as it waned, a reckoning was attempted, from which it was computed, on the basis of that much-diminished rate, that 240,000 must have been visible during the nine hours they continued to fall.” – Agnes Clerke’s, Victorian Astronomy Writer
Figure 1: a 19th century woodcut with an impression of the spectacular November 13, 1833 Leonid storm. Courtesy Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Early settlers look up in amazement at a sky filled with shooting stars.

Our next Leonid ‘outburst’ is thought to be in around ten years’ time so let’s hope it’s a good one!

Through 10×50 binoculars, you will be able to see the two bright ‘eyes’ of the cluster and a line of stars perpendicular to the eyes. If you have larger binoculars, the body of the owl becomes more apparent and ‘wings’ can be seen.

NGC 404 is a galaxy which lies 11 million light years from Earth. The reason why it looks dim through telescopes is that Mirach’s brightness dims our views of this galaxy. Even though they appear close to each other here on Earth, there is around 10,999,800 light years distance between them!

The first image to the right shows Mirach and NGC 404 – a galaxy that is lenticular in shape and does not have any spiral arms. It was also thought to be very old and low in star production until the GALEX (NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer) project deployed a ultraviolet-sensitive telescope to reveal a gas ring and a number of young, hot stars. New studies have revealed that this new star formation was a result of NGC 404 colliding with a neighbouring galaxy long ago

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Visually, you may see a faint object very near to Mirach that almost mimics a lens artefact of an ‘after image’ of the red giant, which is why it is known as the ‘Mirach’s Ghost’.

Credit: Michael Vlasov from www.deepskywatch.com

The New Moon occurs on 2^nd October and the Full Moon on 17^th October. The Moon will be at perigee (nearest to Earth) on 17^th October, otherwise known in mainstream media as a ‘Supermoon’. A Supermoon is 30% brighter and 14% larger than during the opposite phase of apogee, which is when the Moon is furthest away from us in its orbit around us. As this shift in brightness and size is gradual, we won’t notice the increase but it’s always lovely to look out for the full Moon rising in the evening, so look out for it rising in the east as the sun sets at around 6pm on 17^th October.

Conjunction of the Moon and Saturn

On 14th October, Saturn will pass close to the Moon, which will be 90% full. It will appear low on the southern horizon just after darkness falls.

There is no official designation for these sparkling celestial gems. 30 Cygni and 31 Cygni are in the constellation of Cygnus and can be found by looking for three bright stars known as the Summer Triangle: Altair, Vega and Deneb. Deneb is in the Constellation of Cygnus and the pair lie at around the four-o-clock position as a faint star seen with the unaided eye. Raise your binoculars to your eyes and that single star will resolve into one golden yellow star (30 Cygni) and one blue star (31 Cygni). They will appear bright and vibrant and are reminiscent of the binary stars Albireo in Cygnus. The pair is known as a double star, appearing close to each other as we see them from Earth.

Locate the top right-hand star in the square and count three stars across (Constellation of Andromeda). Above that star, the Little Dumbbell nebula is situated halfway between that star and the constellation of Cassiopeia.

Another way to find it is to pop a wide angle, low magnification eye piece, find the Double Cluster, which is underneath the western side of the constellation of Cassiopeia, and nudge your telescope to the right until the nebula pops into place. Use more magnification to study this object.