October 2024 | Elan Valley

Curlew Monitoring Volunteer Project

Sam Price — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 12:18:21 +0000

Do you love the outdoors and conservation?

We’re looking for volunteers who would like to help us monitor the beautiful curlew. It is thought that numbers are declining at a rate of around 6% per year which means they could potentially become extinct by 2030.

It is important that curlew are identified and where possible, provide protection during the breeding season and identify whether they have been successful in raising their young.

If you are interested in curlew monitoring, please get in touch

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Eyes on the Night Sky – November 2024

Sam Price — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 11:56:46 +0000

Welcome to this month’s update to what’s in the night sky for November.

In the Elan Valley International Dark Sky Park, darkness falls even earlier this month – 6.40pm at the beginning of the month and 6.10pm at the end.

At 10pm, the constellations that are dominant in the southern night sky during November are Pegasus, Andromeda, Triangulum, Pisces and Aries.

Perseus, Auriga and Taurus are well placed, Cygnus and Draco still high in the western sky. The summer constellations of Sagitta, Lyra and Hercules set on the western horizon and the winter constellations of Orion, Gemini and Monoceros rise in the east. Ursa Major, although circumpolar, lies low on the Northern Horizon, making this bright constellation a good landscape astro-photography subject.

Aquarius and the faint low-lying constellation of Capricornus. Cepheus is well-placed. The summer constellations of Hercules, Aquila, Sagittarius and Lyra move westwards and in the east, the winter constellations of Auriga and Taurus begin to rise.

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

Leonids Meteor Shower

The Leonid Meteor Shower is active from 6^th – 30^th November and peaks on the night of 18^th November, with 15 meteors per hour (ZHR). The point from which the meteors appear is called a radiant and is located in the Constellation of Leo.

As the peak occurs a few days after the Full Moon, you will only be able to see the very bright ones this year, which travel fast and leave long trains.

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!

Stellarium

The Planets

This time of year, Jupiter and Saturn are well placed and are worth a study through telescopes.

Saturn is well-placed in the south-west and Jupiter rises in the south-eastern sky at 6.30pm.

If you have never seen a shadow on the face of a gas giant, on 4^th November, train your telescopes on Saturn when the mighty moon Titan’s shadow will transit across it between 21.05 and 22:50 – you may notice a slight notch on the edge of Saturn. There will be another opportunity to see this on 20^th November between 19:42-22:49, where Titan’s shadow look like a black blob moving across Saturn’s face.

Shadow transits also occur on Jupiter on a regular basis. One to look out for is on 10^th November, where you can see the shadow of Io pass across the surface of Jupiter, starting at 20:20 and finishing at 22:33.

Venus will appear low in the South-western sky after sunset.

Mars is a well-placed planet this month, rising in the north-east at 21:10.

The Owl Cluster

The constellation of Cassiopeia contains some lovely open clusters, all of which can be seen with 10×50 binoculars. One we can recommend you look for this month is the Owl Cluster (NGC 457).

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.

Through telescopes, the owl shape takes form and looks stunning. It is also known as the ET cluster because of its resemblance to the alien character from the well-known science fiction film from the 1980s.

Discovered by William Herschel, you can find it for yourself by locating the star Ruchbah. Looking at that star, raise your binoculars to your eyes and scan the immediate area until the cluster comes into view.

Credit: Michael Vlasov from www.deepskywatch.com

Mirach’s Ghost

If you have a small telescope, you can look for a fascinating companion to a star whilst you are in the Andromeda/Pegasus region.

To find it, look for the Square of Pegasus and its top left-hand star. Count two stars to the left and that second star is Mirach. The way to tell it’s the right star is to look for two stars that are directly above it, and a fuzzy object which is the Andromeda Galaxy.

Train your telescope on the star Mirach and use your averted vision to look for a ghostly companion which lies close to the star.

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

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Eyes on the Night Sky – October 2024

Sam Price — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 10:12:55 +0000

Welcome to this month’s update to what’s in the night sky for October.

The nights are really drawing in this month and it’s a great time to stargaze without having to burn the midnight oil. There is also a lot going on in this autumn month with a possible unaided-eye comet and a meteor shower to look out for.

Darkness falls at around 8.40pm at the beginning of the month and 6.40pm at the end.

At 10pm, the constellations that are dominant in the southern night sky during October are Pegasus, Aquarius and the faint low-lying constellation of Capricornus. Cepheus is well-placed . The summer constellations of Hercules, Aquila, Sagittarius and Lyra move westwards and in the east, the winter constellations of Auriga and Taurus begin to rise.

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.

Planets

Autumn is a fantastic time to study the Solar System planets. Saturn and Jupiter will be gaining altitude over this season; more so this year than in previous years. Saturn will already be up in the south when darkness falls and sits in the constellation of Aquarius. Jupiter rises in the north-east at around 9.20pm. Mars rises from 11pm at the start of this month and around 10pm at the end, and as it approaches opposition on 16th January 2025, will become easier to observe.

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.

Conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter

A week later there will be a second opportunity to see a planetary conjunction. Jupiter will pass close to the Moon, which will be 83% full. Look out for Mars rising in the north-east.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) at 8pm on 14th October. The red line denotes the predicted orbit of the comet over the next month. (Image source: Stellarium)

Will There be a Bright Comet in the Autumn?

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) might become an unaided eye target this autumn. At the time of writing, the comet is in good condition and chances of spotting it easily is high. Look out for it during the first three days of the month when it lies low on the eastern horizon at dawn – when the comet reaches perihelion – (its closest point to the Sun) in late September, so it should be around the brightest. Around 10^th October it appears low in the post-dusk, western sky, but as the month progresses, it will appear higher in the night sky, passing through the constellation of Serpens and Ophiuchus. Do bear in mind though, the Comet would be dimming so if you cannot see it with the unaided eye, take some binoculars outside and scan the area. Cometary behaviour is unpredictable so it can be difficult to gauge how bright it could get.

Orionid Meteor Shower

The Orionid meteor shower (2th October – 7th November) peaks on the night of 21^st October. An 82% waning gibbous Moon will prevent enjoying this shower at its best but it might be worth going outside and trying to spot the brighter shooting stars; these are known to move fast and leave persistent trains in its wake. These meteors are cometary dust left by the well-known Halley’s Comet as Earth passes through the debris left in its wake.

Binocular Treasures

There is a lovely pair of colourful stars that can be seen using binoculars.

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.

Telescope Challenge

RA | 1 42 19.75
Dec | 51° 34′ 30.86″

Following on from last month’s planetary nebula, there is a second one to be discovered. For those who don’t use the Equatorial Coordinate System to find deep sky objects, you can find this challenging target by locating the Square of Pegasus.

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.

In a dark sky, this will resemble an apple core surrounded by slight nebulosity. It Is thought this nebula was named after its larger cousin, Dumbbell Nebula (m27) in the constellation of Vulpecula.

Situated around 3400 light years from Earth, this nebula is an expanding shell of gas that has been ejected by a dying star.

Image credit: Michael Vlasov of www.deepskywatch.com.

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