Eyes on the Night Sky – February 2023

Sam Price — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 11:57:45 +0000

This month’s Eyes on the Night Sky will feature the best night sky objects to discover with binoculars, telescopes, or just the eyes.

Make the most of the dark, early evenings, wrap up warm, bring a favourite hot drink and get outside.

February Constellations

There are 88 officially recognised constellations in the night sky: 36 are in the northern hemisphere and 52 are in the south. These change over the year like a celestial parade as the Earth travels around the Sun; due to our latitude, constellations higher up in the sky, such as Cassiopeia, Draco and Ursa Major never set, whilst other constellations come and go with the seasons.

This month, the constellations of Leo, Cancer, Boötes rise in the East whilst the winter constellations such as Taurus, Gemini, Orion and Auriga march westwards as the evening progresses. You can download the printable constellation map from here (credit: Dominic Ford, author of the excellent in-the-sky.org)

The Full Moon falls on 5^th February and the New Moon on 20^th February.

A Conjunction

On 22^nd February, the nearly three-day old Moon will emerge after sun sets with Venus and Jupiter close by. This conjunction will look especially stunning when earthshine appears on the darker face of the moon – the Earth’s light reflected, which can be seen during the twilight. Take this opportunity to study these objects with binoculars and try to spot Jupiter’s Moons that surround the planet.

You should be able to spot Io, Ganymede and Callisto, three of 80 Moons that orbit this mighty gas giant.

Beehive Cluster M44

RA 8h 40m 24s | Dec +19° 59′ 0″

For binocular users, an easy target is the beautiful Beehive Cluster in the constellation of Cancer. Also known as Messier 44, it is 600 light years from us and is visible to the unaided eye.

A decent size binocular will reveal a sharp and pretty swarm of 20 stars but this open cluster contains up to 1,000 stars; most of which are too faint to be seen..

Messier 3 Globular Cluster

RA 13h 42m 11.62s | Dec +28° 22′ 38.2″

For telescopes, Messier 3 is a lovely gem-studded globular cluster to study with telescopes four inches of aperture and above. As always with such distant objects, a dark sky is a must to study this object. The tight ball of stars begins to resolve fully with larger apertures and looks spectacular through 12-inch telescopes.

No wonder it is a sight to behold as this globular cluster contains up to half a million stars. Located around 34,000 light years from Earth, it is thought to be one of the oldest objects in the Universe. Use averted vision to tease out more stars in its core.

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Eyes on the Night Sky – January 2023

Sam Price — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 01:00:00 +0000

A Happy New Year to stargazers!

Make the most of the dark nights this month and enjoy using the new telescopes and binoculars you have received for Christmas. If you are stuck for inspiration, this monthly guide will help you find the best celestial objects to study, whether you have a telescope, binoculars or just want to use your eyes.

Here are a couple of suggestions for ways of getting to know the night sky:

Turn Left at Orion is a great beginner’s book to help you get started and teaches you how to find more than just the Moon – there are galaxies, nebulae, star clusters and colourful double stars to discover.

Stellarium Mobile – Star Map is one of the best smartphone/tablet apps to help you get to know the constellations, planets and deep sky objects. If you phone has a magnetometer and an accelerometer/gyroscope, you can hold your phone up to the sky to learn about which star or constellation you are looking at. It is also available for iOS.

If you would like to experience a truly dark sky, the Elan Valley International Dark Sky Park have some easily-accessible locations where you can park your car and look up.

New Year Meteor Shower

The Quadrantids meteor shower will peak on the evening of 3^rd January and into the early morning of 4^th January. It radiates from an old constellation, called Quadrans Muralis, inspired by the shape of a quadrant, an astronomical tool to observe the position of stars. It was not included in the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially recognised constellation. The waxing gibbous Moon’s light will interfere with seeing fainter shooting stars but always be a lookout for the brighter ones

NGC 404 – Mirach’s Ghost

RA 01h 9.4 m,
Dec +35° 43′

For those with telescopes and access to dark skies, try to find an intriguing object in the constellation of Andromeda. For those who want to star hop to find NGC 404 (Ghost of Mirach), look for the Square of Pegasus and look for the top left and corner of the square where you will see a line of three stars forming what looks like a pan handle which is the constellation of Andromeda. Count two stars from the corner which will take you to Mirach.

Train your telescope onto the star and look for a faint blob which does indeed resemble a fuzzy copy of Mirach. This object is actually a galaxy designated NGC 404, which lies 10 million light years away.

Ally’s Braid

For those who have binoculars of any size, get outside and look at the star cluster Pleiades (Seven Sisters). In a dark sky, this stunning open cluster almost shimmers.

Try to spot a line of stars which was coined ‘Ally’s Braid” (short for Alcyone, the star where the asterism appears to originate), resembling a braid of hair coming from Alcyone’s head.

Mercury

On January 30^th, Mercury will be at Greatest Western Elongation, which means it will be at its highest point in the sky. This planet can be seen low in the pre-dawn eastern sky from 7.10am on 15^th January to 6:50am at the end of the month. You should be able to see it with the unaided eye.

A Stunning Planetary Conjunction

There will be a pretty planetary conjunction on 23^rd January. It will also be the closest planetary conjunction this year, where Saturn will be 0.5 degrees distant from Venus. Look to the south-western horizon after sunset, where you will see Venus emerge into the twilight. You should also see a sliver of the Moon and Saturn emerging as a smaller point of light to the south-eastern side of Venus.

The full Moon occurs on 6^th January and the new Moon on 24^th January.

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