First of all there is an excellent opportunity to spot the International Space Station on the evening of Monday 23rd.  The ISS should appear in the west at 8.30pm and spend about five minutes passing almost directly overhead, before disappearing towards the east.

If you stay up later on the Monday evening, a 58%-lit waning gibbous Moon will rise above the horizon to the east a little before 11pm.  Slightly down and to the right of the Moon, you will then see planet Jupiter shining brightly at a magnitude of around -2.4

Imagine a straight line running from Jupiter to the Moon and then continue upwards in that direction to find the 6th brightest star in the night sky, Capella.

Capella is the alpha (or most significant) star in the constellation of Auriga with a magnitude of near enough zero.  Although to the naked eye, Capella looks like a single star, it is actually a quadruple star system.  The star is also one of the closest to us - only 43 light years away.

Because the Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees as it orbits around the Sun, some stars can only been seen when the Earth is tilted towards them.  This applies to objects that appear to sit close to the horizon.

On the evening of Tuesday 17th, we have a Full Moon.  It will be rising above the east south east horizon after dark, around 8.30pm, with Saturn just to the right of it.

This particular Full Moon is known as the Harvest Moon because it is the Full Moon occurring nearest to the autumnal equinox that takes place on Sunday 22nd.  Near the time of the autumnal equinox, when we have equal 12-hour periods of day and night, the angle of the Moon's orbit relative to Earth's horizon is at its minimum and this causes the Moon to appear to rise above the horizon much faster than usual.

If you stay up into the early hours of the Wednesday morning 18th and keep looking at the Moon, there will be a special treat in store for you!  From 3.15am there is a partial lunar eclipse, with the maximum effect noticeable at 3.45am.  At this time, the Moon will be located towards the south west.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth's shadow can be seen cast on the lunar surface - we are blocking the light from the Sun hitting the Moon.  This time, it is only a partial eclipse and the Earth's shadow will cover just a few percent of the Lunar surface.  In other words, you had best dig out those binoculars or a telescope to be able to see it clearly.

Finally, there is a nice opportunity to spot the International space station, also on the evening of Tuesday 17th.  The ISS will appear over the horizon to the west at 8.29pm and spend six minutes silently passing overhead before disappearing towards the east.

So it's all happening Tuesday night / Wednesday morning - keep your fingers crossed for a break in the weather then!

If you look towards the north east a little after midnight, in the early morning hours of Tuesday 10th, Mars will have just risen over the horizon, with Jupiter above and to the right of it.

Mars will have a magnitude of about +0.6 and Jupiter will be noticeably brighter at around -2.3 (remember the magnitude scale works back to front, so the brighter an object is, then the more negative the number).  Both of these targets will be easy to spot without a telescope.

However if you're itching to dig that tripod out, directly above Mars you will find the open cluster of stars known as Messier 35.  This has a magnitude of +5.0 so you will need your telescope.

Once your eyes have become accustomed to the dark, you might notice another open cluster to the right of M35.  This time you'll be looking at NGC2158 that only has a magnitude of +8.0

It doesn't have a Messier number because Charles Messier never found it back in the 1700s.  NGC refers to the New General Catalogue that was compiled by John Dreyer in the 1800s.

M35 is about 3000 light years away and has been estimated as being 175 million years old.  NGC2158 is completely separate and much further away at around 11,000 light years.....that's why it's much fainter.  Also NGC2158 is a bit older.....around 2 billion years.

If you do get to see NGC2158, you will be observing the cluster how it was 11,000 years ago because the light from it has taken that long to reach us!

Point your telescope towards the south south west around 3am on Monday 2nd and you should be able to easily spot Saturn shining at a magnitude of around +0.2 together with a number of its many moons.  In particular though, Saturn's largest moon Titan will be immediately below the planet's south pole.

Titan is described as being a round, planet-like moon and apart from the Earth, is the only object known to have liquids on its surface.  It is the second-largest moon in our Solar System, with first place going to Jupiter's Ganymede.

If you really fancy a challenge, stay up until dawn that morning and around 5.30am, an extremely thin 1%-lit waning crescent Moon will rise above the horizon towards the east north east.  A little above and to the right of the Moon, you will find planet Mercury.

Please don't be tempted to use binoculars or a telescope for this particular activity because the Sun will be rising in the same place and you mustn't catch an accidental glimpse of it in your eyepiece.

Thursday 5th provides an opportunity for a bit of naked eye astronomy at a more sociable hour.  Look towards the west around 7.30pm and see if you can spot the Moon, which by now will be a 5%-lit waxing crescent, with planet Venus shining at a magnitude of -3.8 to the right of it.

We will have had a New Moon on Wednesday 3rd, which is why the crescent on 5th is described as "waxing".  Of course the presence of a New Moon is the best time to go hunting those faint fuzzy deep sky objects because there will be no light pollution coming from our celestial neighbour.

Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium

Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2024