I was lucky to have charged all batteries in preparation for holiday, now recharging. Worth a look tonight, if you have clear skies. With a display that strong, even a bit of light cloud adds interest. Get a shot of bouldering with aurora above would be something. Must be some great spots for that; Bridestones? Skyline? Queens Crag?
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Johnny Brown
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You’re probably too late tonight. Mercury and Saturn are very low in the west and will not be easy to pick out of the bright sky. You need binoculars, some knowledge/ app and a low horizon free of cloud. Any spot on the moors with a view west will be good. Venus, Jupiter and Mars are currently brighter than any star, much higher in the sky and can easily be seen from the city. Uranus is faint, and really needs a scope and perseverance to tell from a mid brightness star. Dark skies help but not essential. Neptune is technically visible but a non-starter imo.
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Will Hunt
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I like Stellarium (though haven't used the Google version so can't compare). It's free. Don't bother with the mode where you point the phone at the sky and move it around to try and find what you're after, just know which way is north. If you're struggling to figure out how high to look above the horizon, a rough guide is to hold your hand at arms length and make the "telephone" sign (a fist with thumb and pinkie extended). The distance between pinkie and thumb is about 20 degrees. A fist alone is about 10 degrees.
What JB says is right, you don't need to leave the city to spot Venus, Mars and Jupiter in the sky, and although technically all the planets will be in the sky on Friday you'd probably struggle to see much of Mercury and Saturn as they're so close to the setting sun. But definitely have a look through your binoculars and you'll be able to see Jupiter's Galilean moons (Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa) parading around it.
If you're interested and do go to somewhere a little darker than a city then just putting names to all the constellations is fun. I've yet to see it with the naked eye but our nearest (2.5 million light years away) galactic neighbor, Andromeda, can be seen from a dark place. If you can't see it with the naked eye you can probably star hop to it quite easily with binoculars. Don't expect what you see in astrophotography images, you're looking for a pale smudge with a brighter core.
With your binos have a look at the Pleiades close to Jupiter, a star cluster also known as the Seven Sisters. Very pretty.
The Orion Nebula is visible with the naked eye and you should get a decent view of its nebulosity through your binoculars. A cloud of gas many times greater in size than our solar system that is being pulverised by the young, massive stars at its core. Pounded so hard, in fact, that the hydrogen gas in the cloud becomes ionised and, when those electrons return to their original state, emit photons. As Emperor Constantine IV besieged the Bulgars at Dobruja, those photons began their journey and hurtled uninterrupted across the galaxy before reaching their journey's end on the back of your eye. You're looking for a smoky cloudy which may have a greenish hue in your equipment.
Depending on how dark it is where you are, then if you enjoyed the Pleiades then check out the Beehive Cluster in the centre of Cancer.
What JB says is right, you don't need to leave the city to spot Venus, Mars and Jupiter in the sky, and although technically all the planets will be in the sky on Friday you'd probably struggle to see much of Mercury and Saturn as they're so close to the setting sun. But definitely have a look through your binoculars and you'll be able to see Jupiter's Galilean moons (Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa) parading around it.
If you're interested and do go to somewhere a little darker than a city then just putting names to all the constellations is fun. I've yet to see it with the naked eye but our nearest (2.5 million light years away) galactic neighbor, Andromeda, can be seen from a dark place. If you can't see it with the naked eye you can probably star hop to it quite easily with binoculars. Don't expect what you see in astrophotography images, you're looking for a pale smudge with a brighter core.
With your binos have a look at the Pleiades close to Jupiter, a star cluster also known as the Seven Sisters. Very pretty.
The Orion Nebula is visible with the naked eye and you should get a decent view of its nebulosity through your binoculars. A cloud of gas many times greater in size than our solar system that is being pulverised by the young, massive stars at its core. Pounded so hard, in fact, that the hydrogen gas in the cloud becomes ionised and, when those electrons return to their original state, emit photons. As Emperor Constantine IV besieged the Bulgars at Dobruja, those photons began their journey and hurtled uninterrupted across the galaxy before reaching their journey's end on the back of your eye. You're looking for a smoky cloudy which may have a greenish hue in your equipment.
Depending on how dark it is where you are, then if you enjoyed the Pleiades then check out the Beehive Cluster in the centre of Cancer.
Johnny Brown
Well-Known Member
Perhaps arguably, but there’s very little to recommend it over a few days either side (or months previous). It’s entirely based on Mercury’s contribution to the parade, being closest to the sun it is the most elusive, moving quickly and never getting far enough from the sun to be seen against a dark sky. The other six planets would have been better viewed any time in the last two or three months, Neptune and Saturn now being poorly positioned low in the west.
As the evenings go on Mercury gets higher (until the 8th) while Saturn drops lower, and every night it gets dark later. So it’s balance between waiting for Mercury and losing Saturn. Neither will be easy but Mercury is significantly brighter and finding one should help with the other. If you click on the planet on the app you should be able to get the altitude and azimuth, you can then use the compass and level on your phone to get in the right area.
Thanks for the prompt to get the scope out last night, possibly the most interesting night to see Jupiter I’ve stumbled upon, all four moons very close with a very obvious shadow transit, plus two moons entering and leaving transit within a ten minute window.
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Johnny Brown
Well-Known Member
One thing I would highly recommend keeping an eye on I’ve the next few weeks is Venus. It’s very bright and obvious in the west at sunset, and through binos or a small scope will show an obvious crescent. Each night it will get a little bigger, and the crescent a little thinner, as it undertakes us on the inside lane. The brightness will stay about the same but the sky around it will get brighter. There isn’t really any detail to see, so you don’t need a big scope, but in the past I’ve used a birding scope in our attic to follow it right to the day of conjunction with the sun, at which point it is a very large, impossibly thin crescent scintillating wildly just above the bright horizon.
Our orbits aren’t quite aligned to it will pass a few degrees N of the sun, it’s then a fun challenge to see it reappear in the morning sky a few days later.
Rabbit hole alert: these close passings mean our planets interact gravitationally, which over the eons have pulled our orbits into an almost perfect 8:13 rhythm. Plotted from an earth centric position, this forms a beautiful pentagram known as the rose of Venus. Sadly Venus’s positions in the sky don’t allow us to test the UK’s rich heritage of megalithic structures for alignments, but it would undoubtedly have been carefully observed. When the Mayan civilisation was discovered, their knowledge of the planet’s movements exceeded ours in Europe, but most of their written codexes were destroyed as being heathen.
Our orbits aren’t quite aligned to it will pass a few degrees N of the sun, it’s then a fun challenge to see it reappear in the morning sky a few days later.
Rabbit hole alert: these close passings mean our planets interact gravitationally, which over the eons have pulled our orbits into an almost perfect 8:13 rhythm. Plotted from an earth centric position, this forms a beautiful pentagram known as the rose of Venus. Sadly Venus’s positions in the sky don’t allow us to test the UK’s rich heritage of megalithic structures for alignments, but it would undoubtedly have been carefully observed. When the Mayan civilisation was discovered, their knowledge of the planet’s movements exceeded ours in Europe, but most of their written codexes were destroyed as being heathen.
Johnny Brown
Well-Known Member
Bonus moon joining the lineup from tomorrow night, will start very thin below Mercury and then move higher each night, potentially very photogenic.
Went out last night and enjoyed seeing Jupiter's moons, as a complete amateur with these things I didn't appreciate that would've been possible with just binoculars.
Initial message was in response to some unexpected enthusiasm for the event from my wife. I now suspect this will become a mini-hobby for her/us. Thanks for all the detailed responses and advice.
Initial message was in response to some unexpected enthusiasm for the event from my wife. I now suspect this will become a mini-hobby for her/us. Thanks for all the detailed responses and advice.
Will Hunt
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Welcome to the money pit!
If you decide you'd like a telescope and you can be patient then you can get some good second hand deals on https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/. JB has been really helpful in navigating me through the decision-making process of what to get. There's also a dedicated thread on here if you search for "telescopes".
Will Hunt
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I was a bit sceptical about the whole planetary parade thing, given what's been said about it not being a great time to be observing any individual planet. But, the skies were clear and it's not a school night, so I took the scope and my youngest up onto the moor road and got parked up in a layby with a good view of the western horizon.
It was great! Loads of people out with their binoculars. Mercury was easily visible with the naked eye and a very definite, slightly crescent disc in the telescope. Venus was by far the best I've seen it - a dazzling, thin crescent - and we had some lovely views of Jupiter and Mars. Fabulous stuff.
It was great! Loads of people out with their binoculars. Mercury was easily visible with the naked eye and a very definite, slightly crescent disc in the telescope. Venus was by far the best I've seen it - a dazzling, thin crescent - and we had some lovely views of Jupiter and Mars. Fabulous stuff.
I had a friend of a friend I was climbing with get their monster telescope out at the observatory near Sanddrif, in the Southern part of Rocklands. never seen skies so clear. Got great views of Jupiter and Saturn.
hongkongstuey
Well-Known Member
I remember this well Chris
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