Mars passes through the constellation of Taurus this week, giving the Bull a second red eye. Find out how to see the sight for yourself by listening to this week’s episode of Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
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Chris Bramley: Hello and welcome to Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine. You can subscribe to the digital edition of the magazine by visiting iTunes, Google Play, or Apple News, or to the print edition by visiting www.skyatnightmagazine.com.
Ezzy Pearson: Greetings listeners. Welcome to Star Diary, a weekly guide to the best things to see in the northern hemisphere's night sky. As we are based in the UK, all times are in BST. In this episode, we'll be covering the coming week from 22 to 28 July. I'm Ezzy Pearson, the magazine's features editor, and I'm joined today by Katrin Raynor, an astronomer and astronomy writer.
Hello, Katrin.
Katrin Raynor: Hi, Ezzy. How are you?
Ezzy: I'm doing well. I'm keen to hear what we've got to look forward to in tonight's skies.
Listen to last week's episode, Mars passes the Pleiades (Star Diary 15 to 21 July)
Katrin: Okay, well, we do have a few things to look forward to this week. As usual, we've been mentioning them every week since June, the noctilucent clouds, look out for those again. We also have two meteor showers, the Delta Aquarids and the Perseids.
And we also have a lovely grouping of a few planets with the Moon that's going to delight observers.
Noctilucent clouds again. I hope everyone's not bored about hearing about these, but just a reminder for everyone out there, we are still in NLC season. We should still see them into August. You know, we've been seeing them since June and you've still got a few weeks left to see them if you haven't seen any yet.
So just a reminder if you're just tuning in for the first time. To see these, look to the northwest horizon around 90 to 120 minutes after sunset or a similar time towards the northeast before sunrise. You know, you should be able to see them for quite some time.
You just need your eyes, you don't need binoculars, you don't need a telescope, and if you're wondering what you're looking for, look for some lovely kind of wispy blue white clouds in the twilight sky.
Ezzy: Social media is also a good one. If you want to find out whether other people can see NLCs, they will usually tweet about it with #NLCNow. Keep an eye out for that hashtag.
Katrin: You do get some diehard NLC chasers, don't you, around this time of year? And I also... the photographs as well that people take are actually just a really good reference point, aren't they? If you don't know what you're looking for.
Ezzy: If you don't know what you're looking for, just look up some pictures and you'll have a much better idea.
Katrin: Yeah, and then you'll just get swamped online with NLC pictures.
So the Moon this week on 24th, the Moon is at perigee at 5:41AM, meaning it is at its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, so it's going to be at a distance of 365,000km away from us.
Now the full Moon was just a few days ago on 21st. So, of course, there is no supermoon at this time. You know, this is when the full Moon coincides with its closest point to Earth but there will be a super-blue-Moon next month on 19 August, which I'm sure Mary will explain all about that in that week's episode of Star Diary.
Ezzy: Yes, definitely keep an eye out for this one. But it's still a very good Moon and still worth looking up for even when it's not a supermoon.
Katrin: Absolutely, yes. It's super all year round.
Ezzy: I agree.
Katrin: And on the 28th, the Moon is in its last quarter and it will appear high in the sky just before dawn and set at around noon.
So Solar System wise on 22nd, Mercury is at greatest separation or elongation from the Sun where it will be 27º from the Sun in our sky.
So for those in the southern hemisphere, this will be the best evening apparition in 2024 for them, but unfortunately it's not well placed for us in the northern hemisphere. It's always nice to know, you know, what's happening in the sky, whether we can see it or not.
Ezzy: Exactly. Planets are still there, even when they've gone below the horizon. They're doing their own thing. Somebody else can see them probably.
Katrin: Yes, just not us sometimes.
Ezzy: Exactly.
Katrin: In the north.
On 23rd, dwarf planet Pluto reaches opposition, meaning it's directly opposite the Sun in the sky. So it rises in the southeast at 9:30PM and sets just before 5:20AM. It's magnitude +14.4 and lies in the constellation of Capricornus.
So, you know, it's distance from us and the magnitude. It means it's going to appear as a tiny star like point of light. So of course you won't be able to see with your naked eye because we can only really see from magnitude six and below. So you are going to need a telescope to observe it.
Ezzy: It's not the brightest thing in the world. There's a reason why it was 300 years after the invention of the telescope that someone developed one that could capture it.
Katrin: I mean, it's not like Jupiter or Venus, is it? It's extremely faint, so it's not going to be a naked eye target ever. But yeah, give it a go, you know, if you've got a telescope and you'd like to try and see Pluto, get out there and see if you can spot it.
So on 24th, Saturn will be close to the waning gibbous Moon at around midnight. Saturn rises at 11:00PM whilst the Moon will have risen around 20 minutes beforehand. If you look towards the east southeast you'll be able to see them. Saturn will be shining at a magnitude of +0.9 to the left of the Moon and will be easy to spot.
And on 25th, Saturn and the waning moon will still appear close together in the east southeast and at around midnight with Saturn's going to be to the upper right of the Moon.
Ezzy: I do feel Saturn's been kind of holding it up for the team for the last couple of months. Yeah, it seems to have been the only planet that was any good.
Katrin: Yeah.
Ezzy: Which is a good planet. If you're going to be able to see one of the planets, Saturn is a pretty good one.
Katrin: Yeah, you know, I think when I speak to my friends who are into astronomy, guaranteed Saturn got them into astronomy because sometimes it's one of the first things, obviously, apart from the Moon or the constellations.
I think as soon as you see the ring of Saturn through a telescope, everyone's just hooked with astronomy.
Ezzy: If you go to, sort of, astronomy open days where they've got a telescope set up and members of the public can look through it, it's either Saturn and its rings or Jupiter's moons. Those are the two that people always look for because they are just so captivating to be able to see.
Katrin: Yeah, and I think you just see pictures of them on, like, in books and things and, you know, when you see that ring or the banding around Jupiter, or like you say, the moons, it just really captures the attention, I think.
Ezzy: It is easy to forget when you're, you know, seeing these amazing like Hubble pictures and things all the time or you see them on sci fi shows and so on. You sort of forget that they're real.
Katrin: Yes, you do.
Ezzy: And then you look through a telescope and you see it with your own eyes. With assisted eyes, but still with your own eyes, it's a completely different experience.
Katrin: Sometimes it doesn't feel real, does it? You think, wow, like, you know, I'm in my back garden or in a field somewhere and I'm literally looking at, you know, the giant red spot on Jupiter or something. It's pretty amazing.
Ezzy: It does sometimes feel a little bit unglamorous. You know, you're standing in a field in the mud looking through a telescope with your wind protective gear on, but then you, you look through the telescope and you see these magical, wonderful things in the night sky, it really is... there's a reason why people keep going out there night after night to see these things.
Katrin: Absolutely, and all's forgotten, isn't it? You kind of forget how cold you are or how long you've been up for. It's just, it's worth it, you know, when you get to see what it is that you've wanted to see, you know.
So on 28th in the early hours of the morning, naked eye observers will enjoy looking at the last quarter Moon positioned near the constellation of Aries whilst towards the east we have bright Jupiter and Mars within the constellation of Taurus with the star cluster the Pleiades visible above Mars.
And I have mentioned this previously, I have, you know, occasionally confused the red star Aldebaran in Taurus for Mars, but it's going to be quite obvious which one is which this time round, I hope. You know, Mars is going to be brighter than Aldebaran and it's going to be located between the Pleiades and Aldebaran.
So I think it's going to be lovely to see two red objects so close together in the morning sky. You know, they call Aldebaran the eye of the bull, so, you know, it's a top two.
Ezzy: Exactly. He's got two eyes. He's looking straight at you rather than off to one side for once. Just turning his head, that's all that's happening.
Katrin: Like the Cyclops, yeah. Taurus the Cyclops.
And we also start to see the appearance of the constellation of Orion from late July into early August, and Orion will start to breach the eastern horizon just after 2:00AM. You know, this kind of does signal the start of autumn, I think, much to the disappointment of some people, but the excitement of many.
And Orion has been called the Ghost of the Shimmering Summer Dawn, which I think is just lovely. Isn't that nice?
Chris: That, I've not heard that one before.
Katrin: Yeah. I was doing some reading on the internet over the past couple of weeks and yeah that came up. I think it's such a nice name. I'm sure we all know it is a prominent winter constellation and it's lost during the summer months when it's in the daytime sky.
But yeah, Orion the Hunter, he'll be rising on his side with the winter. You know, you'll see his bow first.
And yeah, we have two meteor showers still ongoing. We've got the last productive Delta Aquarids, which peak next week on 30th. Perseids, they're still going on. But remember, you know, this doesn't peak until mid August, when we should see around 100 an hour.
But you'll be able to observe some great meteors whizzing through the sky up until that point. And as we have spoken about last week, you know, the darker sky that you are in, the better.
Ezzy: It's also worth remembering that even though everybody talks about meteor showers around the peak, they go on for a lot longer than that. There is significantly more on and around the peak, but you'll have a high chance of seeing them something if you look throughout the night, throughout the run up to it.
There's also a lot of people who specifically enjoy trying to count meteors and there's actually a lot of scientific usefulness that people can do by trying to count the number of meteors that you can see.
It's actually one of the main ways that people map out the debris streams, because that's what caused meteor showers. It's when we pass through a stream of debris left by a comet. And it's the main way... because professional astronomers don't have time to do that sort of thing. So it's a great way that amateurs can help contribute to something scientific and be able to map these streams out.
Katrin: Yeah, and I love seeing, the UKMON network and when people have like made composite photographs over a night or a month and sometimes the photograph is just totally thick with meteors so you don't realise I think how many you actually miss or how many are coming through the atmosphere. It's incredible.
Ezzy: When you are watching with the eye, you do need to be looking at the right point at the right time and paying attention.
Katrin: There's nothing worse when someone behind you is like, Whoa, look at that! And you're like, What? I was looking in the wrong direction. It's so frustrating.
Ezzy: Fortunately, the big ones, like really big fireballs, they will catch your attention.
I was lucky enough to see one whilst I was driving down the motorway. And you noticed everybody suddenly slow down.
Katrin: Yeah, I mean, because they're so bright, aren't they?
Ezzy: It's possibly not the safest thing in the world.
Katrin: Everyone's just like looking up at the sky and not looking at the road. Yeah, I was very, annoyed, you know, the Winchcombe meteorite that fell in, oh my gosh, what year was that? 21? 22? I can't remember.
Ezzy: Something like that.
Katrin: Some of my friends actually saw it in Pontypridd, like, and I was so annoyed that I missed that. I was like, it's not often that happens, but yeah, it was just visible from miles.
Ezzy: That is also another reason why a lot of people get into meteor watching with cameras, CCTV cameras, even doorbell cameras is the new thing.
And we have guides on that. As well as if you want to record meteors for scientific purposes, we have lots of guides on how to do all of that over on our website, skyatnightmagazine.com. I'll put some links down in the show notes below as well. So if you want to start getting involved with that.
I know Mary, the, the other presenter of Stardiary, she wrote the article about how to do it with a CCTV camera for us. And she's got a great setup. I know that garden.
Katrin: I have looked at that and I would love to set my own up, but I mean, I found it like, I just wouldn't really know where to start.
Ezzy: There is, there is a slight level of you need to be able to, to put some electronic stuff together and plug it into a computer and things like that.
But it's relatively straightforward to set up once you've got over those kinds of hurdles. And I do know that a lot of the people who do it are more than happy to help talk people through. So if that's something that you're interested in, do look up UKMON, which is the UK Meteor Network, and they will help you get set up with all of that.
Katrin: Yeah, so if anyone's listening, contact me. Help me out.
Ezzy: Well, thank you very much for taking us through all of those details this week, Katrin.
There seems to be lots to get on with. And if our listeners at home would like to get even more updates on what's coming up in the night sky over the coming weeks, please do subscribe to the Star Diary podcast.
But to summarise this week again, once again, noctilucent cloud season is in full swing, so keep an eye out for those.
On 24 July, the Moon is going to be at perigee.
On 28th, it will be in its last quarter.
Moving on to the planets, Mercury is going to be at its greatest separation from the Sun on 22nd, though that will be best observed from the southern hemisphere.
The dwarf planet Pluto is going to be in opposition on 23rd.
Saturn is close to the waning gibbous Moon on 24 to 25 July.
On the early hours of the morning of 28th, the Moon is going to be positioned near the constellation of Aries, while bright Jupiter and Mars lie in the constellation of Taurus.
And finally, throughout the week, the Delta Aquarids and Perseid meteor showers will be ongoing, so do keep an eye out for those.
Thank you very much for joining us and we'll hope to all see you again soon. Goodbye.
If you want to find out even more spectacular sights that will be gracing the night sky this month, be sure to pick up a copy of BBC Sky at Night magazine, where we have a 16 page pull out sky guide with a full overview of everything worth looking up for throughout the whole month.
Whether you like to look at the Moon, the planets, or the deep sky, whether you use binoculars, telescopes, or neither, our Sky Guide has got you covered, with detailed star charts to help you track your way across the night sky. From all of us here at BBC Sky at Night Magazine, goodbye.
Chris: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Star Diary podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine, which was edited by Lewis Dobbs.
For more of our podcasts, visit our website at skyatnightmagazine.com/podcasts, or head to Spotify, iTunes or your favourite podcast player.
