The shadows of a lunar crater cast the shape of the face that, according to one presenter, looks a bit like a certain famous singer Barry Manilow. Catch the sight for yourself and see if you agree by listening to this week’s episode of the podcasting guide from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine, Star Diary (8 to 14 July 2024).
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Chris: 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 skyatnightmagazine.com.
Ezzy: Greetings listeners and welcome to Star Diary, a weekly guide to the best things to see in the northern hemisphere's night sky. As we're based here in the UK, all times are in BST. In this episode, we'll be covering the coming week from 8 to 14 July. I'm Ezzy Pearson, the magazine's features editor, and today I'm joined by Mary McIntyre, an astronomer and astronomy writer.
Hello Mary!
Mary: Hi Ezzy!
Ezzy: So, do we have anything exciting coming towards us in this week's night sky?
Listen to last week's episode, Jupiter's moons form a triangle (Star Diary, 1 to 7 July 2024)
Mary: Well, we're still dealing with not a lot of darkness, but there are some interesting things to see this week. So there are plenty of planets on show, a couple of faint comets, and a Swan and a Butterfly in a Teapot, and see if you can spot Barry Manilow on the Moon.
So we'll come to him in a minute.
Ezzy: Okay! I'm intrigued by those last two, let's go!
Mary: I'm going to keep you waiting for that and talk about the planets first. Most of them are in the morning sky, so a couple of them are getting better, they are rising earlier and we are getting a little bit more darkness now.
So Saturn is in Aquarius, rising at around midnight, that's mag +0.8, so that's about getting better placed and a decent magnitude for you to be able to spot that.
Mars is +1.0 and lies in Taurus and to the right of the Pleiades. That's rising at about 1:40AM, so it will still be competing with a little bit of twilight, but definitely better than it was last week.
Uranus is mag +5.8 and that is also in Taurus and that's rising about 2AM and lies to the left of Mars. When we look at them on 13 and 14 July, they're actually very close together. On 14th they're actually 1.1º apart so it's a good opportunity to use Mars as a way to see if you can spot Uranus because they will be incredibly close together.
Obviously Uranus is a binocular object, particularly in the twilight sky, but you'll definitely see them both together if you have binoculars.
Jupiter is currently in Taurus and rises about 2:10AM in the morning by the end of this week. It's mag -2.0, probably will look a little bit fainter than that. If you look at Jupiter, although it'll be in a twilight sky, if you look at Jupiter through binoculars or a telescope at 2:50AM in the morning on the morning of 8 July, you will see Ganymede reappear from behind Jupiter.
So we don't get to see it disappear, but we will get to see it reappear. And I always love when you get to see a Galilean moon just suddenly pop out from behind Jupiter. It just, it gives you that sense of being in a Solar System with things orbiting each other. I just think it's awesome.
Ezzy: I always love that, you know, anytime the Moon occults something or something like that and it just, as you said, it pops out and it reminds you all of these things are moving around us.
Quite often, the thing that you think is staying still is actually the thing that's moving faster. Like, with the Moon, when you see a planet being occulted, it looks like it's the planet that's going behind the Moon, but actually the Moon's the one that's moving across the sky faster quite often.
Mary: Yeah, you can actually see it's changing position against the background stars, even just within a couple of hours. It really is quite fascinating when you dig into that.
With the Galilean moons in particular, like the speed that they orbit Jupiter, it's always incredibly fascinating. And if you go out at three o'clock in the morning on 13th, you will see that Io and Europa are on the left of Jupiter, Ganymede and Callisto are on the right, but at 3:00AM the following day, they will all be on the right hand side.
So two of them have completely shifted and joined the others on the other side. And this is where you can start kind of doing little diagrams and mimic what Galileo was doing when he first spotted Jupiter and realised those moons were orbiting Jupiter and not orbiting Earth. And you really do get a sense of being in its own little system.
I just, I think watching the Galilean moons moving is where my astronomy sketching journey began. So I'm really very sentimental about the Galilean moons.
Ezzy: Well, as you said, a lot of people, they tend to record their astronomy through photography. But for generations people have sketched it. And it's a lot easier to set up a sketchbook than it is to set up an astrophotography setup. So why not do some sketching instead?
Mary: You learn more as well. I was convincing myself I was learning loads when I got into astrophotography and then I realised I'd not looked through an eyepiece for a year and I'm like, what are you doing? Like, you've been looking at the sky since you was four years old. And I just started leaving my camera inside and taking a sketchbook out and my knowledge of everything just sky-rocketed, excuse the pun, but you have to really study it to draw it.
Even if your drawing is crude. My first drawings of Jupiter and the Galileans are terrible, but they're valuable because you can see, based on that very crude, not very round picture of Jupiter, I know what the scene was like because I recorded what cloud belts I could see and where the Galilean moons were.
It's important to do it, I think. Even if you just try it a couple of times and think it's not for you, it will make you a better visual observer, I think.
Ezzy: Yeah, there's nothing that quite trains your eye how to look at something really closely as when you're trying to draw it. It's really, there is nothing else that makes you look and focus in on every little detail like trying to recreate it for yourself. So again, I would highly recommend people do it.
And if anybody does do any nice sketches, please do send them in to us at contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com, because we'd love to see them.
Mary: Moving on to the evening sky, we have two planets that are visible, but they're both very, very low in the northwest after sunset.
First of all, we have Venus, which lies in Gemini, Technically it's listed as mag -3.8, but in reality it's going to look more like mag -1.0 because of the extinction effect of being so low in the sky.
So that is setting at 10:00PM just 45 minutes after the Sun has set. So it is going to be a bit of a challenge. It is going to get better later in the year, but for now it's still very low.
Mercury also extremely low in the northwest after sunset. That's currently mag +0.2. That lies in Cancer and it's actually just to the left of M44, the Beehive Cluster, and that is setting at about 10:20PM, so you've got a little bit longer to see Mercury, but it is still very, very low.
Dwarf planet Ceres was at opposition last week, but it's still well placed all week. It's going to be a lot lower than it has been in previous weeks, but it's in The Teapot asterism. It's mag +7.3, so it's definitely a binocular object, rising at about 9:45PM in the evening twilight. But it gets to a maximum altitude of about 8º above the southern horizon at about 12:20AM.
But you should still be able to spot that. 8º is okay for something like Ceres at that magnitude. So with binoculars, obviously, you will need binoculars to see it.
Now another one that is a challenge, but definitely worth seeking out is the fact that Pluto reaches opposition on 23 July, so that is currently well placed as it approaches opposition.
So it lies in Capricornus and its highest point is about 2:00AM when it's 15º above the southern horizon. Now Pluto is a tiny speck of a thing that is mag +14.4, so this is definitely something that will need optical aid, but even if you just take a long exposure photograph, you may just see that little speck of Pluto.
Now bear in mind, this is so far away that even the best picture of it we ever had with Hubble was just a cluster of pixels until New Horizons went there, but now we've seen what it actually looks like. I'm excited by that tiny speck. I'm kind of like, yeah, I've got it. It's here. And it's never going to be anything more than one pixel on my equipment, but I'm still here for it.
It's always fun to seek it out because since it's demotion, I don't think people talk about Pluto as much as they should.
Ezzy: There is a reason why Pluto wasn't discovered until 1930. It is very far away and it is very dim. As you said, the New Horizons probe which flew past it, which gave us the first ever close up view of it... so we do at least know what it looks like.
I think that helps quite often when you're looking at these things on the night sky. Even though you can't, all you can see is a bunch of blurry pixels, you can imagine what it looks like because we know because New Horizons has been there.
And if you'd like to find out more about what New Horizons is currently up to, then please do pick up a copy of the July issue of Sky Night Magazine, because we have a feature updating you on everything going on with New Horizons at the moment, so keep an eye out for that.
Mary: Okay, moving on to the Moon. This week the Moon is passing from new through to first quarter, which is kind of my favourite time of the Moon phase cycle. So first quarter is on 13 July this week.
So on 8 July, the almost 9% waxing crescent Moon is going to be to the upper left of Mercury.
On 9 July, the Moon is going to be just 3.3º to the upper left of Regulus. So I always love a bright star and Moon conjunction, they're just awesome.
On 11 July at 10:00PM the almost 31% waxing crescent Moon lies 14 arc minutes below Zavijava, so that is an incredibly close conjunction. So get some binoculars and have a look near the limb of the Moon and you'll spot that star.
We have the Lunar X and V visible on 13 July, around 4:00PM. So that is on a daytime Moon.
I do find clair obscur effects are more of a challenge on a daytime Moon, but you can definitely see those two with binoculars even in the daylight sky. Through a telescope or binoculars, you'll be able to see those.
Now, on 13 July, there's another interesting clair obscure effect. Now, this idea of humans interpreting random things as being shapes of faces or just shapes of something that it isn't, I think is something that's quite unique to humans, and that is why we have all of these clair obscure effects that have been named, because the human has seen a shadow and thought, oh, that looks like the Loch Ness Monster, or that looks like a face.
Ezzy: Our brains are designed to pattern find and they will find patterns whether they are there or not.
Mary: Yeah, well the interesting one on the 10:30PM on 13 July, if you look at the southern most cluster of mountains of Montes Carcassus, the shadows that are produced look like the side profile of a face with a fairly prominent nose and there is one peak there that is catching the sunlight in just the right point to look like an eye.
And then the mountains themselves look like this mane of curly hair. And the first time I saw that picture was a friend of mine, Mel Giger, shared a photograph of it. I was like, "it's Barry Manilow." it literally looks like a side profile picture of Barry Manilow.
And it's on my moon map and I'd never noticed it. It's such a prominent clair obscur effect, it's so big. It's literally on my Moon map and I hadn't noticed that Barry was sitting there on my Moon map this whole time I'd had it.
So I just think it's interesting to look at it and see what you think it looks like and let us know what you think because that's the first thing I thought when I saw it.
Yeah, I grew up listening to Barry Manilow, so no shame.
Ezzy: That one I definitely want to know if people see Barry Manilow or any other person in that particular clair obscure. Send us an email at contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com. Definitely do because I genuinely want to know what people saw.
Mary: That same night the Moon is just 2.5º to the right of Spica as well so make sure you look out for that.
The day after, on 14 July at 7:40PM, we have the Eyes of Clavius. That is quite a time sensitive clair obscure effect where two smaller craters within the main crater of Clavius catch the sunlight as the Sun rises there.
It will not be fully dark at 7:40PM, but you should still be able to see that it's quite a prominent clair obscure effect and it is quite kind of eerie seeing those eyes looking out from the shadowy crater below, looking out at you through your telescope.
So I do really like that clair obscur effect.
Ezzy: I always think it looks so happy.
Mary: Yeah! I really like it. And even when we do start getting sunlight on the floor of the crater, the little crater rims are still brighter. So you kind of still get the sense of the face, even when the Sun has risen a little bit.
Moving on to comets, these two are definitely a challenge now.
So 13P Olbers is technically an all night object, but if you look for it after sunset when it first goes dark, you'll see that during this week it's moving from Lynx into Leo Minor. It lies about 17º above the northwest horizon at 11:15PM, but then it's sinking lower in the north all night. So soon as it goes dark, just go out and see if you can try and have a look at that.
It should have reached peak magnitude on 2 July last week, so it's technically now fading. Looking at the light curve, it should only have faded to about mag +6.0, so that is doable in binoculars if you can get out before the twilight kind of engulfs the dawn sky again. Definitely worth looking for.
A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, that is now located below Leo, is visible from after sunset, but on 8 July it's only 3º above the horizon, and I'm only really mentioning it because all eyes are on this comet because it is technically predicted to get very bright by the end of the year, so it's kind of worth seeking out to see if you can spot it now. But it's setting about 11:20PM and by the end of the week it's only going to be 1.5º above the horizon at 11:15PM. So I really think this one will be an incredible challenge, but worth seeking out because of hopefully the colourful future that it's going to have, so definitely try for that, I know it will be difficult.
Ezzy: If you can, have a look for it. Maybe you'll see it, maybe you won't, but the real opportunity to take this in is going to come later in the year.Keeping track of it and making sure you know where it is.
Mary: Yeah, I think later in the year when I was looking, it's not going to be awfully far above the horizon, but if it gets as bright as it's predicted to, its tail should be pointing up.
So we could have a situation that, I can't remember the comet now, there was one where from the northern hemisphere you couldn't see the comet, but the tail filled the sky after sunset.
I'm not saying we're going to get that, we don't know, we really can't predict that about comets, but hopefully we will still see their tail even if we're not getting the best glimpse of the nucleus later in the year.
So yeah, it's worth seeking out purely so you can see the before. Before it does its exciting thing, we hope.
I've mentioned The Teapot a few times the last couple of weeks. It's the asterism within Sagittarius, so it's very low above the horizon for us in the Northern Hemisphere, but there are actually quite a few interesting objects located in and around The Teapot.
So details on how to find all of these objects are in the July issue of the Sky at Night Magazine, and there are some really interesting things to look for.
So, first of all, the Scutum star cloud is technically visible to the naked eye. It's kind of like a cluster of stars that is kind of nestled within part of the Milky Way. That is 19º above Kaus Borealis, which is the top of The Teapot lid, that is the star right at the top of the lid of The Teapot.
That is an insanely dense star cloud that you can see naked eye from a dark location, but if you point binoculars at it... it's just amazing. There is so much in there and including M11, Messier 11, the Wild Duck Cluster.
When you take photographs of these clusters you pick up way more stars than you would do when you're looking at them visually through binoculars. These clusters were named like looking through optical aids obviously but with your eyes. And your eyes are seeing just the bright patterns, and that is when your brain starts to interpret them as something when they're just a bunch of stars.
But the Wild Duck Cluster, when you actually look at it in binoculars, does sort of resemble a duck, whereas if you take a picture of it, it just doesn't. So visually, through binoculars, it will more likely resemble that.
It's actually the densest of all open star clusters. There are about 3,000 hot blue stars within that cluster, so it is an incredibly dense star cluster which is definitely worth seeking out.
You've also got the Swan Nebula, Messier 17. That's 11º to the lower right of the Scutum star cloud. So if you start with the star cloud and work your way down that way, in large binoculars you kind of get this really interesting spindle of light. It doesn't resolve the stars but you get what does look like this spindle.
And then with averted vision, there's this hook at the end, which kind of makes it look a little bit like a swan's neck. So that's another one that is named for how it looks visually through a pair of binoculars or a telescope. Obviously, if you probe deeper and do photography of it, you may start to resolve more of the detail. But visually, that's what it will look like.
Also in that area, we've got Messier 22, which is actually the largest globular cluster that's visible from the UK. And that's just 2.5º from Kaus Borealis. So that's definitely one you should easily be able to find if you start with the top star of the teapot lid.
And finally in that area, we've got the Butterfly Cluster, Messier 6. That's 9.5º to the right and slightly up from Kaus Australis. And some of that cluster is actually visible to the naked eye, but if you then kind of point your binoculars at it, you'll start to not only see the wings, but you'll start to see the antennae and just some more detail within it, and it will sort of resemble the silhouette of a butterfly.
So it has those two lobes of stars and then the little antennae. Really beautiful. So definitely worth having a look for that visually as well.
Ezzy: It's a veritable menagerie going on over there it seems. You've got wild ducks and swans and butterflies. Lots of wings all flapping about all over the place.
Mary: Definitely and it's a beautiful part of the sky to just look at with binoculars anyway because the Milky Way is kind of running to the right of The Teapot. And at this time of year we're starting to get a little bit more darkness than we did when it was at its highest. You can still see some really beautiful bits towards the core of the Milky Way if you look down that way.
We are in the middle of July now, but noctilucent cloud season continues through this month, so definitely keep an eye out for those. They will be sometimes visible in the northern sort of horizon, about an hour to 90 minutes after sunset, or an hour to 90 minutes before sunrise. And if they're there, you will see this beautiful kind of glowing whitish blue structure, which just looks very different from all the other clouds.
The reason they glow like that is they're just so high up that they're still getting sunlit when us down here on the Earth are actually in shadow, so it makes them glow out against the background, so they're definitely worth seeking out this week.
Finally, we have some excellent passes of the International Space Station. The last couple of weeks, they've been visible in the early hours of the morning, but we're now getting some that are visible before midnight as well. So if you're not somebody that likes getting up in the early hours, you can now see some nice space station passes before midnight. So check the local times for when that will be visible from where you are.
Ezzy: Well, thank you very much for taking us through that week, Mary. It sounds like we've got lots of things to be seeing in the night sky. And if our listeners at home want to keep up to date with all of the latest stargazing highlights, please do subscribe to the Star Diary podcast, and we'll be back here next week with even more tips of what's coming up in the night sky.
But to take you through this week again:
Starting with the planets, we have Saturn, which will be rising around about midnight.
Mars and Uranus will be rising close together at around 1:40 and 2:00AM respectively, and they'll be very close to each other on 13 and 14 as well.
By the end of the week, Jupiter will be rising at about 2:10AM in the morning.
On 8th, you might want to pay the planet particular attention, as you'll be able to see the moon Ganymede appearing from behind Jupiter at around about 2:50AM.
Also on the 13th, you can see two of the Galilean moves shift from one side of Jupiter across to the other at around about 3:00AM so keep an eye out for those too as well.
In terms of the evening planets, we've got Venus which will be setting at around 10:00PM, so not that long after the Sun has set, and Mercury a little bit later at 10:20PM. They'll both be a bit tricky as they will be quite in the twilight there.
In terms of dwarf planets, Ceres will be well placed throughout the week in The Teapot asterism. It will be rising at about 9:45PM but reaching max altitude just after midnight.
Pluto will also be reaching opposition next week, but it'll still be well placed in this evening's night sky. Have a look at around about 2:00AM, you will need a larger telescope to be able to see that.
In terms of the Moon, the Moon reaches first quarter on 13 July.
Then, on 8th, the Moon and Mercury will be placed together.
On 9th, the Crescent Moon will be near the bright star Regulus.
Then on 11th, it will then be near Zavijava.
On 13th, the Lunar X and V clair obscure effects will be visible at around about 4:00PM in the daytime sky.
And also on 13th, at around about 10:30PM, the shadows of Montes Cocassus will be creating the features of a face, which some say looks a bit like Barry Manilow, but would very much like to hear what you all think it looks like.
Also on 13th, the Moon will be near, the star Spica.
Finally, on 14th, the eyes of Clavius Effect will be visible at around about 7:40PM. That's a very specific time, so you do need to make sure that you are prompt for that one.
In terms of comets, Olbers is moving through Lynx into Leo Minor. It is beginning to fade now, but is still visible in the night sky.
Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is below Leo at the moment and is very, very low in the night sky. It is going to be getting brighter towards the end of the year, but if you want to keep an eye on it now and track its path, it will be very low.
The Teapot Asterism is also on display throughout the week. If you want to find out more about some of the objects that you can see inside of it, such as the Scutum Star Cloud, the Wild Duck Cluster, the Swan Nebula, and the Butterfly Cluster, make sure you pick up July's issue of Sky at Night Magazine where we have a guide all about how to get to grips with those.
NLC season continues so keep an eye out for those after sunset and before sunrise. And there are also several bright ISS passes for those of us in the UK.
Keep an eye out for those. We've got guides over on our website and I will put them in the show notes below as well, about how to keep track of the ISS and make sure you catch every pass that going overhead.
So lots of things to be getting on with this week and hopefully even more next week, and we will see you back here for more stargazing highlights, from all of us here at Sky at Night magazine, 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 Night Magazine, goodbye.
Chris: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Star Diary podcast from the makers of BBC Sky 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.
Listen to next week's episode "Mars passes the Pleiades (Star Diary, 15 to 21 July 2024)"
