Pitch black surroundings are best, so you will need a small torch with you to see more earthly things.  Cover the torch up with some red cellophane, and this will keep your eyes in the correct night vision mode. (This is the same principal that traditional photographers use in their ‘Dark Room’).  

However even if you’re lucky enough to have a dark observing spot, you need to be aware of a natural light ‘pollutant’ – the Moon. Looking at the Moon is really great through a telescope, plenty of craters to keep you entertained. Unfortunately its light is so bright it makes fainter objects very difficult to see.

Therefore the best celestial observations are made on moonless nights, around either New Moon or Last Quarter. Of course, you also need a clear sky, and in the UK we do tend to have a lot of cloud.

So in practice, try and observe the night sky whenever the skies are clear, and it’s convenient for you. This is a pleasure after all.

Light pollution is such a problem in the developed world, that ‘Night Parks’ have been designated for celestial observations. There are only 3 Night Parks in the whole world. Two are in the USA, and one is in Galloway, Scotland.

I’m going on holiday to the Galloway Night Park in a couple of weeks. I will report back here, how I get on.

John McNally

The Plough is the easiest constellation to find, but this month it seems to be hiding? That’s because in May it’s right above your head!….Crane your neck back, and there it is, directly overhead. Looking at the Plough through binoculars or a telescope, you can peer outside the Milky Way at four of our Galaxy neighbours; M51, M81, M82 and M101.

These are the Messier Catalogue numbers, but I prefer their descriptions: The Spiral Galaxy, Whirlpool Galaxy, Starburst Galaxy and the Pinwheel Galaxy.  

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy can be found just outside the constellation boundary, near the star Alkaid. Look at the Plough and the star furthest left is Alkaid. The Whirlpool Galaxy lies nearby, although “nearby” is still 37 million light years away! M51 has captured a smaller galaxy to it’s left, and the gravitational effects are deforming its shape. Eventually the two galaxies will merge.

In the upper right hand corner of the Plough are a pair of interacting galaxies M81  and M82. M81 is a spiral galaxy similar in shape to our own Milky Way, whereas M82 is still giving birth to thousands of new stars and is therefore called a ’starburst galaxy’.

The Plough is also ‘home’ to another very beautiful galaxy, 24 million light years away. M101 is a very large spiral galaxy 170,000 light years wide, (our own Milky Way is 130,000 light years wide). This is a type Sc galaxy which has a relatively small nucleus and large open spiral arms. It looks like the effects of a  pinwheel firework, hence its name: Pinwheel Galaxy.

Here’s hoping for clear skies and dark nights.

John McNally

Venus climbs higher and higher throughout April, and will be easy to spot. It’s the brightest object in the sky apart from the Moon. 

If you have binoculars take a look at Cancer on Saturday 17th April. Mars passes nearby M44 the “Beehive Cluster”, that will be a great sight in close-up.

Set an early alarm Thursday night/ Friday morning  22/23 April between 1am and 2am. If it’s a clear sky you will be treated with the Lyrid Meteor Shower. The Lyrid Meteors are regular and reliable visitors to Earth having been observed for at least 2,600 years!

There should be around 15 shooting stars per hour, although if we’re lucky there could be up to 90 meteors per hour, as happened in 1982. The shooting stars WILL be there, just look towards the East between 1am and 2am. Unfortunately we need a clear sky to see them - so fingers crossed for this.

If you see a Shooting Star, remember to make a wish!

John McNally

Higher in the sky, dominating the constellation of Cancer is a bright star with a red hue. You are looking at the next nearest planet to us, Mars. Known in the past as the God of War due to it’s connotations with blood. Mars is larger than Venus, but it is further away from the Sun, and is not therefore quite as bright as Venus.

None of the planets or satellites such as the Moon have there own light source, they merely reflect back the intense light from our Sun, acting like mirrors. Venus has a cloudy white atmosphere so is able to reflect the suns light more effectively.

Saturn, the ringed planet is visible the whole of March in the constellation of Virgo. You can find Saturn by following the curved handle of the Plough. The Plough is almost directly overhead at this time of year. Follow the line of the Plough’s handle through Arcturus and on to Spica, which is low in the southeast. Regulus is almost due South of Spica, and Saturn lies midway between them.

Constellation watchers can still enjoy Orion which dominates the Winter night sky, with the small Pleiades cluster nearby. The ‘Seven Sisters’ are hard to spot. You need to let your eyes adjust to the night sky, and you will see them as a small faint cloud, which seems to shimmer in and out of your vision.

Happy sky watching. I’ll be back for another update in April.

John McNally

There will be no other stars around as they are not bright enough to pierce the light pollution. So if you do see two bright ’stars’ low down, you know that they can only be the planets Venus and Jupiter.

Hopefully Tuesday 16th February will be a clear night because at 5.30pm you can see Venus, Jupiter and the Crescent Moon above – a really wonderful sight.

Sunday 21st February at 6.50pm the Quarter Moon passes in front of the small Pleiades constellation, sometimes referred to as “the Seven Sisters“. Providing we are blessed with a clear sky, you will see the seven sisters disappearing from the sky one by one, as the moon blocks them from our vision.

Mars is still a bright object this month, and you will find the red planet passing through the Cancer constellation.

Cassipoeia is one of my favourite constellations because it is a striking “W” shape, and easy to spot. Look out for it this month and follow the arrow direction formed by the last three stars on the right hand side. Just below Cassiopeia is the M31 Galaxy in Andromeda. A great sight through binoculars or a telescope.

You can even see M31 with the naked eye on a clear night, but you may be disappointed that it is a bit fuzzy.Bear in mind however that it is over 2 million light years away! The light photons reaching your eye left Andromeda when our ancester Homo Ergaster first appeared on Earth.

John McNally

If you follow the line to the right you’ll reach Taurus the Bull and the Hyades Cluster.

Carry on beyond the Hyades and you’ll find the Pleiades (or ‘Seven Sisters’). This is a tight grouping of seven stars, but if you look through binoculars or a telescope you will actually see hundreds of stars.

Look above Taurus and you will see Auriga the Charioteer, with the yellow star Capella at its top.

The top left hand star of Orion is the red giant Betelgeuse. Carry on up past here to the left and you will reach Gemini,  representing Twins of the Ziodiac signs.

Below Gemini and to the immediate left of Betelgeuse is Canis Minor, one of Orion the Hunters dogs. This small constellation contains the star Procyon which is only 10 light years from Earth.

Mars is the best planet to see this month. It is prominent in the southern evening sky and will be at it’s highest point around midnight. From 9th January it will be in the constellation of Cancer.

Jupiter can be seen early evening in the south-west, but it sets by 8pm. Saturn rises in the middle of the night at 2am and its rings are slightly open for those with telescopes.

John McNally

What are Shooting Stars? Well, the first thing that they ARE NOT is Stars! Stars are huge nuclear fusion furnaces like our Sun. Shooting Stars are normally just bits of dust entering our atmosphere.

Shooting stars are usually no larger than a grain of sand. However, they are travelling at thousands of miles per hour, and quickly burn up in our atmosphere. That’s when we can see the ’shooting star’ effect.

Shooting stars are technically ‘meteors’ though only larger particles are normally refered to as a meteor. An object the size of an apple travelling at up to 50 miles per second would take longer to burn up in the atmosphere and you may be lucky enough to actually see flames. (I have seen this twice in 40 years of star gazing).

Some meteors can be quite large, and they may not burn out completely, reaching the ground with an explosion. These objects are known as Meteorites. They are quite rare, and usually fall into the sea. However really huge meteorites have hit the Earth.

In 1908 a meteorite fell in Siberia and the impact blew trees down for 60 miles around. The explosion was heard up to 500 miles away, and even 100 miles from the impact, people were knocked over by the shock wave!  This incident whilst rare, was entirely natural, but features in a number of conspiracy/alternative science theories.

Keep looking up, on dark clear nights, and you will see Shooting Stars. Happy star gazing.

John McNally

We all know the universe is big, the trouble is the human mind is not designed to appreciate the huge numbers involved. It’s why millions of people pay money to the National Lottery, despite the odds of winning a jackpot being 14 million to 1.

To appreciate how unlikely winning this is, try and visualise 700 football stadiums all standing side by side with 20,000 people in each. You are sitting in the crowd, in one of the stadiums. A pigeon flies over the entire length of the 700 stadiums and will defecate once.
 
You are paying £1 every week to the National Lottery because you think the pigeon MIGHT crap on YOUR head? This is 14 million to 1. Sorry, but it just won’t happen!

Similarly the universe involves very big numbers and is described in Light Years. The distance light travels in one year, which is, wait for it……..5,878,625,373,184 miles. You must multiply this number 94 BILLION times to get the diameter of the known universe!

The human mind just cannot grasp something so huge, but have a look at this fascinating video it might help!

John McNally

This is commonly known as a “blue moon” because of its rarity. On New Years Eve the moon won’t be blue, but it may have an orange or pink colour. This is due to a partial eclipse occurring between 6.52pm and 7.54pm. Light scattering through Earth’s shadow during this time will colour the affected region of the moon.

Make a note in your diary for Sunday 13th December. If the sky is clear, try and get to the darkest place you can around midnight, for a fantastic display of shooting stars.

The Geminid meteor shower makes its annual appearance. They are easy to spot as they appear to start from high in the sky, and are often bright, spectacular meteors.

You can see Mars by looking for the red planet among fainter stars between the constellations Leo and Cancer. Mercury can be easily found on Friday 18th December when it is near the crescent moon.

Jupiter is still bright this month, and is a beautiful naked eye sight on the southwestern horizon after sunset. Saturn can be seen in the early morning rising in Virgo.

The December night sky is dominated by the constellation of Orion. For more information on Orion click here, and if you want to know where you can see a horses head amongst the stars; click here.

John McNally

Saturn is in the eastern morning sky, further out from the sun than Venus. It is in the right-hand part of the constellation Virgo as seen from the UK.  It is brighter than the stars of the region, but not yet as bright as Spica, the main star of Virgo.

On the night of 8/9 Nov, the waning moon is near Mars and on the mornings of 12 and 13 Nov, it is to the south of Saturn. If you have binoculars look out on 13th November between 5pm and 7pm. The moon passes across the Pleidaes cluster. This is commonly called the Seven Sisters but there are actually hundreds of stars visible through binoculars.

On 15 Nov, the very old crescent is in the pre-dawn twilight with Venus. If you like shooting stars look out for the Leonid meteors on 17th and 18th November. The shooting stars appear to come from the constellation Leo, although they are just dust entering earth’s atmosphere.

By the end of the lunar month, Venus disappears behind the sun, and into the dawn. Mars is growing gradually brighter in the late evening and morning sky.  Jupiter is in the evening sky in the constellation Capricornus. The waxing crescent moon is nearby on 23 Nov. On 30th November Jupiter and Venus are near each other, just 2 degrees apart. Saturn is in the morning sky on the Leo side of Virgo.

John McNally