Jupiter is now in the morning sky, rising about 4 a.m. on the border of Pisces and Aries, occulted in daylight by the Moon as seen from Scotland on May 17th.
The Sky Above You – May 2023
The Sky Above You – April 2023
The Lyrid meteor shower from the 1861 Comet Thatcher (not due back till 2283) peak on the night of 22nd-23rd April, and as the Moon sets early in the night there’s a better chance of seeing them.
Space Notes: Solar System Exploration
In 1978 NASA was investigating the environment around the Earth’s orbit with Pioneer 6, 7, 8 and 9
The Sky Above You – March 2023
The Moon will be Full on March 7th, and it will be New on March 21st, the day after the spring equinox on March 20th.
Detecting Very Compact Star Clusters
“The galaxy clusters we examined are so massive that they bend light rays passing through their centre, as predicted by Einstein in 1915. And this in turn produces a kind of magnifying glass effect: the images of background galaxies are magnified.” Adélaïde Claeyssens, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University
The Sky Above You – February 2023
“There are no major showers this months, but there are hopes for Comet 2022 E3, which was nearing naked-eye visibility in mid-January. The comet will be at its nearest to the Earth on February 1st, at a distance of 43 million kilometres. “
A History of the Universe in 100 Stars (2022): Book Review
“This book consists of 100 chapters, each 2-3 pages long, and each supposedly covering a single star, not in alphabetical order or by constellation, which is how beginners’ books usually do it. “
The Sky Above You – January 2023
Uranus in Aries was multiply occulted by the Moon last year, two of the events visible from the UK, and on January 1st it will happen again around 10.20 p.m., depending on location, for viewers north of a line from Cork to Norwich, with the reappearance at 11.08 p.m., as seen from Edinburgh.
The Star of Bethlehem
“As this is the last of the planned ‘Beginners’ Astronomy’ articles, and it’s scheduled to appear on Christmas Day, this seems an appropriate subject to end with. “
The Southern Sky
Venus and the Pleiades over Australia, Aug 2017 by Yuri Beletsky – Orion at top, Betelgeuse at foot
