Manx Sky at Night

This month's programme falls during our Island circuit-breaker lockdown, so astronomer Howard Parkin cannot be in the Manx Radio studio as usual.  Instead, he's in his garden in Onchan, gazing at the skies.  Sadly there's too much cloud cover, making 'live' stargazing too difficult - but Howard has plenty of information about what we can see during the month of February, weather permitting of course!  

In our dark skies, THAT conjunction - between Jupiter and Saturn - is still visible (weather permitting) in the evenings between 5pm and 6pm .....both are joined by Mercury and the Moon around January 9th, before each go behind the Sun, on the 29th and 24th respectively .....Venus is still visible in the mornings ...and the Quadrantid Meteor Shower peaks on the 3rd/4th January - often overlooked, but probably the third best one of the year.

Astronomer Howard Parkin explains what to look for in the dark skies over our Island during the month of December.  

Highlights include the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on 21 December and possibly the best meteor shower of the year - the Geminid, which should be visible around the 12th or 13th December, weather permitting.  

And in the world of space exploration, Howard discusses the recent successful Dragon launch, and reflects on the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station.  

On the other hand, the recent Vega launch failure, and the damage to the Arecibo dish in Puerto Rico are reminders of the dangers and uncertainties still surrounding space exploration.

Astronomer Howard Parkin looks into the wonderful dark skies over our Island and describes what we might see, in clear night-time conditions,  in the coming weeks.  

He also looks back over 20 years of the International Space Station, and has all the latest news on the various expeditions in space already.

The music break this month is VENUS by Barry Manilow

With the longer autumn nights, come even better opportunities to enjoy our dark Manx skies! Astronomer Howard Parkin explains what to look for during October, and he also has news about the latest developments in space exploration - including the possibility of life on Venus, and another moon landing planned for 2025

With the sun setting earlier and rising later, we're getting longer hours of darkness - which is good news for stargazers!  

Howard talks about the autumn equinox, viewing the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way. September is also a great month for catching sight of the planets - Jupiter and Saturn will be dominating the sky soon, but  Howard also explains when and where we can see Mars, Venus and Mercury.  

In this edition of the Manx Sky At Night, astronomer Howard Parkin looks at the skies over the Island and explains how to find all the planets -  Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus - which will all be on display if we get some clear nights during the month of August.  

Howard Parkin is back in the studio, explaining which stars and planets we can look forward to seeing in our wonderful Manx dark skies during the month of July - including those beautiful ice-blue noctilucent (night-shining)  clouds.  

After a song from Fifth Dimension (no - it's not Good Morning, Starshine!) Howard takes a look at the world of space exploration - reflecting on the successful Space X Dragon launch a few weeks ago, and looking forward to the next Space X  launch at the end of August.  

And there are no less than THREE different Rovers from THREE different countries, all setting off to Mars shortly - they won't get there until next February - but why are they going ?  Howard has the story!