The night sky this month

Northern Hemisphere

Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the northern hemisphere night sky during July 2017.

The Planets

• Jupiter - Now three months after opposition, Jupiter still dominates the low southwestern sky after nightfall. It sets at about 1 am BST as July begins. As the month progresses its brightness falls from -2.0 to -1.9 magnitudes as its angular size falls from 37 to 34 arc seconds. It lies in Virgo some 10.5 degrees to the west of Spica, now moving eastwards again after its period of retrograde motion. It will pass Spica on September 11th on its journey towards the lower parts of the ecliptic. Next year it will only reach an elevation of some 25 degrees when due south and, in the following two years, just 18 degrees before it moves back towards the more northerly parts of the ecliptic. Even so, with a small telescope one should easily be able to see the equatorial bands in the atmosphere, sometimes the Great Red Spot and up to four of the Galilean moons as they weave their way around it.
• Saturn - Saturn came into opposition on June 11th and so will be at its highest elevation due south at around midnight BST as July begins but by ~10 pm BST at its end. It will be visible throughout most of the short night. It shines initially at magnitude 0.1 falling to +0.2 during the month and has an angular size of ~18 arc seconds. With an angle of 26.7 degrees inclination to the line of sight, the rings are virtually as open as they ever can be. It is sad that Saturn, now lying in the southern part of Ophiuchus between Sagittarius and Scorpius, only reaches an elevation of ~17 degrees above the horizon when due south so hindering our view of this most beautiful planet. If imaging Saturn (or Jupiter), Registax 6 has a tool to align the red, green and blue colour images to largely remove atmospheric dispersion from the image. At somewhat over 100 GBP one can purchase the ZWO atmospheric dispersion corrector which uses two, contra rotating, prisms to carry out an even better correction - and which can also be used for visual observing.
• Mercury - Mercury reaches greatest elongation east, some 27 degrees from the Sun, on July 30th. It can be seen low in the west-northwest around 30 minutes after sunset. Binoculars may well be needed but please do not use them until after the Sun has set. It fades slightly during the month from -1.0 to +0.4 magnitudes whilst its angular size increases from 5.3 to 7.8 arc seconds. No surface details will, of course, be seen.
• Mars - Mars is hidden in the Sun's glare all month so cannot be observed.
• Venus - Venus is visible in the east before dawn this month rising around 2.5 hours before sunrise increasing to 3 hours as the month progresses. It magnitude dims slightly during the month from -4.2 to -4.0 as its angular diameter shrinks from 18.2 to 14.6 arc seconds. However, at the same time, its illuminated phase increases from 63 to 74% which explains why the magnitude does not drop too much. Even though it will be moving back towards the Sun, as the angle of the ecliptic to the horizon increases at this time of the year, it elevation before sunrise will continue to increase until August. Venus passes the Pleiades Cluster on the 5th, the Hyades on the 13/14th and ends the month close to M35 in Gemini.
Highlights

June - The best month to observe Saturn - Saturn reached opposition on the 14th of June, so is now due south and highest in the sky in the late evening. It lies in the southern part of Ophiuchus some 16 degrees up and to the left of the orange star Antares in Scorpius. Held steady, binoculars should enable you to see Saturn's brightest moon, Titan, at magnitude 8.2. A small telescope will show the rings with magnifications of x25 or more and one of 6-8 inches aperture with a magnification of ~x200 coupled with a night of good 'seeing' (when the atmosphere is calm) will show Saturn and its beautiful ring system in its full glory.Due to the orientation of Saturn's rotation axis of 27 degrees with respect to the plane of the solar system, the orientation of the rings as seen by us changes as it orbits the Sun and twice each orbit they lie edge on to us and so can hardly be seen. This last happened in 2009 and they are now fully opened out, currently at an angle of 26.5 degrees to the line of sight. From this month the ring's orientation will begin to narrow until March 2025 when they will appear edge-on again.

July - Find the globular cluster in Hercules and spot the "Double-double" in Lyra - There are two very nice objects to spot with binoculars in the eastern sky well after dark this month. Two thirds of the way up the right hand side of the 4 stars that make up the "keystone" in the constellation Hercules is M13, the best globular cluster visible in the northern sky. The 15 minute exposure image on right was taken by the author using a 127 mm APO refractor and SBIG 8.3 megapixel CCD camera. Just to the left of the bright star Vega in Lyra is the multiple star system Epsilon Lyrae often called the double-double. With binoculars a binary star is seen but, when observed with a telescope, each of these two stars is revealed to be a double star - hence the name!

Early July - A very good time to spot Noctilucent Clouds! - Noctilucent clouds, also known as polar mesospheric clouds, are most commonly seen in the deep twilight towards the north from our latitude. They are the highest clouds in the atmosphere at heights of around 80 km or 50 miles. Normally too faint to be seen, they are visible when illuminated by sunlight from below the northern horizon whilst the lower parts of the atmosphere are in shadow. They are not fully understood and are increasing in frequency, brightness and extent; some think that this might be due to climate change! So on a clear dark night as light is draining from the north western sky long after sunset take a look towards the north and you might just spot them!

July 7th/8th - midnight: The Moon and SaturnLate evening on the 7th July, the waxing Moon will be seen to the upper right of Saturn.

20th July - before dawn: Venus, Aldebaran and a thin crescent Moon - Before dawn on the 20th, Venus will be seen over to the left of a very thin waning crescent Moon. Aldebaran, lying in front of the Hyades Cluster, will also be seen to the upper right of the Moon.

July 25th - after sunset: The Moon and Mercury - After sunset on the 25th July, given a low western horizon and clear skies, there is a chance of spotting Mercury down to the right of a very thin crescent Moon. Binoculars may well be needed but please do not use them until after the Sun has set.

July 1st and 15th: The Alpine Valley - These are two good nights to observe an interesting feature on the Moon if you have a small telescope. Close to the terminator is the Appenine mountain chain that marks the edge of Mare Imbrium. Towards the upper end you should see the cleft across them called the Alpine valley. It is about 7 miles wide and 79 miles long. As shown in the image a thin rill runs along its length which is quite a challenge to observe. Over the next two nights the dark crater Plato and the young crater Copernicus will come into view. This is a very interesting region of the Moon!

Claire Bretherton from the Carter Observatory in New Zealand speaks about the southern hemisphere night sky during July 2017.

Kia ora and welcome to the July Jodcast from Space Place at Carter Observatory in Wellington, New Zealand.
Jupiter is still high in our evening skies this month, midway up the northwestern sky after sunset. Shining at magnitude -2.1, with its bright golden glow, Jupiter will be the first star-like object you'll see as the sky begins to darken. Just above is bluish Spica, representing the "ear of wheat" held by Virgo. The waxing crescent moon will pass close to Jupiter on both the 1st and 29th of the month.
Lower in the west, Mercury is making an appearance in the evening sky. At the start of the month it sets just an hour after the Sun, but by the end of July, when it reaches its greatest elongation from the Sun, it will remain in our skies until 8pm. On the 25th Mercury will form a close group with Regulus, in Leo, and a thin crescent Moon.
Saturn is high in the northeast and is a great target for a telescope of any size, with its rings still at almost maximum tilt. Look out for Saturn's largest moon Titan looking like a star at around 4 times the ring diameter from the planet. Saturn continues to sit just below Antares in Scorpius, with the claws of the scorpion to the left and his tail curling around to the right. In New Zealand we see this as the fish hook of Māui, Te Matau a Maui.
Below Scorpius is an upside down teapot formed from the brightest stars in the constellation of Sagittarius. The bright centre of the Milky Way runs through Scorpius and sagitarrius, so there are many stunning objects to explore in this part of the sky.
Lying along the tail of the scorpion, close to the orange 3rd magnitude star Zeta Scorpii, is NGC 6231, a bright cluster of stars which looks like a small comet. At magnitude 2.6 this is easily visible to the naked eye. Estimated to be only 3.2 million years old and nearly 6000 light-years away, NGC6231 covers an area of the sky similar in size to the Pleiades, but its stars are much more luminous. If the cluster was placed at the same distance as the Pleiades then some of its stars would be amongst the brightest in the night time sky. With a good pair of binoculars, from a dark sight, NGC 6231 appears in an area of nebulosity and intermingled with open clusters Trumpler 24 and Collinder 316 to form a lovely complex sometimes known as the Scorpius Lizard. Also nearby is NGC 2642. With binoculars its three brightest stars stand out from a faint background glow.
A little above, NGC 6193 is also visible to the naked eye at magnitude 5.2, and nearby NGC 6167 is worth a look in binoculars or a small telescope.
Below, about halfway between the scorpion's sting and the spout of the teapot is M7. This is another open cluster of stars easily visible to the naked eye at magnitude 3.3, and a lovely sight through a good pair of binoculars. It contains about 80 stars brighter than 10th magnitude and covers an area of 1.3 degrees diameter. Current estimates suggest a distance of 980 light years and an age of 220 million years old – still pretty young in astronomical terms. M7 has been known since ancient times and was first recorded by Ptolomy in 130 AD, who described it as a "nebula following the sting of Scorpius", because of this it is also sometimes referred to as the Ptolomy cluster. Nearby and somewhat fainter, the Butterfly cluster, or M6 is also a nice sight in binoculars. The stars will all appear to be at around the same brightness, and the open winged shape that gives the cluster its name should be easy to pick out.
To the left of the teapot's spout, and just about visible to the naked eye, is another lovely Messier object, the Lagoon Nebula, or M8. This is a huge cloud of interstellar gas and dust where new stars are being formed. M8 is a great example of an HII region, where the UV radiation from hot young stars is ionizing the leftover hydrogen gas and causing is to glow. These emission nebulae often appear pink in colour photographs and the Lagoon Nebula is a good target for binoculars or a small telescope.
Another good target is the Trifid nebula, discovered by Charles Messier in 1764, and famed for the three-lobed appearance, which earned it it’s name. It is an interesting object to observe as it combines both an emission and reflection nebula along with an open cluster of stars.
There are also a number of globular clusters in this part of the sky. The brightest is M4, and this is also one of the easiest to find, lying just 1.3 degrees west of Antares. Appearing as a small fuzzy ball in binoculars or small telescopes, a slightly larger telescope will begin to pick out individual stars.
Also in this region, near the top of the teapot, is M22, one of the first globular clusters ever discovered in 1665, and one of the closest at just 10,600 light-years.
From its bright centre the Milky Way stretches overhead through Crux, the Southern Cross, and on to Carina, Vela and Puppis above the southwestern horizon. Together these three constellations make up the great ship Argo Navis, famous in Greek mythology as that used by Jason and the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece.
Just to the left of the Milky Way is Carina’s brightest star Canopus, or Alpha Carinae, the second brightest in the nighttime sky. Its Maori name is Atu tahi or Au tahi, which means to stand alone, because of its position just outside the main band of our Galaxy. In the other direction , the Milky Way drops down to the eastern horizon and the bright star Altair in the constellation of Aquila, the Eagle, which rises around 9pm at the start of the month.
In the morning skies our last visible planet, brilliant Venus, rises after 4am. Venus is so bright that you can really only mistake it with the headlights of an airplane and provides a useful pointer to help find Matariki/the Pleiades as the cluster rises before dawn. Venus sits just above Matariki at the beginning of the month, but slowly moves down between Matariki and Taurus' brightest star Aldebaran as the month progresses, sitting just below Aldebaran on the morning of the 18th.
Wishing you clear skies from the team her at Space Place at Carter Observatory.

Northern Hemisphere

Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the northern hemisphere night sky during June 2017.

The Planets

• Jupiter - Now two months after opposition, Jupiter still dominates the late evening sky shining in the south to southwest after nightfall. It sets about 3 am BST as June begins and by about 1 am at its end. As the month progresses its brightness falls from -2.3 to -2 .0 magnitudes as its angular size falls from 41 to 37 arc seconds. It lies in Virgo some 11 degrees to the west of Spica, Alpha Virginis, and halts its westwards retrograde motion on the 11th as it begins its initially slow eastwards march back towards Spica. It will pass Spica on September 11th on its journey towards the lower parts of the ecliptic. Next year it will only reach an elevation of some 25 degrees when due south and, in the following two years, just 18 degrees before it moves back towards the more northerly parts of the ecliptic. Even so, with a small telescope one should easily be able to see the equatorial bands in the atmosphere, sometimes the Great Red Spot and up to four of the Gallilean moons as they weave their way around it.
• Saturn - Saturn comes into opposition on June 11th and so, then, will be at its highest elevation due south at around 1 am BST and will be visible throughout the short night. It shines at magnitude 0.1 all month and has an angular size of 18.3 arc seconds. With an angle of 26.5 degrees inclination to the line of sight the rings are virtually as open as they ever can be. It is sad that Saturn, now lying in the southern part of Ophiuchus between Sagittarius and Scorpius, only reaches an elevation of ~17 degrees above the horizon when due south so hindering our view of this most beautiful planet. If imaging Saturn (or Jupiter), Registax 6 has a tool to align the red, green and blue colour images to largely remove atmospheric dispersion from the image. At somewhat over £100 one can purchase the ZWO atmospheric dispersion corrector which uses two, contra rotating, prisms to carry out an even better correction.
• Mercury - Mercury is lost in the glare of the Sun for most of the month before it makes a modest evening apparition in July. It might just be spotted with binoculars very low in the west after sunset at the very end of the month. But please do not use them until after the Sun has set.
• Mars - Following a two year long apparition, Mars finally slips into the Sun's glare in the first week of June when its salmon-pink disk might just be picked out in the west-northwest.
• Venus - Venus is visible in the east before dawn this month reaching its greatest elongation (46 degrees west of the Sun) on the 3rd of June. It magnitude dims slightly during the month from -4.5 to -4.2 as its angular diameter shrinks from ~24 to 18 arc seconds. However, at the same time, its phase increases from 48 to 62 percent which explains why the magnitude does not drop too much. Even though it will be moving back towards the Sun, as the angle of the ecliptic to the horizon increases at this time of the year, it elevation before sunrise will continue to increase until August.
Highlights

Early June - still worth viewing Jupiter. .The features seen in the Jovian atmosphere have been changing quite significantly over the last few years - for a while the South Equatorial Belt vanished completely) but has now returned to its normal wide state.

June - The best month to observe Saturn. .The thing that makes Saturn stand out is, of course, its ring system. The two outermost rings, A and B, are separated by a gap called Cassini's Division which should be visible in a telescope of 4 or more inches aperture if seeing conditions are good. Lying within the B ring, but far less bright and difficult to spot, is the C or Crepe Ring. Due to the orientation of Saturn's rotation axis of 27 degrees with respect to the plane of the solar system, the orientation of the rings as seen by us changes as it orbits the Sun and twice each orbit they lie edge on to us and so can hardly be seen. This last happened in 2009 and they are now opening out, currently at an angle of 26.5 degrees to the line of sight. From this month the ring's orientation will begin to narrow until March 2025 when they will appear edge-on again.

June - Find the globular cluster in Hercules and spot the 'Double-double' in Lyra.Just to the left of the bright star Vega in Lyra is the multiple star system Epsilon Lyrae often called the double-double. With binoculars a binary star is seen but, when observed with a telescope, each of these two stars is revealed to be a double star - hence the name!

Late June: A very good time to spot Noctilucent Clouds! .Noctilucent clouds, also known as polar mesospheric clouds, are most commonly seen in the deep twilight towards the north from our latitude. They are the highest clouds in the atmosphere at heights of around 80 km or 50 miles. Normally too faint to be seen, they are visible when illuminated by sunlight from below the northern horizon whilst the lower parts of the atmosphere are in shadow. They are not fully understood and are increasing in frequency, brightness and extent; some think that this might be due to climate change! So on a clear dark night as light is draining from the north western sky long after sunset take a look towards the north and you might just spot them!

June 3rd - evening: The Moon and Jupiter.During the evening of the 3rd June, the waxing Moon will lie less than 2 degrees up and to the right of Jupiter.

8th/9th June - around midnight: Observe the Galilean Satellites. .If clear around midnight the 8th/9th, and using a small telescope, one could observe the 4 Gallilean Moons lined up on one side of the giant planet.

Night of June 15 to 16th when fully dark: The Lyrid Meteor Shower.The June Lyrid meteor shower reaches its peak on the night of the 15th/16th with a rate at the zenith of ~8 meteors per hour. This is not many and, as the Moon is close to third quarter it may be hard to spot one. The radiant is very close to the star Vega. Many more meteors were seen from the shower in the late 1960's but the peak hourly rate has dropped off markedly since then. If clear, it may still be worth aiming to see if you can spot one.

21st June - before dawn: Venus and a thin crescent Moon.Before dawn on the 22st, Venus will be seen some 4 degrees above a very thin waning crescent Moon.

Late June - around midnight: Observe Comet 2015 V2 (Johnson) .On the 12 June but, sadly, close to Full Moon, Comet Johnson is at perihelion lying at a distance of 1.64 AU from the Sun. On the 1st of June it will lie over to the left of Arcturus in Bootes but passes into Virgo on the 14th. In the latter part of the month with no moonlight to hinder our view, binoculars or a small telescope could be used to spot Comet Johnson as it move across Virgo. It is expected to reach magnitude +6 so should be easily visible with binoculars. The chart shows its position during the month.

June 3rd and 16th: The Alpine Valley.These are two good nights to observe an interesting feature on the Moon if you have a small telescope. Close to the terminator is the Appenine mountain chain that marks the edge of Mare Imbrium. Towards the upper end you should see the cleft across them called the Alpine valley. It is about 7 miles wide and 79 miles long. As shown in the image a thin rill runs along its length which is quite a challenge to observe. Over the next two nights the dark crater Plato and the young crater Copernicus will come into view. This is a very interesting region of the Moon!

Southern Hemisphere

Claire Bretherton tells us what we can see in the southern hemisphere night sky during June 2017.



The Planets
• Introduction

  Kia ora and welcome to the June Jodcast from Space Place at Carter Observatory in Wellington, New Zealand.

  This month, we reach our winter solstice here in the southern hemisphere, when the south pole of the Earth is at its greatest tilt away from the Sun. This means that the Sun appears much lower in the sky, our days are shorter and colder, and our nights are longer.

  This year the solstice falls on the 21st June NZST. Whilst always around this time, the actual date of the winter solstice can sometimes fall on the 22nd. This is because it takes the Earth approximately 365 and a quarter days to go around the Sun, but we don't count that extra quarter day in our calendars every year, we save them up for a leap year. So the timing of the solstice slips around 6 hours later each year until we add an extra day and it jumps back to the beginning again.

  The word solstice means "Sun stopped" or "Sun still", because the Sun rises and sets at it most northerly points of the year. As we move back towards the summer, the Sun will gradually rise and set further and further south until it stops again at the summer solstice in December, and begins the long journey back north.

HighlightsStars

Whilst the cold weather at this time of year may not be so welcome, the long, dark nights provide a perfect opportunity to observe our beautiful southern skies.

We are very lucky here in the southern hemisphere, that we have a perfect view towards the central bulge of our Milky Way galaxy, so it appears broader and brighter across our sky. The center lies towards the constellations of Sagittarius, the archer, and Scorpius, the Scorpion, which is now midway up our eastern evening skies. Scorpius is our winter constellation, and together with Sagittarius, a little below, will be dominating our skies over the next few months.

At the heart of the Scorpion is the bright orange tinged star Antares, a red supergiant with a radius nearly 900 times that of the Sun. The name Antares means "rival of Mars" because of its distinctive colour, which tells us that it is a cooler star, at around 3 and a half thousand degrees. Antares lies around 550ly away and is amongst the 20 brightest stars in the nighttime sky.

To the left of Antares is a line of stars now forming the Scorpion's claws, and further left still the faint zodiac constellation of Libra, the scales. Libra's two brightest stars form an almost vertical line in our evening sky, and have perhaps the best names of any I have seen, Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali.

Zubenelgenubi, the higher of the two, is half way between Antares and Spica at a distance of around 77 light years. At magnitude 2.7 it enjoys the alpha designation, despite being slightly fainter than its beta counterpart below, probably because it lies just a third of a degree from the ecliptic.

Using binoculars you'll see that Zubenelgenubi is in fact a double star with two components separated by around 5400 AU (a little under 4' on the sky), and which appear to be co-moving through space. Strictly speaking, the name Zubenelgenubi now only refers to the brighter of the two. Both components are spectroscopic binary stars in their own right, and there may be also be a fifth component to the system, KU Librae, located 2.6 degrees away.

Below Alpha Librae is the slightly brighter Beta Librae, or Zubeneschamali, at magnitude 2.6, which lies 185 lightyears away. Zubeneschamali is a hot blue main sequence star some 130 times more luminous than the Sun, and with twice the surface temperature. Whilst stars of this type are often seen as white or bluish in colour, Zubeneschamali has often been described as greenish by observers, the only green star visible to the naked eye. Whilst theoretically this is not possible, scientists are still unsure why so many observers claim to see it this way.

Constellations

Whilst today these stars are part of Libra, the names Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali derive from the Arabic for the southern claw and northern claw of the scorpion, referring back to the ancient Greeks who saw these stars as part of the constellation of Scorpius.

The idea of scales or a balance can be traced back to the ancient Babylonians though, some 4,000 years ago, at a time when the northern hemisphere autumnal equinox (where the Sun crosses the equator from the northern to southern hemisphere) appeared in that part of the sky. The choice of scales likely relates to the balance between light and dark, with equal hours of day and night experienced at the equinox, as well as the change of seasons from summer to winter, and therefore hot to cold.

The romans revived the idea, seeing Libra as the Scales of Justice held by Astraea, the Starry Goddess, represented by the neighboring zodiac constellation of Virgo. Virgo is currently home to bright Jupiter, sat a little to the left of the constellations brightest star Spica, high in the northeast after dark.

Below Scorpius is our second evening planet, cream-coloured Saturn, shining at magnitude 0 this month. Saturn reaches opposition on the 15th, when it will be directly opposite the Sun in the sky and overhead at midnight. Saturn will also be at its closest to Earth around this time making it appear at its largest and brightest, although in practice any difference will be hard to spot with the naked eye. Do take a look through a small telescope if you get a chance though. This opposition its rings will be almost at maximum tilt, so should be a wonderful sight.

Here in New Zealand, we don't have Scorpions, so we see Scorpius as something a little more familiar in the Southern Pacific. To Maori this group of stars is known as Te Matau a Maui, the fishhook of Maui, which he used to pull a great fish out of the ocean that became the north island of New Zealand, te Ika a Maui. Antares is known as Rehua, and represents a drop of blood that Maui took from his nose to use as bait.

This constellation was an important aid for ancient pacific navigators as it travels directly overhead from our latitude. Once te Matau a Maui was right overhead it was simply a case of travelling east or west to find Aotearoa/New Zealand.

By just before sunrise Scorpius or Te Matau a Maui has moved to the west south western horizon, with the hook pointing upwards.

The morning skies at this time of year are particularly important here in New Zealand as this is the time we celebrate Matariki, or Maori New Year. The timing of this celebration is based on the heliacal rising of the small group of stars known as Matariki or the Pleiades.

Opposite Scorpius in the morning sky is his arch enemy, Orion the hunter, rising directly east, with the three bright stars of his belt lying along the horizon. These are also known as Tautoru here in New Zealand.

If you follow these stars along the horizon to the right they point to Sirius or Takurua, the brightest star in the night time sky. Follow them to the left and you first come to a v shape forming the head of Taurus the bull, with the bright star Aldebaran marking his eye, and then to Matariki rising in the east north east.

The Pleiades is, in fact, visible throughout most of the year, but is only known as Matariki around this time. It disappears from our evening skies around April each year before reappearing in the morning in early June. It is this reappearance, or heliacal rising, that tells us that the old year is coming to an end. The next new moon (or for some iwi the next full moon) marks the beginning of the New Year. This year the new moon falls on the 24th of June, and may be visible a day or two after this, so Matariki will officially be celebrated on the 25th of the month.

Maori mythology

In Maori mythology Matariki, Tautoru, Takurua and Rehua form four pou, or pillars that hold Ranginui, the sky father, in the sky. Matariki supported one of Rangi's shoulders and marks the rising point of the Sun at the winter solstice. Takurua (Sirius) supports the other shoulder and is the closest bright star to the Sun's rising point at the summer solstice. These two stars represent the extent of the Sun's movement throughout the year.

Tautoru held Rangi's neck and marks the celestial equator which runs along the length of Ranginui's backbone. Poutu-te-rangi or the star Altair, marks the other end. Over in the west Rehua, or Antares, supports Ranginui's lower torso. A line drawn from Matariki to Rehua marks the ecliptic; the pathway of the Sun, Moon and planets through the sky.

These four pou form the basis of a celestial compass, a map of the night sky that was used to navigate the Pacific Ocean and bring our ancestors to Aotearoa. Today Matariki is a chance for all New Zealanders to unite in celebration of this great land we all call home: its a chance to reflect on the state of the planet we live on and the bounty that we receive from Mother Earth, to celebrate our shared history and to reflect on our very unique place in the Universe.

Nga mihi o Te Tau Hou ki a koutou katoa

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year from the team here at Space Place.

Northern Hemisphere

Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the northern hemisphere night sky during May 2017.

The Stars and GalaxiesThe Planets

• Jupiter
  came into opposition on April 7th so, this month, transits in the late evening and is visible rising in the east at dusk. It is moving in retrograde motion lying in Virgo initially some 9 degrees over to the right of its brightest star, Spica. This increases to ~11 degrees as May progresses. The size of Jupiter's disk decreases slightly from 43.5. to 40.8 arc seconds during May with its magnitude reducing very slightly from -2.4 to -2.3. With a small telescope one should be easily able to see the equatorial bands in the atmosphere, sometimes the Great Red Spot and up to four of the Galilean moons as they weave their way around it.
• Saturn
  rises around 11:30pm BST as may begins and will be highest in the pre-dawn sky at ~4am BST. By the end of May it will rise at ~9:30pm BST and transit at around 2am BST. Lying in the western part of Sagittarius, its diameter increases from 17.8 to 18.3 arc seconds during the month as it brightness increases slightly from magnitude +0.3 to +0.1. It will be high enough in the south-east in the hours before dawn to make out the beautiful ring system which, at over 26 degrees to the line of sight, are nearly as open as they ever become. If only it were higher in the ecliptic; its elevation this year never gets above ~18 degrees and so the atmosphere will hinder our view of this most beautiful planet. [Note: I have acquired a ZWO Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector which uses two contra-rotating prisms to combat the dispersion of the atmosphere at low elevations. If imaging Saturn (or Jupiter), Registax 6 has a tool to align the red, green and blue colour images to largely remove the dispersion from the image.]
• Mercury
  is lost in the glare of the Sun this month so cannot be observed.
• Mars
  lies in Taurus initially making a shallow triangle with Aldabaran to its lower left and the Pleiades cluster to its lower right. In early May, Mars has an elevation of ~11 degrees above the western horizon at sunset, but this reduces to ~5 degrees by month's end when Mars will be lost in the Sun's glare. It will then be lost from view all summer as it passes behind the Sun. By month's end it will lie some 6.5 degrees over to the left of Alnath, Beta Tauri. Its brightness falls slightly during the month from magnitude +1.6 to +1.7 whilst its angular diameter falls from 3.9 to 3.7 arc seconds. No details would be expected to be seen on its salmon-pink surface.
• Venus
  rises in the east in the morning twilight on the first of the month and then climbs a little higher each morning as May progresses. On May 1st, the disk, forming a crescent 38 arc seconds high, is just 27% lit shining with a magnitude of -4.7 - its maximum brightness. By the end of the month, Venus shines at magnitude -4.5 with its angular size reduced to 25 arc seconds and its illuminated fraction increased to 48%. It is then close to its greatest elongation from the Sun of 46 degrees which it will reach on June 3rd. But, due to the shallow angle that the ecliptic makes to the horizon at this time of the year, it will then only have an elevation of ~16 degrees at sunrise.

Highlights

JupiterThis is a great month to observe Jupiter which came into opposition on April 7th so, during May, will be visible in the south during the evening. It is moving down the ecliptic and lies in Virgo. It now reaches an elevation of ~36 degrees when crossing the meridian. An interesting observation is that the Great Red Spot appears to be diminishing in size. At the beginning of the last century it spanned 40,000 km across but now appears to be only ~16,500 Km across - less than half the size. It used to be said that 3 Earths could fit within it, but now it is only one. The shrinking rate appears to be accelerating and observations indicate that it is now reducing in size by ~580 miles per year. Will it eventually disappear?

May: Look for the Great Red Spot on JupiterA list gives some of the best evening times during May to observe the Great Red Spot which should then lie on the central meridian of the planet. The times are in UT.

May 4/5th - after midnight: The Moon occults the double star 49 LeonisJust after 00:20 BST, the dark limb of the Moon will occult the double star 49 Leonis (magnitudes +5.8 and +7.9 separated by 2 arc seconds). As a result, the starlight will take longer to be extinguished than from a single star. If the seeing were good, it might be possible to split the pair using a high magnification and see each component disappear.

May 5th and 6th before dawn: The Eta Aquarid Meteor ShowerThe Eta Aquarids are one of the finest meteor showers that can be seen from the southern hemisphere, but, in the northern hemisphere, may be glimpsed in the pre-dawn sky in the south-east around 90 minutes before dawn. Sadly, this year the peak is when the Moon is coming towards full - but happily low on the western horizon - so there will be some moonlight to hinder our view.

May 7th - evening: The Moon and JupiterThis evening the Moon, three days before full, will pass just 1.5 degrees above Jupiter.

15th May - evening: Observe the Galilean Satellites.If clear on the evening of the 15th and using a small telescope, one could observe the 4 Galilean Moons lined up on one side of the giant planet.

22nd May - dawn: Venus and a thin crescent MoonBefore dawn on the 22nd, Venus will be seen over to the left of a very thin waning crescent Moon.

22nd to 31st May - all night: Observe Comet 2015 V2 (Johnson)During the last 10 days of May, with no Moonlight to hinder our view, binoculars or a small telescope could be used to spot Comet Johnson as it moves down through the constellation Bootes closing in on the bright star Arcturus. It might reach magnitude +6 so should be easily visible with binoculars. The chart shows its position during this time.

27th May - ~23:20 BST: a shadow transit of Jupiter.After sunset on the last three day of the month, one can observe, if clear, a thin waxing crescent Moon passing the Beehive cluster (M44) as it moves up to pass Regulus, in Leo, on the 31st.

May 3rd and 16th, evening: The Hyginus RilleThese evenings, should it be clear, are a superb time to view the Hyginus Rill as it will lie close to the terminator. For some time a debate raged as to whether the craters on the Moon were caused by impacts or volcanic activity. We now know that virtually all were caused by impact, but it is thought that the Hyginus crater that lies at the centre of the Hyginus Rille may well be volcanic in origin. It is an 11 km wide rimless pit - in contrast to impact craters which have raised rims - and its close association with the rille of the same name associates it with internal lunar events. It can quite easily be seen to be surrounded by dark material. It is thought that an explosive release of dust and gas created a vacant space below so that the overlying surface collapsed into it so forming the crater.

Southern Hemisphere

Claire Bretherton from the Carter Observatory in New Zealand speaks about the southern hemisphere night sky during May 2017.

Kia ora and welcome to the May Jodcast from Space Place at Carter Observatory in Wellington, New Zealand.

Our evening skies this month are dominated by Jupiter and Saturn, along with some of our brightest stars. Jupiter will be one of the first objects to appear, visible in the north east shortly after the Sun has set. A bright waxing gibbous moon will pass within 2 degrees of the planet on the evening of May 8th, that’s 4 moon diameters apart. Both will be visible within the same binocular field of view.Just to the right of Jupiter is Spica, the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo, and below, just above the horizon is orange coloured Arcturus, which at magnitude −0.05 is the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere and the 4th brightest in the night sky.

Arcturus has a similar mass to the Sun, but it is further along in its lifespan and has already expanded to become a red giant, with 25 times the diameter and 170 times the luminosity of our own star. When close to the horizon it often appears to twinkle red and green as its light is broken up by our atmosphere.

All three of the brighter stars are in the southern hemisphere, and are also visible in our evening skies this month. The brightest, Sirius , sits halfway up the western sky at the beginning of the month, with Orion’s belt, now almost vertical, below. Rigel and Betelguese , the seventh and ninth brightest stars sit to either side of the belt. Both Orion and Sirius will soon be disappearing from our evening skies, before reappearing before the Sun in the morning skies over the coming months.

The second brightest star Canopus is circumpolar here in New Zealand, never dropping below the horizon. This month it sits a little higher than Sirius, further around towards the south west. To complete the trio, the third brightest star, Alpha Centauri is high in the southeast, pointing the way to the Southern Cross.

Below Alpha Centauri, rising in the twilight sky is the curve of stars making the body of Scorpius, the scorpion. Its brightest star Antares is a variable star, which ranges in brightness from magnitude 0.6 to 1.6, and is on average the 15th brightest in the night sky. Antares is a red supergiant, , one of the largest stars known, almost 900 times the diameter of the Sun. If it were placed at the centre of the Solar System, its surface would extend to the middle of the asteroid belt. The name Antares means rival of Mars, because of its striking red colour. To Māori the star is known as Rehua and represents a drop of blood Maui pulled from his nose to bait his fishhook. In Aotearoa, the constellation of Scorpius in seen as Maui’s hook, te Matau a Maui, which was used to pull up a great fish which became the north island of New Zealand.

Scorpius/te Matau a Maui is our winter constellation and will be dominating our skies over the coming months, visible throughout the night.

Sitting just 1.3 degrees to the west of Antares, and visible in the same wide field telescope view, is the 5.9 magnitude globular cluster Messier 4, just about visible to the naked eye in a clear, dark sky. M4 is one of the nearest globular clusters in the sky, at just 7,200 lightyears away and is the only globular cluster that Messier was able to resolve with the modest equipment he was using, 20 years before William Herschel was able to resolve all of the Messier globular clusters with his much larger telescopes.

M4 is one of the loosest, most open globular clusters and features a central bar of 11th magnitude stars, which can be resolved in a 10cm telescope. Through binoculars the cluster is seen as a round hazy patch.

Messier 4 contains some of the oldest stars known in our galaxy, with an estimated age of 13 billion years. Discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, these White Dwarf stars are the remnants of ancient solar like stars that have already shed their outer layers into space.

In 2003 a planet was discovered orbiting one of these White Dwarfs and its Pulsar companion, the first circumbinary (ie orbiting both stars)”planet ever found, and the first planet detected in a globular cluster. With a mass of around 2.5 Jupiters and an estimated age of 12.7 billion years, it is also one of the oldest known extrasolar planets, earning it the unofficial nicknames “Methuselah” and “The Genesis Planet”.

A little over half way from Antares to Arcturus is another globular cluster, M5, or NGC 5904, in the constellation of Serpens. At almost 6th magnitude it is also tough to spot with the naked eye in anything but the darkest conditions, but with binoculars it is easy to find, although you will need a small telescope to begin to resolve it and start to pick out a slightly elongated shape and a few edge stars.

With a calculated age of around 13 billion years, M5 is one of the oldest globular clusters known, and at 165 light years in diameter and containing hundreds of thousands of stars, it is also one of the largest. It also contains 105 known variable stars, with the brightest and most easily observed, Variable 42, changing from magnitude 10.6 to 12.1 in just under 26.5 days.

To find M5 you can star hop from the faint star 109 Virginis to 110 Virginis and then around twice the distance again to find 5 Serpentis, and M5 is just 20' to the North West.

Below Antares, and rising a little later in the evening, is bright, cream coloured Saturn. It’s a great time to observe Saturn through a small telescope at the moment with its rings at close to maximum tilt. Saturns largest moon , Titan, can be spotted orbiting around for ring diameters from the planet, with several smaller, closer moons also visible in larger telescopes.

In the morning sky Venus rises in the east around 4am and is joined by Mercury around an hour and a half before sunrise. Mercury reaches its greatest elongation west on the 18th of May and is making its best morning appearance of the year, rising before twilight begins throughout the month.

If you’re out planet spotting in the early hours then take a look for the eta aquarids meteor shower, which peaks around the 6th of May. This shower is caused by the Earth passing through the trail of debris left behind by the famous comet Halley. The shower appears to radiate from a point near the fourth magnitude star Eta Aquarii, one of the brightest in the zodiac constellation of Aquarius, representing the water bearer.

The radiant won’t rise in the eastern sky until around 2am here in New Zealand, so the best time to go meteor spotting is in the few hours before sunrise. At the shower’s peak you may be able to spot up to a meteor a minute, many of them fast and bright and leaving glowing trails behind them. Viewing conditions this year will be much better than last, with the Moon setting on the other side of the sky in the early hours of the morning, giving you a good few hours of observing time before the Sun rises just after 7 am.

You may also have a chance for some binocular comet hunting this month as Comet PanSTARRS (C/2015 ER61) heads towards Perihelion (its closest approach to the Sun) on the 10th of May. At the start of the month it will be moving from Aquarius through to Pisces and may be visible with binoculars in our morning skies. On 4th April the comet experienced an outburst, brightening from 8th to 6th magnitude almost overnight, and whilst it is always hard to predict how bright a comet is going to get, this one is definitely worth keeping an eye on.Wishing you clear skies from the team here at Space Place at Carter Observatory.

Northern Hemisphere

Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the northern hemisphere night sky during April 2017.

The Stars and GalaxiesConstellations and Stars

Orion setting in the west, with upper part of Taurus and the Pleiades still visible. Also above Orion Gemini is visible with the stars Caster above and Pollux below. Also below Gemini is Procyon the only bright star in Canis Minor. Leo is visible in the south with a wonderful region called the Realm of the Galaxies just behind the tail. Between Leo's tail and the bright star Arcturus (in Bootes) is Virgo and Coma Berenices with many Messier objects in that region. High overhead is Ursa Major with the Plough. The central star of the handle, Mizar, is a double star (with Alcor) and observable in a telescope is faint red star up to the right of the pair.

The Planets

• Jupiter
  comes into opposition on April 7th, lying in Virgo initially some 6 degrees above its brightest star, Spica. Visible all night, It will be due south at an elevation of 34 degrees at around midnight UT. The size of Jupiter's disk decreases slightly from 44.2 to 43.6 arc seconds as February progresses with its magnitude reducing very slightly from -2.5 to -2.4. With a small telescope one should be easily able to see the equatorial bands in the atmosphere, sometimes the Great Red Spot and up to four of the Galilean moons as they weave their way around it.
• Saturn
  rises around midnight (UT) and will be highest in the pre-dawn sky. Lying in the western part of Sagittarius, its diameter increases from 17 to 18 arc seconds during the month as it brightness increases slightly from magnitude +0.4 to +0.3. It will be high enough in the south-east in the hours before dawn to make out the beautiful ring system which, at over 26 degrees to the line of sight, are nearly as open as they ever become. If only it were higher in the ecliptic; its elevation this year never gets above ~18 degrees and so the atmosphere will hinder our view of this most beautiful planet. [Note: I have just acquired a ZWO Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector which uses two contra-rotating prisms to combat the dispersion of the atmosphere at low elevations.]
• Mercury
  passed through superior conjunction on March 7th and, on April 1st, will lie ~14 degrees above the western horizon at nightfall when it is at its greatest elongation, some 19 degrees, from the Sun. Then at magnitude -0.2, it brightness drops to magnitude +3 by the 18th of the month as it falls back towards the Sun. Mercury passes through inferior conjunction on the 20th and will reappear in the predawn sky by the end of the month. With an angular size of to 7.5 arc seconds on the 1st, increasing to 11 arc seconds on the 18th, no details would be expected to be seen on its disk.
• Mars
  As April begins, Mars lies in Aries but moves into Taurus on the 12th of the month. In early April, Mars has an elevation of ~20 degrees above the western horizon at sunset, but this reduces to ~11 degrees by month's end. On the 16th, it lies 4 degrees below the Pleaides cluster and then passes between the Pleiades and Hyades clusters on the 25th when it lies some 9 degrees to the right of Aldebaran. Its brightness falls slightly during the month from magnitude +1.5 to +1.6 whilst its angular diameter falls from 4.2 to 3.9 arc seconds. No details would be expected to be seen on its salmon-pink surface.
• Venus
  rises in the east about an hour before sunrise on the first of the month and then climbs a little higher each morning as April progresses. On April 1st, the disk, forming a slender crescent nearly one arc minute tall, is just 2 percent lit shining with a magnitude of -4.2. By the end of the month, Venus has its maximum brightness of magnitude -4.7 with its angular size reduced to 39 arc seconds and its illuminated fraction increased to 26 percent. It will then have an elevation of ~13 degrees at sunrise. In daytime when still high in the sky it can be imaged in the infrared as the blue light from the sky is filtered out.

Highlights

April - a great month to view Jupiter.This is a great month to observe Jupiter which comes into opposition on April 7th. It is moving down the ecliptic and, at the start of April, lies in Virgo some 6 degrees above Spica (Alpha Virginis). It now reaches an elevations of ~36 degrees when crossing the meridian. An interesting observation is that the Great Red Spot appears to be diminishing in size. At the beginning of the last century it spanned 40,000 km across but now appears to be only ~16,500 km across - less than half the size. It used to be said that 3 Earths could fit within it, but now it is only one. The shrinking rate appears to be accelerating and observations indicate that it is now reducing in size by ~580 miles per year. Will it eventually disappear? The features seen in the Jovian atmosphere have been changing quite significantly over the last few years - for a while the South Equatorial Belt vanished completely but has now returned to its normal wide state.

April: Look for the Great Red Spot on JupiterThe night sky page gives a list of some of the best evening times during April to observe the Great Red Spot which should then lie on the central meridian of the planet. The times are in UT.

1st to 7th April - early evening after dusk: Mercury at its highest in the skyIf clear on the evenings of the first week of April, Mercury will be seen above the western horizon after sunset. Then it will have an elevation of some 18 degrees - so an excellent week to observe a somewhat elusive planet.

April 7/8th - all night: The waxing Moon closes on Regulus in LeoDuring the darkness hours of the night of the 7/8th of April, a waxing Moon closes on Regulus and is within 2 degrees as dawn approaches on the 8th.

10th April - all night: The Moon, one day before full, passes Jupiter in Virgo. If clear on the evening of the 10th and looking first to the south-east, one will see the Moon, one day before full, passing just 2 degrees above Jupiter in Virgo.

22nd April - after midnight: The peak of the Lyrid Meteors. Without any moonlight to hinder our view and from a dark rural location one, if clear, would have a chance of observing the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower with up to 10 meteors visible each hour. As one might expect, the shower's radiant is close to Vega in Lyra.

25th April - 1 hour after sunset: Mars passes between the Hyades and Pleiades Clusters. Looking low in the west after sunset on the evening of the 25th, Mars will be seen to lie directly between the Hyades (to its left) and Pleiades clusters - if clear, a nice photographic opportunity.

April 28th - a daylight occultation of AldebaranBefore dusk on the evening of the 28th, Aldebaran is occulted by a very thin crescent Moon. It will disappear behind the Moon's dark limb at 19:11 BST as seen from London and 19:07 BST as seen from Edinburgh and reappear at the bright limb at 20:07 BST as seen from London and 19:57 BST from Edinburgh. As darkness falls, Aldebaran will be seen to lie just below the Moon.

March 5th and 18th: An interesting valley on the Moon: The Alpine ValleyThese are two good nights to observe an interesting feature on the Moon if you have a small telescope. Close to the limb is the Appenine mountain chain that marks the edge of Mare Imbrium. Towards the upper end you should see the cleft across them called the Alpine valley. It is about 7 miles wide and 79 miles long. As shown in the image is a thin rill runs along its length which is quite a challenge to observe. The dark crater Plato will also be visible nearby. You may also see the shadow cast by the mountain Mons Piton lying not far away in Mare Imbrium. This is a very interesting region of the Moon!

Southern Hemisphere

Claire Bretherton from the Carter Observatory in New Zealand speaks about the southern hemisphere night sky during April 2017.

Kia ora and welcome to the April Jodcast from Space Place at Carter Observatory in Wellington, New Zealand.

New Zealand daylight saving ends the first weekend of the month, bringing our southern hemisphere summer abruptly to an end. On the bright side, the lighter mornings and darker nights will make it much easier to get out and do some observing.

One of the first objects you'll see in the evening twilight is bright golden Jupiter, rising in the east soon after the sun sets at the beginning of the month. It slowly crosses the sky through the course of the night, before disappearing in the west at sunrise. By the end of the month it will be rising well before dusk. Jupiter reaches opposition on April the 8th, meaning it will lie directly opposite the Sun in the sky and be overhead at midnight. At this time Jupiter is also at its closest to Earth, but the difference in angular size and brightness is not really noticeable to the naked eye.

Jupiter is always worth a look through a small telescope or good binoculars, revealing up to four of its large Galilean moons. The full Moon passes close to Jupiter on the 10th/11th of the month.

Jupiter sits in the constellation of Virgo, just to the left of the brightest star Spica. Last month I mentioned that Virgo is home to the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, containing up to 2000 members. This month we'll take a closer look at some of those galaxies in more detail.

The cluster's centre lies around 54 Million light years away and it extends nearly 8 degrees across the sky. Many of the brighter galaxies are included in Messier's catalogue of non-cometary fuzzy objects and are easily visible with a small telescope. Perhaps the most famous member is the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87, located close to the cluster centre. The second brightest galaxy in the northern part of the cluster, with an apparent magnitude of 9.59, M87 is easily observed with a modest 60mm telescope, and is in reach of a good pair of binoculars under excellent conditions, visible as a faint, hazy patch of light. Small telescopes may reveal the galaxy's elliptical shape, brightening towards the centre.

M87 is one of the most massive and luminous galaxies in the local Universe, estimated to contain the mass of around 2.7 trillion Suns, some 200 times that of the Milky Way, but only around one sixth of this mass is in the form of an estimated 1 trillion stars. It is also distinctive for its large number of globular clusters, with over 6 times as many as our own Galaxy. Close to its core is a 3.5 billion solar mass black hole, one of the most massive known, orbited by a fast moving disk of ionized gas, which is a strong source of radiation, particularly at radio wavelengths. In fact M87 is one of the brightest radio sources in the sky.

In 1918 American astronomer Heber Curtis detected a "curious straight ray" extending from the galaxy's centre, which we now know is a jet of energetic plasma blasted out from the nucleus of M87 at relativistic speeds. The central black hole of M87 is actually offset from the core by around 25 parsecs in the direction opposite to the jet, suggesting that the jet may be responsible for accelerating the black hole away from the galaxy's centre. An alternative theory suggesst that the displacement my have been caused by a merger with another galaxy.

To find M87, draw a line from Denebola at the tail of Leo to Vindemiatrix (or Epsilon Virginis), and the galaxy can be found just over half way along, close to Virgo's border with the Coma Berenices constellation.

Around 1.5 degrees back towards Leo is the M84/M86 galaxy pair, located just 17 arcminutes apart. Whilst M86 can be seen in 10x50 binoculars under good conditions, larger binoculars or a small telescope will be needed to pick up its companion easily. The two are visible in the same field of view, and in a 20cm or larger telescope a number of fainter galaxies can be seen nearby, including NGC 4435, NGC 4388, NGC 4402 and NGC 4438.

M86 and M87 are thought to be moving towards each other for their first galactic encounter.

The brightest galaxy in the cluster is the 9.4 magnitude Messier 49, located a little above M87 in our evening skies. M49 was the first member of the Virgo cluster to be found, and only the second galaxy to be discovered outside our local group. Messier 49 is interacting with the nearby dwarf irregular galaxy UGC 7636, which has a trail of debris covering 1 x 5 arcminutes of the sky.

M49 can be seen in large binoculars and small telescopes, with slightly larger telescopes picking up a bright core and large halo, but an otherwise featureless view.

Further around to the north in our evening sky, to the other side of Denebola is the main body of Leo, with the constellations brightest star Regulus or Alpha Leonis marking the lion's heart. Regulus is at the top of an upside down question mark as we see it here in New Zealand, which marks the head and mane of the Lion. With an apparent magnitude of 1.35, the star is the 21st brightest in the night sky, but it is in fact a system of four individual stars arranged in two pairs.

Regulus A is a spectroscopic binary comprising of a hot, young, blue-white main sequence star with a tiny companion of less than 0.3 solar masses, which is probably a white dwarf. Regulus B and C make a second pairing located 177 arc-seconds away from Regulus A. Resolving the BC pair from Regulus A is a good challenge for binocular observers, and certainly achievable with a small telescope.

A little below Regulus is another well known double star called Algieba or the Mane. First discovered by William Herschel in 1782, Algieba comprises a yellow-orange giant primary and a yellow-white giant secondary at magnitudes 2.3 and 3.5 respectively. The pair have an angular separation of around 4 arcseconds, so you won't be able to resolve them in binoculars, but with a telescope of aperture around 8cm or greater you should be able to split them.

Like its neighbouring Virgo, Leo is also home to a number of bright galaxies including the Leo Triplet, a small group of interacting galaxies consisting of spiral galaxies M65, M66 and NGC 3628. Often known as the M66 group, the Leo Triplet is located around 35 million light years away, and provides a fantastic opportunity to study galaxy interaction in our local Universe. Each of the three main members show signs of tidal disturbance with NGC 3628 exhibiting an impressive tidal tail extending for over 300,000 light years.

The triplet is located fairly close to Denebola, or Beta Leonis and around half way between Chertan, or Theta Leonis and Iota Leonis. Most small telescopes should be able to pick up the group, but M66, the brightest of the three, and M65, the second brightest, should also be visible in large binoculars.

This month the new moon falls on the 27th, so around this time will be the best opportunity for galaxy spotting.

Moving around towards the southeast, our winter constellation of Scorpius is rising in our evening skies at the beginning of the month and by around 11pm is joined by cream-coloured Saturn, sat a little below. By the end of the month Saturn will be rising shortly after 8pm. The Moon will be just to the left of Saturn on the night of the 16th.

Venus is moving quickly into our morning skies, rising a little over an hour before the Sun at the start of the month and 3 hours before at the end, when it will be joined in the dawn skies by faint Mercury sat lower and to the right of bright Venus.

Wishing you clear skies, and happy galaxy hunting, from the team here at Space Place at Carter Observatory.

Northern Hemisphere

Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the northern hemisphere night sky during March 2017.

Highlights of the Month

1st-4th March - after sunset: Three planets and (on the 1st) a very thin crescent Moon. On these nights, Venus is 12 degrees down to the lower right of Mars, both in the southwest, and between them lies Uranus. On the 1st of March, they will be joined by a very thin waxing crescent Moon.

March 4th, following 10pm: The Full Moon occults Gamma Tauri in the Hyades cluster. During the late evening, the first quarter Moon will occult the star Gamma Tauri, which forms the peak of the triangular shaped Hyades Cluster. In North America, the Moon can be seen occulting Aldebaran.

10th March - all evening: The Moon, two days before full, passes just below Regulus in Leo.

March 15th - before dawn: The Moon lies close to Jupiter and Spica. Before dawn, Jupiter appears between the Moon to its upper left and Spica, Alpha Virginis, down to its lower left.

March 20th - before dawn: Saturn near the third quarter Moon. Before dawn on the 20th and looking South, Saturn will be seen over to the right of the third quarter Moon.

March 6th and 19th: The Alpine Valley. These are two good nights to observe an interesting feature on the Moon with a small telescope. Close to the limb is the Appenine mountain chain that marks the edge of Mare Imbrium. Towards the upper end is a cleft called the Alpine Valley. The dark crater Plato will also be visible nearby.

The Planets

• Jupiter, moving towards opposition on April 7th, lies in Virgo initially some 4 degrees above its brightest star, Spica. With a small telescope, it should be easy to see the equatorial bands in the atmosphere, sometimes the Great Red Spot, and up to four of the Gallilean moons.
  
  
• Saturn rises well after midnight and will be highest in the pre-dawn sky. It will be high enough to make out the beautiful ring system which, at over 26 degrees to the line of sight, are as open as they ever become. Its elevation this year never gets above 18 degrees, so the atmosphere will hinder our view of this planet.
  
  
• Mercury passes through superior conjunction on March 7th and becomes visible around the 15th in bright twilight just above the western horizon. On the 19th, on its way up, it passes Venus, on its way down, some 9 degrees to its right.
  
  
• At the beginning of March, Mars can be found in Pisces up and to the left of Venus. As the month progresses, Mars continues to move eastwards (moving into Aries on the 8th) whilst Venus falls back towards the western horizon.
  
  
• Venus starts the month dominating the western sky, shining virtually at its brightest with a magnitude -4.8. It lies due south in mid-afternoon and can even by seen with the unaided eye. After dark in a very dark location, it can even form shadows. On the 1st of February, it has its highest elevation at sunset during the month at ~30 degrees. But then, as the month progresses, it falls back towards the Sun and passes in front of it on the 25th. Very unusually, Venus is far enough north of the Sun that it will start rising before dawn on March 15th, some 10 days before inferior conjunction. Thus it could be seen both at nightfall and at dawn for a few days.

 

Southern Hemisphere

Claire Bretherton from the Carter Observatory in New Zealand speaks about the southern hemisphere night sky during March 2017.

As we approach the autumn equinox on the 20th of March, our evenings are quickly drawing in, we have more time to get outside observing our beautiful Southern skies. The Milky Way, or te Ika Roa arches high across the sky from north-northwest to south-southeast after dark.

Canopus, the second brightest star in our night time sky, is just to the southwest of overhead. Canopus is circumpolar from our position here and is considered to be a tapu, or sacred to Maori. Around halfway from Canopus to the southwest horizon is Achernar, a blue main sequence star around 7 times more massive than the Sun but over 3000 times more luminous. Achernar is part of a binary system, with a fainter, less massive A type companion. Achernar and Canopus form a roughly equilateral triangle with the Southern Celestial Pole. Unlike the northern hemisphere, we have no nearby bright star to mark this point, so we have to estimate it from the surrounding stars.

Not far from the southern celestial pole towards Achernar, you may be able to spot two small fuzzy patches of light, easily seen with the naked eye on a dark, moonless night. These are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two small irregular dwarf galaxies that neighbour our own. Whilst these galaxies are much smaller than the Milky Way, combined they still contain billions of stars. The best time to look out for these galaxies is around the new moon on the 28th of the month, when they will be high in the south after dark.

Alpha and Beta Centauri are the first and second brightest stars in the constellation of Centaurus. The constellation, which is currently the 9th largest in the sky, once incorporated the constellations of Lupus and Crux. The globular cluster Omega Centauri, sits just to the east of the bright band of our Galaxy. This is by far the largest and brightest globular cluster in the Milky Way. The cluster is relatively easy to find even with the naked eye, appearing as a fuzzy star around 13 degrees northeast of Gamma Crucis at the top of the Southern Cross. With a small telescope the cluster becomes a glowing, shimmering ball of stars.

Further east and low on the horizon after dark is the constellation of Virgo, with its brightest star Spica rising just as twilight ends at the start of the month. Spica is actually a particular type of binary system called a rotating ellipsoidal variable, where its two components orbit so close together that they become egg-shaped rather than spherical. Virgo is also home to the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, containing perhaps as many as 2000 members. Just below and to the left of Spica this month is bright, golden Jupiter. With a decent pair of binoculars, you should be able to pick out Jupiter's four largest moons. The nearly full moon will pass close by on the 14th and 15th of the month.

Northern Hemisphere

Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the northern hemisphere night sky during February 2017.

The Planets

• Jupiter lies in Virgo some 3 and a half degrees above its brightest star, Spica. At the start of February it rises in the east at ~00:30 but by month's end by ~22:45. It will be due south at an elevation of 34 degrees at ~06:00 at the start and at ~04:00 by the end of February. The size of Jupiter's disk increases slightly from 39 to 42 arc seconds as February progresses with its magnitude increasing very slightly from -2.1 to -2.3. On February 6th, Jupiter halts its eastwards movement across the heavens and begins to move westwards in retrograde motion for several months. With a small telescope one should be easily able to see the equatorial bands in the atmosphere, sometimes the Great Red Spot and up to four of the Galilean moons as they weave their way around it.
• Saturn is now a morning object, rising in the south-east at ~08:00 UT as the month begin but by about 06:30 UT at its end. Lying in the southern part of Ophiuchus, its diameter increases from 15.6 to 16.1 arc seconds during the month as it shines at magnitude +0.5. Towards the end of the month it will be high enough in the south-east before dawn to make out the beautiful ring system which, at over 26 degrees to the line of sight, are as open as they ever become. If only it were higher in the ecliptic; its elevation this year will never gets above ~18 degrees in elevation and so the atmosphere will hinder our view of this most beautiful planet. [Note: I have just acquired a ZWO Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector which uses two contra-rotating prisms to combat the dispersion of the atmosphere at low elevations.]
• Mercury lies low in the southeast just before dawn down to the lower left of Saturn. It brightens from -0.2 to -1.2 during the month. It will be best seen around mid-month but no details would be expected to be seen on its disk which spans around 5 arc seconds across.
• Mars is easy to find this month lying in Pisces up and to the left of Venus. They are closest on February 1st with a separation of 5.4 degrees. By month's end, as Mars continues to move eastwards and Venus begins to fall back towards the western horizon, their separation increases to just over 12 degrees. Its brightness falls slightly from magnitude +1.1 to +1.3 whilst its angular diameter falls from 5.1 to 4.6 arc seconds. No details would be expected to be seen on its salmon-pink surface.
• Venus is dominating the western sky this month shining virtually at its brightest with a magnitude -4.8. Its close proximity to a crescent Moon last month was given a lot of attention! It lies due south in mid-afternoon and can even by seen with the unaided eye. After dark in a very dark location it can even form shadows! On the 4th of February it reaches its highest elevation of 33 degrees at sunset. Its angular size increases from 31 to 46 arc seconds during the month but at the same time the phase reduces from 40 percent to 18 percent illuminated. These two effects compensate each other which is why the brightness stays so constant. In visible light no details are seen on its brilliant white surface but cloud details can be seen or imaged in the ultra-violet. In daytime when still high in the sky it can be imaged in the infrared as the blue light from the sky is filtered out. This month's astronomy digest article on imaging the Moon and planets in the infrared shows how Venus looked on the 5th of January 2017.

Highlights

• 31st January to 5th February - after sunset: Venus approaches within 6 degrees of Mars If clear on the evenings of the 31st of January to the 5th of February and looking southwest one could not fail to spot Venus. But, on these nights Venus comes to within 5 degrees 23 arc seconds of Mars lying up to its left. On the 31st of January and the 1st of February, they will be joined by a thin waxing crescent Moon.
• 5th February - all evening: The first quarter Moon occults stars within the Hyades Cluster. If clear on the evening of the 5th and looking first to the south-southeast, one will see the first quarter Moon passing in front of the Hyades cluster in Taurus. At around 18:42 its dark limb will occult the pair of stars Theta 1 and Theta 2 Tauri and at ~20:32, the magnitude 2.73 star 85 Tauri. Then at 23:27 it will lie very close to magnitude -0.7 star Aldebaran - a red giant star that lies between us and the cluster.
• February 11th - just before dawn: The Full Moon below Regulus in Leo Just before dawn and, given clear skies and a very low horizon towards the west, you should easily see the Full Moon lying below the magnitude 1.35 star, Regulus, Alpha Leonis.
• February 15th - before dawn: The Moon lies close to Jupiter If clear before dawn on the 15th and looking southwest, one will see Jupiter lying between the Moon to its upper right and Spica, Alpha Virginis, down to its lower left.
• February 21st: Saturn near a waning crescent Moon Before dawn on the 21st and looking south-southeast, Saturn will be seen down to the lower right of a thin waning crescent Moon.
• February 26th - after sunset: Uranus close to Mars with both up to the left of Venus This is an excellent chance to find Uranus - perhaps for the first time - shining at magnitude 5.9 just to the lower left of Mars at magnitude 1.3. They will be just 35 arc minutes apart so Uranus will be easily spotted with Binoculars. The turquoise disk with an angular size of just over 3 arc seconds may just be seen as such using a small telescope.

Southern Hemisphere

Claire Bretherton from the Carter Observatory in New Zealand speaks about the southern hemisphere night sky during February 2017.

Kia ora and welcome to the February Jodcast from Space Place at Carter Observatory in Wellington, New Zealand.

This month we'll start to see some changes in our evening skies. Bright Venus, which has been dominating in the west for some months, is now beginning its journey back towards the Sun. Whilst still visible in the dusk skies, it will be setting as twilight ends, around an hour and a half after the Sun, at the beginning of the February, but by the end of the month it will be dropping below the horizon just 30 minutes after sunset. Fainter red Mars is a little above, holding its position well as it moves through the constellation of Pisces. At the end of the month, Mars will pass within 34 arcminutes of faint Uranus, with both visible in the same binocular field of view, and well worth a look, particularly as this also coincides with the new moon on the 27th, although by the time it gets fully dark from our location the pair will right on the horizon.

On the opposite side of the sky, golden Jupiter is now moving into our evening skies, rising just before midnight at the start of the month and by around 10pm, as twilight ends, at the end.

Orion is now high in the north after dark, with Sirius, or Takurua, the brightest star in our night-time sky, even higher.

Below and to the right, and forming a triangle with Sirius and Betelgeuse, is Procyon, the brighter of the two main stars that form the constellation of Canis Minor, Orion's small hunting dog. Procyon is the eighth brightest star in the night-time sky and, like Sirius (at ~9 ly distant), is one of our Sun's nearest neighbours at just 11 light years away. Also like Sirius, it is in fact a binary system, with a 1.5 solar mass primary and a faint white dwarf companion.

Just over a third of the way between Sirius and Procyon, in the constellation of Monoceros, is M50, a pretty, heart-shaped open cluster of stars, visible in binoculars.

Around a third of the way from Betelgeuse to Procyon is NGC2244, a rectangular cluster of stars that is embedded in a faint nebula called the Rosette. Whilst the cluster is visible in binoculars and small telescopes, the nebula is more of a challenge and is best seen photographically.

Below Canis Minor sit another pair of stars, Castor and Pollux, marking the heads of Gemini, the twins. Pollux, the higher and brighter of the two stars, is the 17th brightest star in our night sky. It is about 35 light years away from us, whilst Castor is in fact a sextuple star system located 52 light years from Earth.

Nearby to Eta Geminorum, at the foot of the twin of Castor, is the open star cluster M35, covering an area almost the size of the full moon. Under good conditions it can be seen with the unaided eye as a hazy star, but binoculars or a wide-field telescope will reveal more detail and are the best way to view this lovely cluster.

Next to Gemini is the faint zodiac constellation of Cancer, the crab. At the centre of Cancer is a lovely open cluster of stars known as M44, Praesepe (the Manger) or the Beehive. At magnitude 3.7, the cluster is visible to the naked eye as a hazy nebula, and has been know since ancient times. It was one of the first objects Galileo studied when he turned his telescope to the skies in 1609.

Galileo was able to pick out around 40 stars, but today we know that Praesepe contains over 1000 individual members, with a combined mass of between 500 and 600 times that of the Sun. As one of the closest open star clusters to our Solar System, M44 is a great target for binoculars or small telescopes, which will easily reveal a number of individual stars within it.

Higher, and to the east of Canis Major is Puppis, representing the Poop deck of the great ship Argo, which we explored last month. Inside Puppis are two lesser known Messier Objects, M46 and M47.

Messier 46 (also known as M 46 or NGC 2437) is a rich open cluster at a distance of about 5,500 light-years away. M46 is estimated to contain around 500 stars, of which around 150 of magnitude 10-13. Estimated to be only 300 million years old, this is a young cluster, and a lovely sight in binoculars or a small telescope. Astronomer John Herschel described it in his General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars as 'Remarkable, cluster, very bright, very rich, very large, involving a planetary nebula'. This planetary nebula, located near the cluster's northern edge, is NGC 2438.

A planetary nebula is formed when a low or intermediate mass star comes to the end of its life, ejecting its outer layers into space as a glowing shell of ionized gas.

Whilst NGC 2438 appears to lie within the cluster, it is probably just a chance line of sight effect as the vadial velocities are quite different. NCG 2438 is estimated to lie somewhat closer than M46 at around 2900 ly away.

Located around 1 degree west is another open cluster, M47. The two fit easily within one binocular field of view, and are often referred to as sisters.

Messier 47 or NGC 2422 has actually been discovered several times. The first was some time before 1654 by Giovanni Batista Hodierna and then independently by Charles Messier on February 19, 1771. William Herschel also independently rediscovered it on February 4, 1785, and it was included as GC 1594 in John Herschel's General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (the precursor to Dreyer's New General Catalogue) in 1864.

Due to a sign error by Messier, the cluster was considered a 'lost Messier Object' for many years, as no cluster could be found at the position of Messiers original coordinates. It wasn't until 1959 that Canadian astronomer T. F. Morris identified that the cluster was in fact NGC2422, and realized Messier's mistake.

M47 lies at a distance of around 1,600 light-years from Earth with an estimated age of about 78 million years. M47 is described as a course, bright cluster containing around 50 stars, scattered over an area around the same size as the full moon in the sky. It is bright enough to be glimpsed with the naked eye under good observing conditions, but best viewed with binoculars or a small telescope.

There are a couple of other excellent binocular targets in Puppis, including open cluster NGC2477 - a wonderful, rich cluster of over 300 stars, described by American Astronomer Robert Burnham as 'probably the finest of the galactic clusters in Puppis' along with its neighbor NGC 2451, both located close to the second magnitude star Zeta Puppis.

Also known as Naos, this blue supergiant is one of the hottest, most luminous stars visible to the naked eye. It has a bolometric (total) luminosity of at least 500,000 times that of the Sun, but with most of its radiation emitted in the ultraviolet it is visually around 10,000 times brighter. It is also one of the closest stars of its kind to our Sun, at a distance of around 1,080 ly.

Wishing you clear skies from the team here at Space Place at Carter Observatory.

Northern Hemisphere

Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the northern hemisphere night sky during December 2016.

• Venus below a thin crescent Moon

  After sunset on December 3rd, looking low towards the south-southwest, Venus shining at magnitude -4.2, will be seen, if clear, below a very thin crescent Moon.

• December 4th after sunset: Venus, Mars and a crescent Moon

  If clear after sunset on the 4th, looking low towards the south-southwest it should be possible to see a thin crescent Moon to the upper left of Mars with Venus well down to its right.

• December 13 before dawn: The Moon Occults Aldebaran in the Hyades Cluster

  During the night of the 12th/13th December, the Full Moon will pass throught the Hyades Cluster and occult many of its stars. At around 6:15 UT on the 13th, it will occult -0.7 magnitude Aldabaran which lies between us and the cluster. This may be a grazing occultation from parts of the UK.

• December 14th and 15th after midnight: the Geminid Meteor Shower

  The early mornings of December 14th and 15th will give us the chance, if clear, of observing the peak of the Geminid meteor shower. Sadly, this is not a good a year as these nights are just after the Full Moon and the fainter meteors will not be seen. However, as I saw last year, the Geminids can often produce near-fireballs and so the shower is still well worth observing. An observing location well away from towns or cities will pay dividends. The relatively slow moving meteors arise from debris released from the asteroid 3200 Phaethon. This is unusual, as most meteor showers come from comets. The radiant - where the meteors appear to come from - is close to the bright star Castor in the constellation Gemini as shown on the chart. If it is clear it will be cold - so wrap up well, wear a woolly hat and have some hot drinks with you.

• December 22nd/23rd - late evenings: the Ursid Meteor Shower

  The late evenings of the 22nd and 23rd of December are when the Ursid meteor shower will be at its best - though the peak rate of ~10-15 meteors per hour is not that great. Pleasingly, the Moon will not affect our view during much of the night. The radiant lies close to the star Kochab in Ursa Minor (hence their name), so look northwards at a high elevation. Occasionally, there can be a far higher rate so its worth having a look should it be clear.

• December 30th/ 31st after sunset: Venus closes on Mars

  After sunset at the end of the month, Mars, in Aquarius will be seen to the upper right of Venus low in the south-southwest.

• December 6th and 20th: The Alpine Valley

  These are good nights to observe an interesting feature on the Moon if you have a small telescope. Close to the limb is the Appenine mountain chain that marks the edge of Mare Imbrium.Towards the upper end you should see the cleft across them called the Alpine valley. It is about 7 miles wide and 79 miles long. As shown in the image a thin rill runs along its length which is quite a challenge to observe.Over the next two nights following the 6th the dark crater Plato and the young crater Copernicus will come into view. This is a very interesting region of the Moon!

Haritina Mogosanu from the Carter Observatory in New Zealand speaks about the southern hemisphere night sky during December 2016.

• We'll start our tour in Orion, sitting high in the east after dark. Orion lies along the celestial equator, and can be seen (at least partially) throughout the world. As he was invented in the Northern hemisphere, in New Zealand we see him upside down. Orion contains a number of interesting objects to observe with both binoculars or telescopes. If you look carefully you may see the middle star of Orion's sword has a fuzzy appearance. This is the Orion Nebula, which is a stellar nursery, a huge cloud of gas and dust in which new stars are being born. In the heart of the Orion nebula is a small group of bright stars known as the Trapezium Cluster. The ultraviolet radiation from these stars is lighting up the surrounding gas.
• Following Orion's belt to the left we come to an upturned V shape of stars marking the head of Taurus the bull. At the bottom of this V is the bright orange star Aldebaran, at around 65ly away, representing the eye of the bull. The other stars in the V are part of the more distant Hyades cluster. At 153 ly away, the Hyades is the closest, and one of the best studied, open clusters to Earth. It is estimated to be around 625 million years old. Over time the cluster will continue to spread out and disperse into space, with some of the largest and brightest members already coming towards the ends of their lives.
• Following Orion's belt to the right, you can follow the band of the Milky Way around the sky, through the False and Diamond Crosses to Crux, the Southern Cross, low in the south. Sat beside the Southern Cross is a dark patch called the Coal Sack Nebula. Known as a dark nebula, the gas and dust in this cloud is blocking the light from more distant stars, obscuring them from our view. To Maori the Coal Sack Nebula is known as Te Patiki, or the Flounder.
• In our western skies, we see a trio of planets this month. Mercury is low on the southwestern horizon for the first half of the month, setting around an hour and a half after the sun, before sinking into the evening twilight after the 15th. Venus is higher in the west, the first thing you'll see as the sky begins to darken, and sets close to midnight. Mars is much fainter and to the top right of Venus, moving through Capricorn and into Aquarius over the course of the month
• The Phoenicids reach their peak on 6th December and are thought to be associated with the comet D/1819 W1 (Blanpain). With the radiant in the constellation of Phoenix, not far from Achernar, this shower is well placed for southern hemisphere observers throughout the hours of darkness. The minor Puppid-Velids meteor shower also reaches its peak at around the same time with a zenithal hourly rate of around 10.
• The Geminids are peaking on the 15th of the month. This is one of the best meteor showers of the year, but we are not well placed for viewing in New Zealand, with the radiant in the constellation of Gemini and well north of the equator. The constellation is at its highest around 3 am, but still appears low in our northern sky. Due to this low height we only see around half of the meteors visible to those in the northern hemisphere.

Northern Hemisphere

Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the northern hemisphere night sky during November 2016.

The Planets

• Jupiter is the only planet that can be seen in the pre-dawn sky this month rising some two and a half hours before the Sun at the start of November, but by around 2:20 UT (GMT) by the end of the month. On the first of November it will lie some 20 degrees above the south-eastern horizon an hour before sunrise and some 10 degrees higher by month's end. Though at its smallest and dimmest, it still has a magnitude of around -1.7 and shows a 32 arc second disk. It remains in Virgo throughout the month and initially lies just 2 degrees below Porrima, Gamma Virginis, and sinks slowly southwards until by month's end it lies half way between Porrima and Spica, Alpha Virginis. With a small telescope, early risers should be able to see the equatorial bands in the atmosphere and the four Gallilean moons as they weave their way around it.
• Saturn is still visible low in the southwest after sunset, but is only some 10 degrees above the horizon 45 minutes after sunset. However as the month progresses it will sink lower and become harder to see. It lies in the southern part of Ophiuchus some 7 degrees up and to the left of Antares in Scorpius. One could not hope for a sharp view (but I am going to try using an Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector to help) but its wide open ring system should be seen. Sadly Saturn is moving towards the southern part of the ecliptic so for quite a few years will only be seen at low elevations
• Mercury, shining at magnitude -0.5 and with a disk some 5 arcs seconds across becomes visible low in the southwest after sunset by the third week of November and slowly climbs higher in the sky until it reaches its furthest angular distance from the Sun in mid December. It might just be spotted close to Venus on the 23rd.
• Mars, moving quickly eastwards through eastern Sagittarius and Capricornus, dims from magnitude +0.4 to +0.6 during November. The red (actually salmon pink) planet can be seen low above the southern horizon throughout the month but, with a disk only about 7 arc seconds across, no surface features will be seen.
• Venus, in the west, sets some 2 hours after the Sun at the start of the month but an hour later by month's end as it begins to dominate the evening sky. Its brightness increases from -4.0 to -4.2 magnitudes during the month whilst the angular size of its gibbous disk increases from 14 to 17 arc seconds. As it does so its phase reduces from 78 to 70% which explains why the brightness changes so little. Venus is moving eastwards, leaving Ophiuchus on the 9th into Sagittarius where it passes over the Teapot and will be just 7.5 arc minutes below its 'lid' star, Lamda Sagittari (shining at magnitude 2.8) on the 17th.

Highlights

• November early mornings: November Meteors.

  In the hours before dawn, November gives us a chance to observe meteors from two showers. The first that it is thought might produce some bright events is the Northern Taurids shower which has a broad peak of around 10 days but normally gives relatively few meteors per hour. The peak is around the 10th of November and, pleasingly, the Moon is first quarter on the 7th so, in the first week of November will have set by midnight. The meteors arise from comet 2P/Encke. Its tail is especially rich in large particles and, this year, we may pass through a relatively rich band so it is possible that a number of fireballs might be observed!

  The better known November shower is the Leonids which peak on the night of the 17th/18th of the month. Sadly, the Moon will be just after full so will hinder our view. As one might expect, the shower's radiant lies within the sickle of Leo and meteors could be spotted from the 15th to the 20th of the month. The Leonids enter the atmosphere at ~71 km/sec and this makes them somewhat challenging to photograph but its worth trying as one might just capture a bright fireball. Up to 15 meteors an hour could be observed if near the zenith. The Leonids are famous because every 33 years a meteor storm might be observed when the parent comet, 55P/Temple-Tuttle passes close to the Sun. In 1999, 3,000 meteors were observed per hour but we are now halfway between these impressive events hence with a far lower expected rate.

• Around the beginning and end of November (with no Moon in the sky): find M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy - and perhaps M33 in Triangulum

  In the evening, the galaxy M31 in Andromeda is visible in the south. The chart provides two ways of finding it:

  1) Find the square of Pegasus. Start at the top left star of the square - Alpha Andromedae - and move two stars to the left and up a bit. Then turn 90 degrees to the right, move up to one reasonably bright star and continue a similar distance in the same direction. You should easily spot M31 with binoculars and, if there is a dark sky, you can even see it with your unaided eye. The photons that are falling on your retina left Andromeda well over two million years ago!

  2) You can also find M31 by following the "arrow" made by the three rightmost bright stars of Cassiopeia down to the lower right as shown on the chart.

  Around new Moon (11th November) - and away from towns and cities - you may also be able to spot M33, the third largest galaxy after M31 and our own galaxy in our Local Group of galaxies. It is a face on spiral and its surface brightness is pretty low so a dark, transparent sky will be needed to spot it using binoculars (8x40 or, preferably, 10x50). Follow the two stars back from M31 and continue in the same direction sweeping slowly as you go. It looks like a piece of tissue paper stuck on the sky just a bit brighter than the sky background. Good Hunting!

• November 2nd - after sunset: Venus, Saturn and a thin crescent Moon

  After sunset on the 2nd and seen in the west, a thin crescent Moon will lie above Saturn (magnitude +0.5) whilst over to the lower left will lie Venus (magnitude -4).

• November 5th - before sunrise: Jupiter lies below Porrima in Virgo

  Around one hour before sunrise looking towards the the East-Southeast, Jupiter will be seen lying in Virgo below Porrima, Gamma Virginis, and above Spica, Alpha Virginis.

• November 15th - late evening until sunrise: The full Moon close to the Hyades Cluster.

  During the night, the full moon will be seen moving away to the left of the Hyades Cluster in Taurus. Lying half way towards the cluster is the red-giant star Aldebaran.

• November 25th - one hour before sunrise: The third quarter Moon close to Regulus in Leo.

  In the hours befor dawn, the third quarter Moon will seen lie close (just over 3 degrees) to Regulus in Leo.

Southern Hemisphere

Claire Bretherton from the Space Place at Carter Observatory in New Zealand speaks about the southern hemisphere night sky during November 2016.

Kia ora, and welcome to the November Jodcast from Carter Observatory in Wellington, New Zealand.

As Scorpius/ Te Matau a Maui sets in the west, his arch enemy, and our summer constellation, Orion rises towards the east along with Taurus and Canis Major. The bright star Antares, which marks the heart of the Scorpion, is also known as Rehua to Maori. It represents one of the four Pou, or pillars, that hold Ranginui, the sky father up in the sky. It sits just above the south western horizon at around 11pm at the beginning of the month. These four pou form the basis of a celestial compass, a map of the night sky that was used to navigate the vast oceans of our planet and bring our ancestors to Aotearoa/ New Zealand.

The other three pou are marked by Matariki (the Pleiades), Tautoru (the belt of Orion) and Takurua (Sirius), which line up along the eastern horizon. Matariki supports one of Rangi's shoulders and marks the rising point of the Sun at the winter solstice. Takurua (Sirius) supports the other shoulder and is the closest bright star to the Sun's rising point at the summer solstice. These two stars represent the extent of the Sun's movement throughout the year. In between, rising directly east, is Tautoru, or the belt of Orion, marking the rising point of the Sun at the time of the equinox.

Stretching from Scorpius around to Orion is Te Waka o Tamareriti, or Tamarereti's canoe, which lines up along the horizon in our evening sky. The front of the canoe is marked by the tail of Scorpius, with the sting representing the beautifully carved wood that adorns the prow. The star at the end of the Scorpion's curving tail marks the place where the bow meets the water, whilst the bright, orange star, Antares, marks the crest of a wave as the great waka glides through the waters of the Milky Way.

The Southern cross marks the anchor, Te Punga and the pointers, alpha and Beta Centauri are the anchor line, Te Taura. The key seasonal markers of Takurua (Sirius) and Rehua (Antares) are on either side.

Orion marks the stern of the canoe, with the elaborately carved stern post rising all the way up from red Betelgeuse to bluish Rigel. A tall mast rises from the waka all the way to Achernar, high in the south, which, at magnitude 0.46, is the brightest start in the southern constellation of Eridanus, the river, and the tenth brightest in the night sky.

A little below Achernar are two small fuzzy patches of light, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which mark the waka's sails.

One story tells of Tamarereti sailing across the sky in his waka with all the stars in kete or baskets. He places the key seasonal and navigational stars in their correct positions in the sky, but finds he has lots of smaller stars left over. So he capsizes his waka spilling all the smaller stars into the sky forming Te Ika Roa, or the Milky Way. Another story tells of Tamareriti scattering bright pebbles in the dark, lightless sky to help guide his way home. The pebbles became the stars and the wake of his waka formed the Milky Way.

The sky we see in the mid-evening in October/November each year is, in fact, the same sky we see just before sunrise around June, the time we celebrate Matariki, or Māori New Year. It is said that the bright star Canopus, or Atutahi (the ariki or high chief of the heavens), pulls up the anchor at the start of the year starting the waka in motion. During the year you can track the progress of Tamarereti's waka as it moves across the sky, one day at a time.

Canopus is the second brightest star in the night time sky, with a magnitude of -0.74, and the brightest in the southern constellation of Carina. It is a white F-type supergiant with a mass around 10 times that of our Sun. It can be seen midway up the south eastern evening sky this month.

Saturn can still be found in our evening skies at the start of the month, just to the right of Antares, and setting around 9:30, but it will disappear into the evening twilight by months end. Venus starts November just above the pair, but continues to move eastwards against the background stars, rising through Sagittarius over the second half of the month. On the 17th, you'll find it right at the tip of the lid of the upside down teapot asterism. Venus will be setting around 3 hours and 20 minutes after the Sun throughout November.

Mars is higher still, and continues to hold its position well, moving from Sagittarius through Capricorn, and setting after midnight.

Mercury also makes an appearance this month. On the 20th it moves between Saturn and Antares forming a line of similar brightness "stars" along the dusk horizon, before continuing to move up away from the pair. Unfortunately, Mercury's evening appearance this month will not be as favourable as that of August this year, as Mercury will set before twilight ends.

Look out for the Leonid meteor shower, which peaks around the 17th of the month, when the Earth passes through the trail of dust and debris left behind by the comet Temple-Tuttle. Whilst normally a reliable but fairly quiet meteor shower, observers have noticed that roughly every 33 years the number of meteors observed during the shower show a marked increase as the Earth passes through the denser parts of the cometary debris trail.

Sadly, the 2016 shower is not expected to reach these high levels, with a predicted maximum of around 10-20 meteors per hour, and with a bright 18 day old Moon in the sky, there will be significant interference to hamper our viewing.

The radiant of the shower, from which the meteors appear to originate, is located in the constellation of Leo, which rises only a couple of hours before the Sun in our morning sky. The best time to observe the Leonids is about 2-3 hours before sunrise on the mornings around the peak.

Wishing you clear skies from the team here at Space Place at Carter Observatory.

Northern Hemisphere

Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the Northern hemisphere night sky during October 2016.

Highlights of the Month

October - A good month to observe Uranus with a small telescope.

Uranus comes into opposition - when it is nearest the Earth - on the night of the 15th of October, so will be seen well this month - particularly from around the beginning and end of the month when no moonlight will intrude. Its magnitude is +5.9 so Uranus should be easily spotted in binoculars lying in the southern part of Pisces to the east of the Circlet asterism and east-southeast of 4th magnitude stars Epsilon Piscium and Delta Piscium as shown on the chart. It rises to an elevation of ~45 degrees when due south. Given a telescope of 4 inches it should be possible to see that it has a disk (3.6 arc seconds across) which has a pale green-blue tint. With an 8 inch telescope and good seeing, perhaps using a green filter it may even be possible to see some detail in the planet's cloud features which appear to be more prominent than usual. That is an observing challenge! Four of its satellites, Arial(+14.4), Umbrial(+15), Titania (+13.9) and Oberon (+14.1) can also be seen given a night of good seeing and a telescope of 8 inches diameter or more.

October 3rd - after sunset: Venus and a very thin crescent Moon

As twilight fades on the 3rd of October and given clear skies and a very low horizon in the south-west you may be able to spot Venus lying down to the left of a very thin crescent Moon, just 6.7percent illuminated. This gives you a chance of observing 'earthshine', the 'dark' side of the Moon faintly illuminated by light reflected from the Earth.

October 8th, - one hour after sunset: the first quarter Moon lies above Mars

After sunset, looking south and given clear skies, the first quarter Moon will be visible lying up to the left of Mars shining at magnitude +0.15. Mars, in Sagittarius, is lying just to the left of the top star of the Teapot, Lambda Sagittarii.

Observe the International Space StationUse the link below to find when the space station will be visible in the next few days. In general, the space station can be seen either in the hour or so before dawn or the hour or so after sunset - this is because it is dark and yet the Sun is not too far below the horizon so that it can light up the space station. As the orbit only just gets up the the latitude of the UK it will usually be seen to the south, and is only visible for a minute or so at each sighting. Note that as it is in low-earth orbit the sighting details vary quite considerably across the UK. The NASA website linked to below gives details for several cities in the UK and across the world.

Find details of sighting possibilities from your location from the location index. See where the space station is now using the tracking page.

The Planets

• JupiterJupiter having passed behind the Sun last month, will appear again low above the eastern horizon around the 8th of October. On the 11th, Jupiter at magnitude -1.7 lies close to Mercury but they will only be ~5 degrees above the horizon 30 minutes before sunrise. As the month progreses, Jupiter rises a little earlier so that by month's end and still at magnitude -1.7, it rises some two and a half hours before the Sun. A low eastern horizon and the use of binoculars may well be needed but please do not use them after the Sun has risen. As the Earth moves towards Jupiter, the size of Jupiter's disk increases slightly from 30.6 to 31.2 arc seconds so early risers at the end of the month should be able to observe the equatorial bands in the atmosphere and the four Gallilean moons as they weave their way around it.
• SaturnOn September 11th, Saturn, lying in Ophiuchus, was just 6 degrees above, and a little to the left, of Antares in Scorpius. It is moving slowly eastwards but by October's end will still be only 7 degrees distant. Saturn's brightness stays constant during the month at +0.5 whilst its angular size drops slightly from 15.9 to 15.4 arc seconds. However, the rings are almost at their most open at 26 degrees from edge on and so still make a magnificent sight. Some 20 degrees above the southwestern horizon at the start of October an hour after sunset it will fall then to just 10 degrees by month's end. This is really our last chance to observe it this apparition.
• MercuryMercury is just past the peak of its best morning apparition, shining at magnitude -0.8 some 8 degrees above the eastern horizon 45 minutes before sunrise. On the 11th, at magnitude -1.1 it will lie just 0.8 degrees to the left of Jupiter. Its disk then has an angular diameter of 5 arc seconds. Mercury will appear lower each morning becoming lost in the Sun's glare by mid month as it moves towards superior conjunction with the Sun on the 27th.
• MarsMars, lying in Sagittarius, reaches its lowest declination (-25 degrees) on October 3rd and so will be seen some 9 degrees above the south-southwestern horizon as twilight ends. Fading from magnitude +0.1 to +0.4 during October, with a disk shrinking to just 8 arc seconds across during the month it will only appear as a featureless salmon-pink object. It starts the month to the lower left of the Lagoon Nebula, M8, and, on the 6th, passes just south of the top star making up the 'Teapot', Lamda Sagittarii. In the last two weeks of October it passes over the Teapot's handle as it moves eastwards across the heavens. It lies closest to the Sun on the 29th.
• VenusVenus can be viewed low in the southwest after sunset, starting the month in Libra with a magnitude of -3.9. On the 17th, it passes into Scorpius and then, on the 25th, into Ophiuchus. As it does so it will rise a little higher in the sky. But, despite its brightness, binoculars might well be needed to spot it, but please do not use them until after the Sun has set. During the month, its angular size increases from 12 to 14 arc seconds whilst the illuminated percentage of its disk falls from 86 percent to 78 percent. These two factors compensate each other so it brightness stays virtually constant. On the 5th, Venus passes just below the wide double star Alpha Librae whilst on the 20th it passes close to Delta Scorpii which forms part of the scorpion's head.
Southern Hemisphere

Claire Bretherton from the Space Place Carter Observatory in New Zealand speaks about the Southern hemisphere night sky during October 2016.

Kia ora, and welcome to the October Jodcast from Carter Observatory in Wellington, New Zealand.

October is a good time to look out for the zodiacal light, seen as a triangular glow in the west after sunset in a clear, dark sky. It is caused by light reflecting off dust along the plane of our solar system. This plane is marked by the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the sky, which runs through the constellations of the zodiac. At this time of year the ecliptic makes a steep angle with the horizon, making the zodiacal light easier to observe.

As our nights are getting lighter and our days warmer our winter zodiac constellation of Scorpius/ te Matau a Maui drops down towards the horizon, taking cream-coloured Saturn with it. Saturn sits to the right of orange Antares, and with its 29.5 year orbit around the Sun, moves very little against the background sky. The pair set shortly before 11pm by the end of the month.

In sharp contrast, Venus, with its 225 day orbit, moves quickly eastwards against the background stars, appearing higher and higher in the western evening sky. By the end of the month it passes between Saturn and Antares, setting over 3 hours after the Sun.

Red Mars is higher still and continues to hold its position well this month, moving through the constellation ofSagittarius and setting after around 2 am. As we move away from Mars on our inner orbit, it is slowly slipping down the sky, and gradually becoming fainter, but it will remain in our evening skies well into the New Year.

If you have a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope, you might want to look for another planet this month. Uranus, the second most distant planet in the Solar System, reaches opposition on Saturday 15th. This is when Uranus lies on the opposite side of Earth to the Sun, reaching its highest point in our skies at around midnight. It is also around this time that Earth and Uranus are at their closest, although this won't make too muchdifference to the planet's brightness from our point of view.

Uranus will be above the horizon for much of the night, shining at magnitude 5.7 in the constellation of Pisces the fishes. On a very dark, clear night it may just be possible to glimpse Uranus with the naked eye, but a full Moon close to the time of opposition will make this impossible at that time. Better to look at either the start or end of the month, closer to the new moon. With binoculars, however, Uranus should be relatively easy to spot, as long as you know where to look, although it will appear as just a star like point of light without the use of a telescope.

A little to the north of Pisces is the constellation of Pegasus, the winged horse, which appears to leap across the northern horizon in our evening sky. Pegasus is easy to spot by the Great Square of stars that makes up his body.

The brightest star in the constellation is the reddish star Epsilon Pegasi, marking the horse's muzzle. This star is commonly known as Enif, deriving from the Arabic word for nose. Epsilon Pegasi is an orange supergiant, around 12 times the mass of the Sun , and with a radius some 185 times larger.

Nearby (and visible in the same binocular field of view) is the globular cluster M15, one of the oldest and best know star clusters in the sky, with an estimated age of around 12 billion years. The cluster is located around 34,000 light years away and measures 175 light years across. M15 is probably the most densely packed globular cluster in our galaxy, with half of its mass concentrated within 10 light years of the centre. It has been suggested that this massive concentration of stars may be caused by a rare type of supermassive Black Hole in the cluster's core.

With binoculars M15 will appear as a fuzzy star, whilst a medium sized or larger telescope will reveal individual stars, particularly towards the outer regions, appearing as chains and streams radiating out from the core.

M15 also contains the planetary nebula Pease 1, the first to be found within a globular cluster. At magnitude 15.5, this is a faint object, and a telescope with an aperture of at least 300mm would be needed to observe it.

The star at the bottom right of the Great Square of Pegasus is in fact Alpha Andromodae, or Alpheratz, the brightest star in the constellation of Andromeda. Located some 97 light years from Earth it is a spectroscopic binary star whose two components orbit each other in just 100 days.

Alpheratz is a great starting point to star hop to the great galaxy in Andromeda, or M31. The nearest large spiral galaxy to our own, M31 makes a rare appearance in our southern hemisphere skies at this time of year, but you'll need a good, dark sky and a clear view of the northern horizon to spot it. The further north you go, the better your chances of finding it.

From Alpheratz look for two chains of stars extending out to the east. Hop along the uppermost, and brightest, of these chains past Delta Andromedae to Mirach (Beta Andromedae), then turn sharp right and head down to Mu Andromedae before jumping on the same distance again to find the galaxy.

The Andromeda galaxy covers an area around 6 times the diameter of the full moon, but only the brighter central region is easily visible to the naked eye, or with binoculars or a small telescope.

At 2.5 million light years away, and magnitude 3.4, it is the most distant object easily visible with the naked eye. Andromeda is thought to contain around one trillion stars, well over twice the number estimated in our own Milky Way. Some recent studies, however, have suggested that the Milky Way may contain more dark matter than Andromeda, giving the two galaxies a similar mass.

M31 is approaching the Milky Way at 110 km/s and is expected to collide and merge with our Galaxy in around 4 billionyears.

A little higher and towards the east, the Triangulum galaxy or M33 is better placed in our skies. At around 3 million light years from Earth and shining at magnitude 5.7 it is just at the limit of naked eye visibility under excellent conditions, making it one of the most distant objects able to be glimpsed unaided. With the mass of 10s of billions of Suns, M33 is the third largest member of the local group. Like the Andromeda galaxy, it is also approaching us, at around 100,000 kilometres per hour.

To find M33, head back from Andromeda towards Mirach and then continue a similar distance to the other side. Whilst M33 with the naked eye is a challenge, it is easily observable in a pair of binoculars.

The most striking feature of the Triangulum Galaxy is a massive region of star formation, known as NGC604, which can be seen with a small telescope. NGC604 is 100 times larger than the Orion Nebula and contains over 200 hot, massive blue stars formed just 3 million years ago. In fact, if it were at the same distance as the Orion Nebula, only the Moon would be brighter in the night time sky.

Of course there are 2 galaxies that are always visible in our night sky, the Large and Small Magellanic clouds, which are circumpolar here in New Zealand. To find the Magellanic Clouds, first look for the bright star Canopus, twinkling colourfully, low in the southeast. The Magellanic clouds appear as two small smudges of light above it, they are irregular dwarf galaxies that neighbour our own. Whilst these galaxies are much smaller than the Milky Way, they still contain hundreds of millions of stars.

The Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC, is the lower of the two and is located 160,000 light years away. Through binoculars or a small telescope you may be able to spot a number of young star clusters visible as small patches of light. The LMC also contains a massive star formation region, one of the largest and brightest known, called the Tarantula nebula or 30 Doradus. Spanning around 600 light years across, and covering 13 arcminutes in the sky,the Tarantula nebula contains over 800,000 stars and protostars and is the most active starburst region identified within our local group of galaxies. If it were placed at the same distance as the Orion Nebula it would be so bright that it would cast a shadow here on Earth.

The star formation activity within the Tarantula nebula began a few tens of millions of years ago, and some of the largest and brightest stars born within this region have already reached the ends of their short lives. In February 1987 supernova SN1987A was discovered in the outskirts of the Tarantula nebula by astronomers at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, and independently by prolific amateur astronomer Albert Jones here in New Zealand. This supernova was the closest since the invention of the telescope just over 400 years ago and provided a unique opportunity for astronomers to study such an event in unprecedented detail. Reaching a peak magnitude of around 3, SN1987A was easily bright enough to spot with the naked eye.

Smaller and more distant, at around 200,000 light years, is the Small Magellanic Cloud, or SMC. To the top-right of this galaxy you may spot a faint fuzzy 'star'. This object is not actually associated with the SMC but is a beautiful globular cluster called 47 Tucanae, or NGC 104, and is actually located just a tenth of the distance away on the outskirts of our own galaxy. At magnitude 4.9 it is the second brightest globular cluster in the sky, after Omega Centauri, and can be easily seen with the naked eye. With a binoculars or a small telescope it is a wonderful sight, revealing a densely packed central core, whilst a larger telescope will start to resolve some of its millions of ancient stars.

Wishing you clear skies and happy galaxy hunting from the team hear at Space Place at Carter Observatory

Northern Hemisphere

Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the northern hemisphere night sky during September 2016.

The Stars

To the south and moving westward as night progresses you may see the Summer Triangle: the bright stars Deneb (in Cygnus), Vega (in Lyra) and below them Altair (in Aquila). Towards the south later in the evening you may spot the great square of Pegasus - adjacent to Andromeda and M31, the Andromeda Nebula. To the north lies "w" shaped Cassiopeia and Perseus. Between the two, close to the Milky Way, try to spot the Perseus Double Cluster with a goods pair of binoculars. You might also spot M33 may also be visible on a transparent night with a good pair of binoculars.

The Planets

• Jupiter reached superior conjunction on August 26th, and now rises shortly before the sun. It will be best seen at month's end, 18 degrees above the northeast horizon at sunrise. With a disk increasing to 31 arcsecond disk, you should be able to see its equitorial bands and 4 Galilean moons.
• Saturn can be seen after sunset low in the southwest. It lies in eastern Libra, moving slowly away from the wide double star Alpha Librae as it shines with a magnitude of +0.6. One hour after sunset at the start of the month it will lie just 10 degrees above the horizon with a 16.4 arc second disk. By month's end it will only be a few degrees elevation at this time so early this month is really our last chance to observe it for a month or so as it passes behind the Sun. The ring system, now opened out to 24.3 degrees to the line of sight, should still be visible along with Titan, its largest satellite.
• Mercury can be seen just above the western horizon for the first few days of the month reaching greatest elongation from the Sun on the 4th of September shining at magnitude +0.1. It will be lost in the twilight by mid-month before it passes in front of the Sun (Inferior Conjunction) on the 30th.
• Mars is a pre-dawn object, and lies in Leo not far from Regulus, Alpha Leonis. On the 25th the salmon-pink planet will lie just 47 arc minutes from the blue star making a very nice colour contrast. Shining at magnitude +1.8 its disk is just 3.8 arc seconds across so no details will be seen of its surface. Seen best towards the end of the month, it will then rise around 3 hours before the Sun.
• Venus, rises in the east-northeast in the pre-dawn sky an hour and a half before the Sun at the start of September but this increases to four hour by month's end as Venus moves further away in angle from the Sun. Shining at a magnitude -4.8 during the third week of the month month it will show a thin crescent, 9% illuminated, 52 arc second disk as the month begins.

The Moon

On September 4th and 21st you may spot The Alpine Valley, a cleft across the Appenine mountain chain. It is about 7 miles wide and 79 miles long and a thin rill runs along its length which is quite challenging to observe.

Highlights

• Neptune came into opposition on the 29th of August, so will be seen well this month. Its magnitude is +7.9 so Neptune is easily spotted in binoculars lying in the constellation Aquarius as shown on the chart. It rises to an elevation of ~27 degrees when due south. Given a telescope of 8 inches or greater aperture and a dark transparent night it should even be possible to spot its moon Triton.
• Look east before dawn on 5th September: the magnitude +0.9 star Aldebaran will be occulted by the bright limb of the Moon as it passes in front of the Hyades cluster at around 05:30 BST. Given a mount tracking Aldebaran with a telescope, you may see it reappear from behind the unlit lunar disk at 07:10 in the bright daylight sky. Be warned: the times will vary by a few minutes depending on where you live in the UK so be watching Aldebaran for perhaps 10 minutes before the two stated times.
• All clear before dawn on 10th September given a good low unobstructed horizon towards the northeast you may spot an 8% lit, thin crescent Moon just 2 degrees to the upper left of Venus shining at magnitude -4.6.
• Looking southwest one hour after sunset on 18th September (20:45 BST), Saturn will be seen 4.5 degrees to the lower left of a waxing crescent Moon.
• About one hour before dawn on the morning of the 25th, Mars will be seen less than one degree just to the left of Regulus in Leo. Shining brightly up to their right will lie Venus, dominating the morning sky whilst lying well below Mars will be seen Jupiter - a very nice planetary grouping.
• Before dawn on 28th September, from 01:12 BST until 06:22 BST we will witness a total eclipse of a Harvest Supermoon! It will display the largest apparent angular diameter of the year (33.5 arc minutes) and the eclipse lasts for three hours and twenty minutes with totality starting at 03:11 BST and ending at 04:23. At the mid point of the eclipse at 03:47 BST the Moon will then lie at an elevation of 27 degrees above the southwest horizon. As the Moon leaves the umbral shadow 05:27 BST it will lie some 15 degrees above the horizon in the dawn sky.

Southern Hemisphere

Claire Bretherton from the Space Place at Carter Observatory in New Zealand speaks about the southern hemisphere night sky during September 2016.

Kia Ora and welcome to the September Jodcast from Space Place at Carter Observatory, here in Wellington , New Zealand.

It's hard to believe that it's now a year since the birth of my daughter, Seren (whose name means star in Welsh, by the way) so after taking some time out to spend with her I'm back to pick up the reigns of the southern night sky jodcast. Huge thanks to Haritina for doing such an amazing job in my absence.

September marks the start of spring here in the southern hemisphere, and as we head towards the equinox on the 23 rd , our days begin to lengthen. Sunset and sunrise times change rapidly at this time of the year, with the Sun dipping below the horizon an hour and a half later at the end of the month than at the beginning. By the end of September the Sun won't be setting until nearly half past 7. Whilst we're looking forward to some better weather, this will also mean fewer hours of darkness to get out and observe our Southern skies.

All five naked eye planets continue their planetary dance this month. Jupiter, Mercury and Venus begin the month close together above the Western horizon after dark. Venus is the brightest and the highest of the three, easy to spot, even in the twilight sky. Jupiter, with its golden glow is below with fainter Mercury to the left. Mercury slips quickly into the twilight sky, with Jupiter following by mid-month. After passing between us and the Sun, Mercury will make a morning appearance during late September, but won't be rising until twilight is well underway, making it very difficult to spot.

Venus moves quickly up away from the other two, passing up to the right of 0.9 Magnitude Spica around the 19 th of the month. By the end of the month it will be setting over 2 and a half hours after the Sun.

Mars and Saturn still form a triangle with Antares, high in the northern sky after dark. Saturn is almost directly below Antares, and the two remain close together throughout the month gradually dropping lower in our evening skies and setting by around midnight at the end of September. Mars, the brightest of the three, begins the month just to the right of Saturn and Antares, but holds its position in the sky as it moves eastwards against the background stars, drifting up and to the right away from Saturn as the month wears on.

The bright stars Canopus and Vega mark north-south after dark this month. Canopus is the second brightest star in the night time sky, and the brightest in the southern constellation of Carina, the keel. Carina was once part of the great ship Argo Navis, which sails across the southern skies. In 1752, the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille split Argo Navis into three smaller constellations of more manageable size: Carina (the keel), Puppis (the poop deck, or stern), and Vela (the sails).

To Maori Canopus is known as Atutahi or Autahi, meaning "stand alone" because of its isolated position outside the band of the Milky Way. Canopus represents the ariki, or high chief of the heavens, and is circumpolar here in New Zealand, always visible in our night time skies.

Vega, in the constellation of Lyra, is the fifth brightest star in the sky, and at just 25 light years away, one of the brightest in our local neighbourhood. It is also one of the best studied, and was the first star outside our Sun to be photographed in 1850. Vega is also extensively used by astronomers for photometric calibration. It is used as a zero point to define the UBVRI photometric system first introduced in the 1950s, and extended in the 1970s, to classify stars according to their colours.

Along with the nearby bright stars of Deneb, in Cygnus the swan, and Altair, in Aquila the eagle, Vega forms part of the "winter triangle" as seen here in the southern hemisphere. Altair is easy to spot, lying along the band of the Milky Way, midway up the northern sky after dark. Deneb is harder to see, just skirting along the horizon from northern parts of the country.

Between Vega and Altair is Albireo, or Beta Cygni, the beak star, marking the head of the swan. Although it appears as a single star to the naked eye, Albireo is in fact a double star and a lovely sight in a small telescope because of the easily seen contrast in colour between blue and gold components. The two stars are 35 arcseconds apart, meaning they are separated by 60 times the diameter of our Solar System, and may take 100,000 years to orbit each other.

The brighter magnitude 3 yellow star has also been found to be a binary star in its own right, but a much larger telescope and excellent observing conditions, or complex image processing, would be needed to resolve it.

Albireo is best viewed using low magnification, as the colours stand our more clearly when the stars appear close together. You might also try de-focussing your telescope a little to spread out the stars' light, making the colours easier to see.

A similar distance to the other side of Altair is Alpha Capricorni. Whilst it has the alpha designation, it is actually the 3rd brightest star in the zodiac constellation of Capricorn, the goat, and is commonly known as Al Giedi, meaning the kid. Alpha Cap is another double star, but this time the effect is purely coincidence.

Although these stars appear close together, their proximity is just a line of site effect, with the two components positioned at 109 and 690 light years away. Alpha-2, or Secunda Giedi is the closer and brighter of the two, a giant star with a luminosity around 40 times that of the Sun, and an apparent magnitude of 3.58. Alpha-1 or Prima Giedi is a supergiant over 5 times more distant, but at 5 times the mass and over 1000 times the luminosity of the Sun, it is only slightly fainter in our skies, at magnitude 4.3. Both are evolved G class yellow stars, at a similar temperature to our Sun, and Alpha Giediis a multiple star in its own right, with at least 3 faint companions nearby.

Prima and Secunda are located 6.6 arcminutes apart, around one fifth the diameter of the full moon, and can be separated fairly easily even with the naked eye.

As Haritina mentioned last month, the Milky Way is spectacular in our evening skies at this time of year, passing from Vega and Altair towards the north, through Sagittarius and Scorpius overhead, and down to the southern horizon, just to the west of Canopus. Midway up the southern sky you'll find Crux, the Southern Cross, with the pointers Alpha and Beta Centauri above.

Alpha Cen is another multiple star system, and at a distance of 4.37 light years, is the closest star system to our Sun. The two main components Alpha Cen A and B are both similar in mass and luminosity to the Sun and are close enough that they would fit within the orbit of Pluto. They are too close together to be resolved with the naked eye, but a pair of binoculars or small telescope will easily separate them.

The third component, Alpha Cen C, is a small, faint red Dwarf star, also known as Proxima Centauri, which can be glimpsed even in a small telescope. Lying 0.2 parsecs, or 15,000 AU from the AB pair, that's around 500 times the orbit of Neptune, Proxima Centauri's current distance of around 4.25 light years makes it the closest star to our Sun.

On 24 August, a team of astronomers led by Guillem Anglada-Escude, announced that they have discovered a potentially Earth-like planet orbiting around Proxima Centauri. The planet was identified using radial velocity measurements of its parent star. As the planet orbits it causes the star to wobble, and this wobble can be detected by measuring the Doppler shift in the stars spectrum.

Named Proxima b, the newly discovered planet takes just 11.2 days to orbit its star, putting it at 1/20 th of the distance from the Earth to the Sun, but, because Proxima is a much smaller, fainter star, the energy it receives is around 2/3 s the energy that reaches Earth, so Proxima b lies firmly in the habitable zone, the region of space where any water on the planet could be liquid. With a minimum mass of 1.3 times the Earth, this opens up an exciting possibility that not only have we found a planet around our nearest star, but that this planet may be Earth-like, and potentially, able to support life.

Wishing you clear skies from the team here at Space Place at Carter Observatory.