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55 Articles

There's something special about the full Moon on 19 August: it will be a seasonal blue Moon – in the original sense of the term – as well as a perigee full Moon, also known in popular culture as a supermoon. What's more, because its path through the night sky is low to the horizon in summer, it will appear to be huge, especially around moonrise on the 19th. What better time than this ‘true blue supermoon' to get to know Earth's only natural satellite? Turn to page 34 to discover nine essential lunar facts with Katrin Raynor, including where it came from, how it got so scarred and the role it plays in nature's grandest optical illusion. Exciting times continue into September too. After a conspicuous absence from Northern…

Sky at Night – lots of ways to enjoy the night sky…

Television Find out what The Sky at Night team have been exploring in recent and past episodes on page 18 Online Visit our website for competitions, astrophoto galleries, observing guides and more Social media Follow us on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram for the latest astro news Podcasts Discover the best things to see in the night sky every week by listening to our Star Diary podcast Tablet/phone Get each month's issue on your Apple or Android device, now with bonus image galleries eNewsletter The best targets to observe each week, delivered to your inbox. Visit bit.ly/skynewsletter Find out more at: www.skyatnightmagazine.com…

Sky at Night – lots of ways to enjoy the night sky…

This month's contributors

Nicky Fox NASA head of science “I really enjoy being in and around space missions. The technology is really inspiring and when you hear about the science the missions are going to do, it's just incredible.” NASA's head of science talks about her role at the agency on page 18 Pete Lawrence Astronomy expert “Been missing the planets? I know I have. But now they're back and with some rare planetary events too. The remainder of 2024 is about to get very exciting!” Pete gives you the highlights ahead on page 28 Steve Tonkin Binocular astronomer “For this article I was guided by the question: ‘What are the tips and tricks that I wish I'd been given when I started out using binoculars?'” Read Steve's expert advice on stargazing with…

This month's contributors

VÍCTOR M BLANCO 4-METER TELESCOPE, 19 JUNE 2024 “T hings fall apart; the centre cannot hold,” wrote the great Irish poet WB Yeats. This new image of unbarred spiral galaxy NGC 3981 seems to prove him right. It was captured by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) instrument on NSF NoirLab's Víctor M Blanco 4-meter Telescope in Chile, and clearly shows that the spiral arms of this galaxy, which lies 65 million lightyears from Earth in the southern constellation of Crater, the Cup, seem to be unfurling outwards into space. It's believed this unravelling is the result of the gravitational influence of one of NGC 3981's galactic neighbours – though as it's a member of the densely packed NGC 4038 Group, which contains at least 13 and possibly as many as…

The rebirth of Jupiter's Great Red Spot

BULLETIN For almost two centuries, astronomers have been arguing over whether the Great Red Spot we see on Jupiter today is the same feature as a similar mark first observed by Cassini in 1665. Now a new set of simulations may have settled the debate once and for all, suggesting our spot and Cassini's are two separate things. After Cassini first noticed what he referred to as the Permanent Spot, he and others observed the feature continuously until 1713, when it vanished from the record for 118 years. Then in 1831, astronomers again started to see a clear, oval structure on the planet, at the same latitude as the Permanent Spot. This Great Red Spot (GRS) has been continuously monitored for over 190 years and is now known to be…

The rebirth of Jupiter's Great Red Spot

The Great Red Spot is the second most recognisable planetary feature behind Saturn's rings. I remember being gobsmacked when viewing the planet through Patrick Moore's 12.5-inch reflector, where the GRS seemed to have faded very nearly completely. More recently, the spot seemed to develop red ‘flakes', which turned out to be gas being pulled into the eye of the living, breathing storm. When it does fade away completely – which might happen in the next decade or so – it'll be a sad day for back garden observers everywhere. But this new research has a silver lining, suggesting a new spot will be along soon, just as our spot replaced Cassini's. Chris Lintott co-presents The Sky at Night…

Nearby planet could be an ice world

A nearby exoplanet could be a water world with a nitrogen atmosphere similar to Earth's, according to new data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Exoplanet LHS 1140 b orbits a red dwarf star 48 lightyears away. The planet is in the star's habitable zone, meaning the climate of the planet could be temperate enough for liquid water to exist. Detailed observations have revealed that the density of the planet is consistent with a rocky world that's 10–20 per cent water, enough to cover the entire surface in water or ice. Recent measurements taken by the JWST have also hinted that the planet has a nitrogen-rich atmosphere, just as our own planet does. “This is the first time we have ever seen a hint of an atmosphere on a…

Nearby planet could be an ice world

Starliner's return delayed over a month

The first crewed test of Boeing's Starliner crew vehicle has been dogged with problems, making its stay at the International Space Station a month longer than intended. Starliner – a vehicle for carrying astronauts to and from the ISS – launched on its first crewed test on 5 June, with experienced NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore on board for what was initially a 10-day mission. The test flight appeared to be going well, until the propulsion system sprang multiple helium leaks. When the spacecraft began to approach the ISS for docking, five of the 28 control thrusters went offline. Four were later recovered and the spacecraft successfully docked on 6 June. Though Starliner was soon determined to be capable of a return journey, it has remained at the…

Starliner's return delayed over a month

Sharpest map ever made of a galaxy's dark matter

BULLETIN Drawing on 18 years of Hubble observations, astronomers have created the most precise map ever of how stars move in a dwarf galaxy. The new survey could be a huge boost to understanding how dark matter holds galaxies together. Most galaxies are spinning so fast that, if they only contained the stars that we see, they should fly apart. To explain why they don't, astronomers have theorised that galaxies are held together by the mass of an invisible substance they call dark matter. Currently, the presence of dark matter can only be inferred from the effect it has on the motions of stars and galaxies around it, which makes accurate tracking of its distribution within a specific galaxy difficult. While telescope observations suggest dark matter is relatively evenly distributed…

Sharpest map ever made of a galaxy's dark matter

Pillars of Creation in 3D

In 1995, Hubble took an image of several fingers of dust in the heart of the Eagle Nebula – a stellar nursery where new stars were being formed. This Pillars of Creation image has gone on to be one of the best-known astronomical images ever created. It's unsurprising, then, that it was one of the first to be recreated by the James Webb Space Telescope when it first came online in 2022. Its infrared eye was able to peer through the dust, giving an entirely new view of the region. Now a team of astronomers have used both sets of observations to create a new visualisation in which you fly through the pillars, which you can see for yourself here: bit.ly/PillarsVis. It has also been transformed into a freely available…

Pillars of Creation in 3D

Nearby planet reeks of rotten eggs

It's rare that discovering a place that smells of rotten eggs is a cause for celebration, but that's the case with exoplanet HD 189733 b. Observations of the planet's atmosphere by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) found traces of hydrogen sulphide, the chemical which gives bad eggs their odour and which is an important ingredient in the formation of life. “We're not looking for life on this planet – it's way too hot,” says Guangwei Fu from Johns Hopkins University, who led the study. “But finding hydrogen sulphide is a stepping stone for finding this molecule on other planets and gaining more understanding of how different types of planets form.” HD 189733 b is far from a pleasant place to visit, quite aside from its odour – the temperature…

Nearby planet reeks of rotten eggs

Voyager 1 gets back to science operations

Voyager 1 is back conducting scientific observations and transmitting data after spending more than six months offline. In November 2023, Voyager 1's data transmissions suddenly became nonsensical. The Voyager team finally discovered the fault was caused by a corrupted memory chip and were able to reprogramme the spacecraft to avoid the problem component. “This is the first flight software update made to a spacecraft in interstellar space,” says Linda Spilker, Voyager's project scientist. “We are now getting science data back from all four Voyager 1 science instruments.” Following the update on 19 May, two instruments immediately came back online. The other two required more work, but have now resumed their tasks of measuring plasma waves, magnetic fields and particles. No craft has gone further out into space than Voyager 1,…

Voyager 1 gets back to science operations

A moonwalk in the desert

NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Andre Douglas took one small step towards NASA's Artemis III lunar landing mission by simulating a moonwalk in the Arizona desert. The two traversed Arizona's San Francisco Volcanic Field – an area geologically similar to the Moon – wearing mock spacesuits. The suits had a mass of around 30kg (70lb), similar to the weight under lunar gravity of the units worn by the Apollo astronauts. The pair conducted geological studies during the day and night, investigating how the articulated joints and lighting rigs affected their performance. The pair also communicated with a ‘ground' science team and mission control, testing the procedures for a future landing mission. NASA currently hopes to launch Artemis III by September 2026, but this timeline may be ambitious. The Human Landing…

A moonwalk in the desert

Double craters are clue to vanished double asteroids

Our experts examine the hottest new research CUTTING EDGE Binary craters are something of a curiosity. They're much more than two craters that happen to have formed side by side. Instead, they're believed to have been created simultaneously by the impact of a binary asteroid – a larger body being orbited by a natural satellite. About 15 per cent of all small asteroids are believed to be orbited by their own little moon, so dual craters, formed by the impact of both an asteroid and its moon at the same time, are actually relatively common. As such, double craters can also tell us something very useful about the population of binary asteroids. Binary asteroids in space are currently detected directly using radar, but this is only possible for the closest,…

Double craters are clue to vanished double asteroids

Does lensing make fast radio bursts repeat?

The creators of Canada's CHIME radio telescope didn't know what they were getting into. The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (to give it its full name) was designed to observe large swathes of the sky to efficiently produce a map of hydrogen over a substantial portion of the Universe. But it turns out to be almost perfectly designed to catch unusual rapid bursts of radio waves, known as fast radio bursts (FRBs). FRBs were first discovered in 2007, but while CHIME was under construction between 2015 and 2017, astronomers looking through archival data had realised the events were far more common than anyone expected. Now CHIME has seen thousands of these bursts – but they remain mysterious. One of the unusual things is their diversity. FRBs occur at different frequencies,…

Does lensing make fast radio bursts repeat?

INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT

What do you do as NASA's head of science? I manage, look after and nurture all the science missions for NASA – anything that's not human space exploration falls under the Science Mission Directorate. Right now, we have about 144 missions. Some are still on PowerPoint charts; some have been in space for 47 years, like Voyager. We have a lot of medical research science that's on the International Space Station. There are missions to study the Sun, the planets of the Solar System and obviously our favourite planet, Earth, plus we study the Universe with our astrophysics telescopes. I get very involved in the missions, especially as they're preparing to launch. The technology is really inspiring when you hear about what the missions are going to do. But I…

INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT

Looking back: The Sky at Night

On the 28 September 1976 episode of The Sky at Night, Patrick Moore took a look at the twin Viking probes that had recently become the first spacecraft to successfully set down on the planet Mars. Viking 1 and 2 used their colour cameras to transmit the first images of the Martian surface, revealing a rusty red landscape underneath a butterscotch sky. A meteorological suite measured the local weather, while seismometers listened for marsquakes. The most publicised experiments, though, were those looking for signs of biological activity. Using its robotic arm, Viking delivered soil samples to three experiments. Two fed the sample with nutrients to look for a reaction, while the third flooded the chamber with carbon-14-tagged carbon monoxide to see if it metabolised into carbon dioxide. The experiments were…

Looking back: The Sky at Night

Email us at inbox@skyatnightmagazine.com MESSAGE OF THE MONTH This month's top prize: two Philip's titles The ‘Message of the Month' writer will receive a bundle of two top titles courtesy of astronomy publisher Philip's: Nigel Henbest's Stargazing 2025 and Moon Map, the essential map for all Moon watchers Winner's details will be passed on to Octopus Publishing to fulfil the prize All aboard for astronomy! I'm not sure if other readers do anything like this, but on my train journeys into work, if I've finished reading the magazine, I leave it on the fold-down table as a surprise for the next occupant of my seat. I always hope that it'll inspire the next person who sits in the seat to look up at the night sky once in a while.…

Email your queries to scopedoctor@skyatnightmagazine.com I live in a town with a lot of light pollution. Is it worth buying a telescope under these conditions, or should I get something else? GAVIN BUDBY The short answer is, yes, it is worth buying a telescope! In fairness the best views, of deep-sky objects in particular, are to be found from a dark-sky location but that doesn't mean that you can't observe the night sky successfully from under light-polluted skies, and a telescope will still allow you to do that. Naturally, the brighter the object, the easier its light will cut through the pollution, so the Moon and planets will be very accessible, as will open and globular star clusters, as well as double stars. Galaxies and nebulae will be more challenging,…

Making radio waves

The possibilities that lay in the early crackles and hisses of radio were only too clear for those who could envisage the real potential the invention possessed: what began as a revolutionary new method of communication would eventually reach to the stars. But at its birth in the late 19th century, no one expected that we would find radio waves rippling through space towards Earth; it would take decades to construct a mechanism to hear them. Two great minds jostled for notoriety in the early days of radio: Serbian-American engineer Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) and Italian inventor and engineer Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937). After a serious off-air kerfuffle between the two, it was Marconi who eventually gained the patent for the invention of the radio in 1896. However, it was the brilliance…

Making radio waves

The planets return

It's fair to say that views of the planets in the first half of 2024 were lacklustre. Sure, Jupiter and Uranus put on a show at the start of the year, but they became engulfed in the evening twilight during March. By May, all the main planets were compromised in some way, being too close to the Sun or below or low to the horizon after dark. Fortunately – if that's the correct term – poor weather meant we didn't miss much! But as the second half of 2024 beckons, a change is in the air and we will experience a major and spectacular return of the planets. Venus will take its time, improving by the end of the year, and Mars will continue to get better through to its…

The planets return

The term ‘conjunction' is loosely used to describe occasions when two or more astronomical bodies appear close in the sky. A more formal, astronomical definition describes two or more objects sharing a common coordinate value – for example, right ascension or ecliptic longitude. Although they have no scientific importance, conjunctions can be amazing to witness: the relative movement of bodies up to and beyond the point of closest approach really hammers home the fact that we live in a three-dimensional Solar System. Lunar conjunctions with bright planets happen once a month, although circumstances may not always be conducive to see them all. Conjunctions between bright Jupiter, or Venus, and the Moon really grab the attention. Visually exciting to see, conjunctions between bright objects also make great targets to image, even…

Season of the supermoon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the brightest natural object we can see in the night sky. Its appearance changes each night throughout the month, waxing and waning from new Moon to full Moon. Even its distance changes: sometimes it's close to Earth and other times further away. As our ancestors studied the sky, the Moon became central to different cultures in their religious and spiritual practices, and many gave names to each full Moon. On 19 August, it's time to fall in love with our Moon again, because a seasonal blue Moon will be visible. And this won't be just a blue Moon, it will be a ‘true blue supermoon'! From the UK, the Moon will peek over the eastern horizon at 20:46 BST (19:46 UT), appearing…

Season of the supermoon

PARTICLE PHYSICS 101 The previous installments of this series all dealt with well-established facts and known particles and forces. However, this month we'll take a look at a much more speculative idea: supersymmetry (also known as SUSY). It's an as-yet unproven theory that could solve a number of nagging problems in particle physics, such as why gravity is so weak compared to the other forces in nature, or what the nature is of dark matter. However, it comes at a cost: if supersymmetry is right, nature should host a large number of additional particles, beyond the many we already know. Currently, physicists know of two families of elementary particles: fermions and bosons. Fermions are particles of matter, like quarks, electrons and neutrinos, which make up the material world. In contrast,…

No one knows why there are four different fundamental forces of nature: gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the weak and strong nuclear forces. Then again, there may be only one. In the very first moments after the origin of the Universe, this single force would have ‘split' into the four we now know. Indeed, in the 1970s, Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg successfully formulated the electroweak theory, a unified description of the electromagnetic force and the weak nuclear force. In the future, physicists hope to also include the strong nuclear force, in what's known as a grand unified theory, or GUT. The ultimate dream is a single overarching Theory of Everything that would describe and explain all particles and forces of nature, including gravity. For many years, 10-dimensional…

SATURN AT OPPOSITION

The Sky Guide SEPTEMBER 2024 16-PAGE CENTRE PULLOUT PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE Watch a nibble taken out of the Harvest Moon About the writers Astronomy expert Pete Lawrence is a skilled astro imager and a presenter on The Sky at Night monthly on BBC Four Steve Tonkin is a binocular observer. Find his tour of the best sights for both eyes on page 54 POLE DANCE See Titan make close passes of Saturn's poles Also on view this month… ✦ Neptune at opposition ✦ Mars meets the M35 star cluster ✦ Comet A3 becoming a naked-eye possibility ✦ Jupiter moon transits Red light friendly To preserve your night vision, this Sky Guide can be read using a red light under dark skies Get the Sky Guide weekly For weekly updates on…

SATURN AT OPPOSITION

SEPTEMBER HIGHLIGHTS

Sunday 1 Visible in the early dawn twilight, a 3%-lit waning crescent Moon sits 5.5° from mag. +0.6 Mercury this morning. Monday 2 Saturn's largest moon, Titan, appears immediately south of the planet's southern pole at 02:52 BST (01:52 UT). This morning's waning crescent Moon is very thin, less than 1%-lit. It sits 2.3° from Regulus (Alpha (α) Leonis) before sunrise. Friday 6 Spica (Alpha (α) Virginis) appears 26 arcminutes north of this evening's 11%-lit waning crescent Moon at 18:50 BST (17:50 UT) under daylight conditions. Saturday 7 Ganymede can be seen transiting Jupiter's disc between 01:04 and 03:15 BST (00:04-02:15 UT). Tuesday 10 At 20:40 BST (19:40 UT), a view of the lunar crater Albategnius will show a rim shadow that looks like the profile of a face – the clair-obscur effect known as…

SEPTEMBER HIGHLIGHTS

Universal Time (UT) and British Summer Time (BST) Universal Time (UT) is the standard time used by astronomers around the world. British Summer Time (BST) is one hour ahead of UT RA (Right ascension) and dec. (declination) These coordinates are the night sky's equivalent of longitude and latitude, describing where an object is on the celestial ‘globe' Family friendly Objects marked with this icon are perfect for showing to children Naked eye Allow 20 minutes for your eyes to become dark-adapted Photo opp Use a CCD, planetary camera or standard DSLR Binoculars 10×50 recommended Small/ medium scope Reflector/SCT under 6 inches, refractor under 4 inches Large scope Reflector/SCT over 6 inches, refractor over 4 inches GETTING STARTED IN ASTRONOMY If you're new to astronomy, you'll find two essential reads on…

DON'T MISS Partial lunar eclipse BEST TIME TO SEE: 18 September, 01:41-05:47 BST (00:41-04:47 UT) There's a small partial lunar eclipse taking place in the early hours of 18 September, when a portion of the Moon's surface will be covered by Earth's shadow. The full Moon that's involved will be the Harvest Moon for 2024, as it occurs nearest to the Northern Hemisphere's autumn equinox (the equinox itself occurs on 22 September). Unlike its solar counterpart, a lunar eclipse can be seen from anywhere on Earth where the Moon is above the horizon. Fortunately, this will be the case from the UK for this particular eclipse. Earth's shadow in space has two components: a weak, outer penumbral shadow and a dark, inner umbral shadow. If you were in a spacecraft…

Titan's close passes of Saturn

Saturn's largest moon is Titan, an object that shines at a small telescope- (and potentially binocular-) friendly eighth magnitude. Its orbital period around Saturn is 15 days and 22 hours, which means from Earth we get to see it in roughly the same position relative to Saturn every 16 days. As Saturn's inclination is now quite reduced, we'll see Titan passing very close to the north and south limbs of the planet, a precursor to some excellent interactions between moon and planet later in 2024 and into next year, as Saturn approaches its next ring plane crossing in March 2025. Look out for Titan passing just south of Saturn's southern pole on 2 September at 02:52 BST (01:52 UT) and again on 18 September at 00:05 BST (23:05 UT on…

Titan's close passes of Saturn

C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS update

As long as nothing catastrophic happens to it, comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS will become a potentially naked-eye object in the coming weeks. C/2023 A3's orbit has it swinging through perihelion on 27 September, between Earth and the Sun, being closest to Earth on 12 October at a distance of 70.6 million kilometres. At the start of September, the comet is expected to be around seventh magnitude and from the UK will not be visible unless something unusually dramatic happens and it brightens by a large amount unexpectedly. At this time it'll be in our daylight sky, 8° south of the Sun. After mid-September, the comet is in the early morning sky, but very low before sunrise and not visible in a dark sky at all. Again, something very dramatic would…

C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS update

PICK OF THE MONTH Saturn Best time to see: 8 September, 01:15 BST (00:15 UT) Altitude: 29° Location: Aquarius Direction: South Features: Rings, banded atmosphere, brighter moons Recommended equipment: 75mm scope or larger Saturn reaches opposition on 8 September, when the planet is presented at its best to us viewing from Earth. Shining at magnitude +0.2 among the stars of Aquarius, Saturn reaches around 30° altitude when due south, which is much better than it has managed over recent years. This lifts it above a lot of the lowaltitude turbulence that has ruined the UK's view for a number of years. Having said this, Saturn's rings are currently only tilted to our line of sight by 3.7°, which makes them appear extremely thin and somewhat less impressive than when they…

THE NIGHT SKY – SEPTEMBER

KEY TO STAR CHARTS When to use this chart 1 September at 01:00 BST 15 September at 00:00 BST 30 September at 23:00 BST On other dates, stars will be in slightly different positions because of Earth's orbital motion. Stars that cross the sky will set in the west four minutes earlier each night. How to use this chart 1. Hold the chart so the direction you're facing is at the bottom. 2. The lower half of the chart shows the sky ahead of you. 3. The centre of the chart is the point directly over your head. Sunrise/sunset in September* Moonrise in September* *Times correct for the centre of the UK Lunar phases in September FREE BONUS CONTENT Paul and Pete's night-sky highlights Southern Hemisphere guide www.skyatnightmagazine.com/bonus-content…

THE NIGHT SKY – SEPTEMBER

Deslandres Type: Walled plain Size: 235km Longitude/latitude: 5.6° W, 32.5° S Age: Older than 3.9 billion years Best time to see: First quarter (11–12 September) or six days after full Moon (24–26 September) Minimum equipment: 10× binoculars Deslandres is a large, ancient and time-worn feature located just to the southeast of 750km Mare Nubium (the Sea of Clouds). A day after the first quarter Moon, there are two extremes visible in this region: the young, bright 86km crater Tycho and the dark, lava-filled 98km crater Pitatus on the southern edge of Mare Nubium. Centre to centre, Pitatus lies 410km north of Tycho. Head three-quarters of the way along this connecting line starting from Tycho, then head east for 200km and you'll be at the centre of Deslandres. Unlike either Tycho…

COMETS AND ASTEROIDS

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS is causing a bit of a stir because it has the potential to be visible to the naked eye, from the UK at least, from mid-October when it re-emerges from the Sun's glare into the evening sky. With a nucleus 20–40km across, C/2023 A3 is interesting because it's an Oort cloud comet that will reach perihelion on 27 September, when it swings past the Sun at a distance of 58.6 million kilometres. Perihelion also takes place with the comet moving between us and the Sun, giving rise to some difficult viewing conditions through September and early October. Minimum distance from Earth is achieved on 12 October, at 70.6 million kilometres. After solar conjunction on 9 October, when C/2023 A3 will be just 3.5° from the Sun,…

COMETS AND ASTEROIDS

STAR OF THE MONTH

Lyra is one of the iconic constellations of summer. Its brightest star, Vega (Alpha (α) Lyrae), is easy to find, being one of the vertices of the large Summer Triangle asterism. Hanging southeast of Vega is a squashed diamond pattern, the body of the harp-like instrument represented by the constellation. In its southeast corner is Sulafat (Gamma (γ) Lyrae), at mag. +3.3 the second-brightest star in Lyra after mag. +0.0 Vega. The name Sulafat comes from the Arabic for turtle, ancient harps being traditionally made from tortoiseshell. Sulafat is a B9 III star, indicating it's a blue-white giant. It is estimated to be 15.4 times larger and 2,430 times more luminous than our Sun, and has a mass 5.8 times greater. It's a dying star, having ceased hydrogen fusion approximately…

STAR OF THE MONTH

1. Alpha Persei Moving Cluster 10x50 Melotte 20 extends nearly 4° southeast from mag. +1.8 Mirfak (Alpha (α) Persei), with its hot, young, blue and blue-white (spectral types O and B) stars sparkling like diamonds on black silk. The colour of the stars hints at the relative youth (60 million years old) of this stunningly beautiful cluster. It's called ‘moving' because all the stars share a similar proper motion (motion relative to the celestial sphere). ☐ SEEN IT 2. Kemble's Cascade 10x50 During late summer evenings, Kemble's Cascade is approximately vertical in the sky, so you get the full effect of a ribbon waterfall falling into a splash pool (the open cluster NGC 1502). To find it, extend a line from mag. +2.3 Caph (Beta (β) Cassiopeiae) to mag. +3.3…

THE SKY GUIDE CHALLENGE

The planets are coming back in droves. After their poor performance in the first half of 2024, they are now moving out of the Sun's glare into the expanding autumn darkness. Not only that, but those that have been horizon-huggers in recent years are now able to reach higher altitudes. This is great news, because it lifts them out of the turbulent atmospheric murk lower down. To celebrate this, our challenge this month – and it's a tough one – is to capture details on planetary moons. It will require good seeing and preferably a large scope. The contenders here should be fairly obvious, as many of the Solar System's moons are physically too small and too far away for amateur equipment. This leaves the larger contingent, namely the four…

THE SKY GUIDE CHALLENGE

1 Stephenson 1 Lyra represents a harp-like instrument, the stringed part being a distinctive diamond pattern hanging southeast from brilliant Vega (Alpha (α) Lyrae). The northern side of the diamond is marked by Zeta (ζ) and Delta (δ) Lyrae. Delta marks the position of the open cluster Stephenson 1, also known as the Delta Lyrae Cluster. Delta is double, orange Delta2 (δ2) being the star associated with Stephenson 1. The cluster is fairly sparse and easy to overlook, but thanks to Delta2's wonderful colour contrast with blue-hued Delta1 (δ1), this is a fantastic part of the sky to photograph. Originally ruled out because of its sparseness, it's now regarded as a true open cluster. ☐ SEEN IT 2 NGC 6791 Our next target is NGC 6791, located 54 arcminutes east-southeast…

10 STRANGEST THINGS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

1. Volcanic Io Jupiter's closest moon is the most volcanically active place in the Solar System Jupiter has an extended family of 95 moons (though they may have found even more by the time you read this; it's hard to keep track!). The four largest – all roughly the same size as our own Moon – are known as the Galilean moons, as they were discovered by Galileo in 1610. Of the Galileans, Io is different to its three icy siblings. When you look at images of Io taken by space probes, it's easy to understand why its nickname is the ‘pizza moon': its surface is covered with patches of yellow, orange and red that look like melted cheese. In fact, these are vast flows of sulphur and molten rock…

10 STRANGEST THINGS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Bringing home pieces of a MARS MOON

Don't ever go for a run on Phobos. With only one thousandth as much gravitational pull as on Earth, there's a danger you'll accidentally launch yourself into space and begin orbiting Mars. Phobos, one of Mars's two moons (the other being Deimos), is a dangerous place to try to land, which makes the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission particularly daring. Planned to launch atop JAXA's new H3 medium-lift rocket in 2026 and go into orbit around Mars in 2027, the 4,000kg (8,820lb) MMX spacecraft will do something no other mission has yet attempted: return a sample from the Mars system to Earth. Phobos and Deimos were discovered in 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall and named after the sibling Greek gods of fear and panic,…

Bringing home pieces of a MARS MOON

Phobos and Deimos: An origin story

There are traditionally two theories about where the Martian moons came from. One suggests that both moons are merely captured asteroids. The albedo (reflectivity) of Phobos supports this. “The albedo of Phobos is very low, making the moon very dark,” says Tasker. “Examination of the wavelengths of reflected light from Phobos gives a result very similar to that of [low-albedo] asteroids.” This suggests the moons may have initially formed in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and were later snagged by Mars's gravity to become captured moons. The idea that Phobos and Deimos are two halves of a trapped comet is a twist on this theory. However, Phobos and Deimos orbit Mars's equator in a very circular path. “This is hard to achieve with capture,” says Tasker, “but…

Phobos and Deimos: An origin story

Mars sample-return missions

It now looks certain that samples of Phobos returned to Earth by JAXA will be the first ever obtained from the Mars system. Until recently, it had been hoped that NASA's Mars Sample Return mission would see a lander and a fleet of Ingenuity-style drones dispatched to the Red Planet's Jezero crater to join its Perseverance rover. The plan was for Perseverance and the drones to bring samples to the lander, where they would be placed in a rocket-equipped Mars Ascent Vehicle. After being fired into orbit, they would rendezvous with an Earth Return Orbiter spacecraft built by the European Space Agency, which would dispatch a capsule to travel back to Earth and land in Utah in the 2030s. However, NASA revealed in April 2024 that budget constraints meant it…

Mars sample-return missions

Stargazing with binoculars

First of all: congratulations! You have chosen to use a complete, self-contained, versatile and ultra-portable observing system that you can easily set up in less than a minute, and that can show you hundreds of astronomical targets that elude your naked eye… and all for about the same cost as a single mid-range astronomical eyepiece. Why are binoculars so good? In addition to being portable and easy to set up, there's the view they give you. You get a much wider field of view than with a telescope, so it's much easier to relate what you see to the view you get with just your eyes. And the image you see is exactly the same orientation as what you see with the naked eye, so you don't have to do…

Stargazing with binoculars

Making the view comfortable

You can make your time looking high in the sky far more comfortable by using some sort of garden recliner, especially one that supports your head (and therefore helps to steady your binoculars). Steadying the view always helps you see more. The easiest way is often to simply rest your elbows on something convenient, be it the roof of a car, the branch of a tree, a fence, an upturned garden rake… you're limited only by your imagination. It's tempting to get a tripod adaptor and use a sturdy tripod. This is fine for low-elevation targets, but point your binoculars higher up and you'll find your legs get tangled up with the tripod. A better solution is a monopod (a tripod with one leg) and a joystick mount: the monopod…

Making the view comfortable

How to ‘discover' a comet or asteroid

Comets and asteroids are the minor bodies of the Solar System. Like planets, they orbit the Sun, but they're far smaller and often more difficult to find. Today, most are discovered by large, automated survey telescopes when they are very faint. In the past, though, many were discovered by amateur astronomers, either visually or photographically, and it's still an interesting, fun activity to use the same technique to ‘discover' these objects for yourself. Asteroids are rocky objects, usually in almost circular orbits. They resemble slow-moving stars, even through large telescopes, and range from small rocks just a few metres across to 940km-wide Ceres. Meanwhile, comets are dusty, icy objects that generally have elongated orbits. The solid part of a comet is called the nucleus, which is often a few kilometres…

How to ‘discover' a comet or asteroid

Catch colour in a lunar eclipse

This month sees a small but welcome partial lunar eclipse. The event occurs on the morning of 18 September, when a maximum of 3.5 per cent of the Moon's surface (8.5 per cent of its diameter) will be covered by the darkest umbral part of Earth's shadow. Here we look at how to extract colour from the shadow. A total lunar eclipse is a colourful affair. The dark part of Earth's inner shadow isn't totally dark, but infilled with sunlight refracted through the thin ring of atmosphere at the edge of Earth. The blue component is scattered, leaving predominantly reddish hues to infill the shadow. Depending on things like the amount of cloud cover on Earth at the time of the eclipse, the shadow can appear a deep brownish colour,…

Catch colour in a lunar eclipse

Show fine details in Venus's atmosphere

Astronomy Photographer of the Year Advice from the 2023 winner in the ‘Planets, Comets and Asteroids' category Venus often goes unappreciated in the planetary imaging community. However, when we venture past the visible spectrum, a wealth of detail within its upper atmosphere is revealed. This is where ultraviolet (UV) and near-infrared (nIR) filters shine. To achieve a similar image to my Astronomy Photographer of the Year entry, ‘Suspended in a Sunbeam', we should first consider equipment. You'll need a suitable UV or violet filter. While dedicated UV filters can be expensive, they do provide the best image contrast. For my image, I used the Bessel (U)BVRI photometric UV filter. For near-infrared, almost any infrared (IR) pass will suffice. To gain greater magnification, adding optical glass is not kind for ultraviolet,…

Show fine details in Venus's atmosphere

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY

FREE BONUS CONTENT Find our extended Gallery at www.skyatnightmagazine.com/ bonus-content The Lobster Nebula Mohammed Dawoud, Al Kharrara, Qatar, 21 June 2024 PHOTO OF THE MONTH Mohammed says: “Being in the Northern Hemisphere, I don't often image southern constellation targets, but with the Lobster Nebula, aka The War and Peace Nebula, 31° above the meridian, I decided to try. I'm so pleased how the image turned out, in spite of limited exposure time and low altitude.” Equipment: ZWO ASI2600MM camera, Celestron RASA 8 astrograph, iOptron GEM 45 mount Exposure: Ha 20× 180”, OIII 17× 180”, SII 17× 180” Software: Astro Pixel Processor, PixInsight, Photoshop Mohammed's top tips: “The most important thing in astrophotography is planning. Good planning is the key to getting a nice image, including deciding what telescope to use,…

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY

Ursa Major multicoated flatfield eyepieces

VITAL STATS • Price £39 each • Focal length 3.5mm, 5.5mm, 7.5mm, 10.5mm, 15.5mm, 19mm, 25mm • Lens design Flatfield • Apparent field of view 60° and 65° • Eye relief 15mm (3.5mm), 16mm (5.5mm-15.5mm), 20mm (19mm), 23mm (25mm) • Optical elements 5 or 6 • Barrel size 1.25-inch • Extras Cleaning cloth, dust caps • Weight 80g-110g • Supplier First Light Optics • Email questions@firstlightoptics.com • www.firstlightoptics.com Most beginner telescopes include an eyepiece or two to get users started, often a wide 25mm or 30mm version plus a higher-magnification option. While these can offer new astronomers some memorable first views, often it's not long before you'll want to expand and upgrade your eyepiece collection. The variety available can be daunting, as can the cost, so we're seeing how the…

Ursa Major multicoated flatfield eyepieces

Vaonis Hestia smartphone-based telescope

VITAL STATS • Price $399 (Ultimate pack) • Optics Six lenses in three groups • Aperture 30mm (1.2-inch) • Focuser Manual focus ring • Field of view 1.8† • Magnification 25x • Limiting magnitude 7–8 • App control Gravity (iOS and Android) • Extras Tripod with pan-and-tilt head, solar filter, solar pointer, carry case • Dimensions 17 × 24 × 5.5cm • Weight 850g • Supplier: Vaonis • Tel +33 4 84 98 00 21 • www.vaonis.com The Vaonis Hestia is designed as a convenient way to capture astrophotos using a smartphone as a viewfinder. Roughly the size of a lunchbox or a weighty novel, it promises to be a travelfriendly telescope that can be taken anywhere and used any time. We tested the ‘Ultimate pack', which includes the Hestia,…

Vaonis Hestia smartphone-based telescope

1 Omegon Pro Neptune fork mount Price £513.31 • Supplier Vega Vision WWW.Vegavision.co.uk ADVANCED Highj-maganification binoculars can get rather heavy, so simplify your observing sessions with this fork mount. Offering a 90° to –30° range, the anodised aluminium support features Teflon bearings for smooth tours of the skies. 2 Sega Homestar Flux projector Price £169 • Supplier Menkind • www.menkind.co.uk Bring the wonders of the night sky into the comfort of your home with this interactive planetarium projector. The Flux model has a bright LED light to make the stars shine even brighter. Pick from navigating the constellations or enjoying a beautiful Milky Way starscape. Includes a handy built-in timer. 3 Explore Scientific 2x Barlow focal extender Price £174 • Supplier Tring Astronomy Centre www.tringastro.co.uk Double the total focal length…

The Secret Life of the Universe Nathalie A Cabrol Simon & Schuster £22 ☐ HB Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, contains an estimated 100 billion stars. Data from a plethora of telescopes and spacecraft suggests many have planetary systems and that, therefore, billions of exoplanets (planets around stars beyond our Solar System) exist in our galactic neighbourhood. Yet despite all this prime exoplanetary real estate, we've yet to find life, or evidence of it, beyond our ‘pale blue dot'. Is Earth the only cradle for life in the Universe? Can we really be all alone? In The Secret Life of the Universe, Nathalie Cabrol provides an expertly guided tour of humankind's search for life beyond Earth, describing current theories of what life is, what ingredients it needs and how and…

Q&A WITH A BLACK HOLE DETECTIVE

How did you first become aware something unusual was happening in galaxy SDSS1335+0728? For two decades, the galaxy showed no changes. However, in December 2019 it started showing significant optical variability, detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) – the galaxy was starting to shine. It was later classified as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), meaning it's emitting a lot of radiation from its central region, which is believed to be produced by matter falling into the supermassive black hole at its centre. Since the discovery, the galaxy has continued showing random optical variations. The fact that the galaxy didn't show any previous activity and now varies like an AGN is very puzzling. Normally transient events related to the galaxy's central supermassive black hole show very smooth variations and only…

Q&A WITH A BLACK HOLE DETECTIVE

THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

When to use this chart 1 Sep 00:00 AEST (31 Aug, 14:00 UT) 15 Sep 23:00 AEST (13:00 UT) 30 Sep 22:00 AEST (12:00 UT) The chart accurately matches the sky on the dates and times shown for Sydney, Australia. The sky is different at other times as the stars crossing it set four minutes earlier each night. SEPTEMBER HIGHLIGHTS Saturn reaches opposition on the 8th, presenting its largest angular size for the year. It's also approaching a ring plane crossing in 2025, so the rings are now nearly edge-on. Its bright moons orbits are close to the ring plane, so at each interaction they currently pass close to the poles or go behind (or in front of) Saturn. The brightest moon, Titan, easily visible in a small scope, presently…

THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

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