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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR DECEMBER 03
Welcome
This month’s
contributors
include...
Nicholas Joannou
Equipment expert
Eyepieces Make the most of a Moonless Geminid meteor shower
may not
look as
This month the Geminid
impressive meteor shower makes a How to contact us
return to our night skies. Subscriptions, binders and back issues
as scopes
03330 162119
but Nicholas explains It’s a particularly good 8am to 8pm, Mon to Fri; 9am to 1pm, Sat for orders
why they are just as vital year to observe them Calls from landlines will cost up to 9p per minute. Call charges from
for observing. Page 80 mobile phones will cost between 3p and 55p per minute but are
as the crescent Moon included in free call packages.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
04
CONTENTS
C = on the cover
NEW TO ASTRONOMY?
Get started with The Guide on
page 80 and our online glossary at
www.skyatnightmagazine.com/dictionary
Regulars
06 EYE ON THE SKY
Features 69 11 BULLETIN
19 WHAT’S ON
32 2019: A YEAR OF
CELESTIAL WONDERS 21 A PASSION FOR SPACE
C A handy, month-by-month guide to the most Prof Suzie Imber on Mercury’s mysteries.
exciting astronomical events you can observe
and astro image over the next 12 months.
NEW 23 FIELD OF VIEW
38 360º VISION: This month: the literal art of astronomy.
CREATING A NIGHT
24 INTERACTIVE
SKY PANORAMA
C How to capture the entire majesty of the 26 SUBSCRIBE
night sky using multiple shots stitched together.
44 APOLLO 8 28 HOTSHOTS
Relive the historic mission that saw humans
circumnavigate the Moon for the first time.
74 49 THE SKY GUIDE
50 Highlights
69 IMAGING FOR 52 The Big Three
C Including the Geminids.
SCIENCE: MARS 54 The Northern Hemisphere
Learn how your images of the Red Planet can
All-Sky Chart
become valuable pieces of scientific research.
56 The Planets
58 Moonwatch
74 '$5.ƨ6.< 63$,1 Don’t overlook crater Rutherfurd.
Take a tour around some of the best sites
Spain has to offer astronomers. 98 59 Comets and Asteroids
59 Star of the Month
60 Stephen Tonkin’s Binocular Tour
61 The Sky Guide Challenge
It’s a moving experience this month.
32 62 Deep-Sky Tour
64 Astrophotography
C Imaging Comet 46P/Wirtanen.
80 SKILLS
80 The Guide
So, why are eyepieces so important?
82 How To...
C …Record the Geminid meteor shower.
84 Image Processing
C Stitching together your panorama photos.
87 Scope Doctor
89 REVIEWS
6 OF THE BEST
90 10x50 binoculars, £100-£200
FIRST LIGHT
94 Celestron 114 LCM computerised telescope
C 98 Bresser Messier AR-80/640 Nano
refractor
102 Books
104 Gear
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
CONTENTS DECEMBER 05
EVERY MONTH
A guide to Sagan’s Moons beyond Download and listen:
Virtual
Christmas Lecture the Solar System? It Is Rocket Science Planetarium
Listen to a chapter from 13 Watch our interview with Prof Enjoy the first episode of With Paul Abel and Pete Lawrence
Journeys Through Space David Kipping, part of a team Helen Keen’s popular BBC Discover December’s night-sky
and Time about Carl Sagan’s that may have just discovered Radio 4 comedy series on highlights with Paul and Pete
1977 Royal Institution talk. the first known exomoon. the science of spaceflight.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
06
Universe
A glimpse back in time to the dawn of the Universe reveals a massive proto-supercluster
that could give us clues about how our own Virgo supercluster evolved
ESO/L. CALÇADA & OLGA CUCCIATI ET AL.
Because light takes time to travel across space, This object is known as a galaxy proto- It is thought that Hyperion will eventually
astronomers can effectively look back in time supercluster and is the largest and most evolve into something like the Virgo
by observing ever deeper into the cosmos to massive structure ever observed so distant and Supercluster in which our own Galaxy is
see objects as they existed in the Universe’s early in the history of the Universe. It consists found, so studying this object and comparing
infancy. Hyperion – the object seen here of galaxies held together in a cluster, forming it with others closer to us in the local Universe
– appears as it did about 12 billion years ago, an object whose mass is equal to over one can reveal clues as to how the cosmos formed
two billion years after the Big Bang. million billion times that of our Sun. and evolved over time.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
EYE ON THE SKY DECEMBER 07
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
08
W Ring
within
a ring
HUBBLE SPACE
TELESCOPE, 8
OCTOBER 2018
Young stars glow
bright in the arms
of spiral galaxy
Messier 95. If you
look towards the
bright centre of the
galaxy, you’ll see
a smaller inner ring
surrounding the
galactic core. This is
another star-forming
region, fed by the
wisps of dark dust
spiralling inwards.
YOUR BONUS
CONTENT
A gallery of these
and more stunning
space images
ESA/HUBBLE & NASA, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. P. S. EYRES, NASA/
JPL-CALTECH, SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY/NASA
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
EYE ON THE SKY DECEMBER 09
Solar slow-down
NASA SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY,
10 OCTOBER 2018
A new active region spins into view in this
image of the Sun captured by NASA’s orbiting
observatory. Such regions are becoming rarer
as the Sun approaches the solar minimum; the
point in our host star’s 11-year solar cycle
when its activity slows down.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
%
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No .90
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YOUR TRIP
THROUGH THE
UNIVERSE! 2017
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detail! Place your smartphone in the viewer and observe the night sky with numerous, additional bits of information as well as
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heavens nebulae
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Bulletin
PLUS
14 CHRIS LINTOTT
16 LEWIS DARTNELL
The latest astronomy and space Our experts examine the hottest
news written by Elizabeth Pearson new astronomy research papers
COMMENT
by Chris Lintott
Can we really call this
new object a moon?
Something the size of
Neptune certainly doesn’t
look like any satellite in
our Solar System.
Scientists believe they have In fact, the relative
discovered the first moon masses of this new
outside our Solar System exomoon and its planet
around Kepler-1625b are about the same as the
difference between Earth
and the Moon. Granted,
SOLAR SYSTEM
rules as to what qualifies
as a moon some argue
we really inhabit a double
planet system. But knowing
Exoplanet appears to have an unusually large satellite this makes the new system
seem more familiar.
New observations have found evidence of a took part in the study. “It was definitely a Even if that’s true,
moon the size of Neptune in orbit around an shocking moment to see that light curve.” though, those who study
exoplanet. If confirmed, this will be the first The team also noted the planet’s transit planet formation have
a struggle on their hands
time a moon has been discovered outside our occurred an hour earlier than expected. The
to explain how two such
Solar System. presence of a moon could cause this, as it would
large bodies could have
The Kepler Space Telescope found the first pull the centre of gravity away from the core of ended up in orbit around
signs of a moon in orbit around the 8,000 the planet, causing it to wobble. one another.
lightyears-distant exoplanet Kepler-1625b in A second planet could be responsible for And things might be
2017. A team of scientists investigated further both these observations, but during Kepler’s more complicated still;
using the Hubble Space Telescope, looking for four-year run it found no evidence of an astronomers have pointed
dips in the host star’s brightness that could have additional planet around Kepler-1625. out that there’s the
been caused by the planet and moon passing in The find will hopefully, “yield new insights possibility of satellites
front of it. After first detecting the main planet’s into the development of planetary systems and in orbit around this new
transit, Hubble then spotted a second dip in may cause astronomers to revisit theories of body too. Delightfully,
NASA/ESA/L. HUSTAK
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
12
n
NEWS IN Astronomers are scratching
BEPICOLOMBO
LAUNCHES
ESA’s Mercury
mission, BepiColombo,
successfully launched
on 20 October at
01:45 UT, starting its
seven-year journey to
the innermost planet.
The mission consists of
two spacecraft – one
from Europe, the other
from Japan – that
will orbit the planet,
observing its geology
and composition.
Researchers hope the
mission will help to
answer the many
questions surrounding
Mercury, such as why
it has a magnetic field
when some larger
planets don’t.
Stars hop
BETWEEN GALAXIES
Stellar interlopers could be speeding towards us at huge velocity
(ARTIST’S IMPRESSION AND COMPOSITION); MARCHETTI ET AL 2018 (STAR POSITIONS AND TRAJECTORIES); NASA/ESA/HUBBLE
A group of astronomers looking for stars star breaking loose from the Galaxy, so were
AIRBUS, ROBERTO MOLAR CANDANOSA AND SCOTT SHEPPARD, COURTESY OF CARNEGIE INSTITUTION FOR SCIENCE, ESA
escaping the Milky Way could instead have pleasantly surprised when so many turned up.
(BACKGROUND GALAXIES) CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, JAXA, NASA/BILL INGALLS, ISTOCK, DAVID JONES/DANIEL LÓPEZ – IAC
found several invading it from another galaxy. More unexpected was the direction in which the
PLANET GOBLIN The team made the discovery during a recent stars were travelling.
REVEALED analysis of data from the Gaia spacecraft. Since “Rather than flying away from the Galactic
The discovery of a 2014, Gaia has measured the positions, centre, most of the high velocity stars we spotted
new dwarf planet – parallaxes (a measure of distance) and 2D seem to be racing towards it,” says Tommaso
nicknamed ‘the Goblin’ proper motion on the sky of over a billion stars. Marchetti, who took part in the research.
– was announced Seven million of these stars have full 3D data, “These could be from another galaxy, zooming
in October by
meaning it’s possible to work out how quickly right through the Milky Way.”
astronomers hunting
they are moving towards or away from us. The stars may have originated in the Large
for a ninth large planet
on the outskirts of our A team of researchers from Leiden University Magellanic Cloud or they could come from
Solar System. The in the Netherlands used this 3D data to much further afield. Astronomers will now
Goblin is currently 2.5 search for hypervelocity stars. These are stars study the stars to see if they can determine their
times further from the that have been accelerated to phenomenal origin. If they do turn out to be intergalactic
Sun than Pluto, and its speeds, probably through interactions with interlopers, the stars could offer researchers
orbit seems to have a supermassive black hole. a unique opportunity to take a detailed look
been shaped by the “Of the seven million Gaia stars with full 3D at stars from another galaxy.
theoretical ninth planet.
velocity measurements, we found 20 that could “Looking at the colours of the stars tells us
“These distant objects
be travelling fast enough to eventually escape what they are made of,” says Marchetti. “A star
are like bread crumbs
leading us to Planet X,”
the Milky Way,” says Elena Maria Rossi, one of from the Milky Way halo is likely to be fairly old
says Scott Sheppard the researchers involved in the study. and mostly hydrogen, whereas stars from other
from Carnegie Based on a previous look at the Gaia data, the galaxies could contain lots of heavier elements.”
Institution for Science, team expected to find perhaps one hypervelocity sci.esa.int/gaia
who led the study.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
BULLETIN DECEMBER 13
NEWS IN
Lander dropped onto asteroid BRIEF
Hayabusa2 dropped its days and nights
third and final lander observing its landing
onto asteroid Ryugu on location, then used its
3 October. The MASCOT arm to ‘hop’ to another
probe, created by area and continued
Germany’s space taking measurements
agency, explored the until its battery ran
surface for over 17 down. The images BIG BANG
hours. It was controlled revealed a surface WAS FLUID
directly from Earth strewn with boulders, The latest experiments
throughout, the first time but without the fine at CERN’s Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) show that
a lander has been material scientists were
the early Universe may
operated in this way. Þ The MASCOT team was surprised that the surface expecting to see. have behaved like a
It took MASCOT six of Ryugu isn’t covered in fine material as expected “MASCOT has fluid. By smashing
minutes to reach the delivered exactly what particles together at
surface, where it bounced eight times before we expected: an ‘extension’ of the space probe on close to the speed of
coming to rest. It then used a robot arm to the surface of Ryugu and direct measurements on light, the LHC recreates
manoeuvre itself into the best position to conduct site,” says Tra-Mi Ho, the MASCOT project leader. the plasma of quarks
its experiments. The lander spent two asteroid www.dlr.de and gluons – the
particles that make up
protons and neutrons
– that filled the Universe
NEARLY
A NOVA
A pair of binary stars
that orbit each other
in just three hours has
been discovered in the
heart of a planetary
nebula using new
observations from the
European Southern
Observatory. The pair
is so close they are
almost touching. Their
proximity means within
the next thousand years
they could undergo a
nova eruption, where
material from one star
rapidly transfers over to
the other. The resulting
thermonuclear explosion
creates a burst of light
a million times brighter
Þ Alexey Ovchinin, left, and Nick Hague embrace their families at Krayniy airport after a flight to the ISS was aborted than the original stars.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
14 BULLETIN DECEMBER
W
hen the 2017 Nobel Þ Combined data from of these events found... almost none.
Prize was awarded for the Fermi and LIGO appears But there was one event the LIGO team had
detection of gravitational to confirm a gamma-ray suggested could be real (known as GW150914-
burst that would look
waves, it marked the end GBM) that seems also to have been faintly detected
ambiguous based on the
of an incredible story. data from just one source by Fermi. Because two separate experiments have
Through 30 years of finding seen hints of the same thing, we can be more
absolutely nothing, the team behind the LIGO confident that it’s real than we would if we listened
project had worked on and on, building more and only to Fermi or only to LIGO.
more sensitive experiments until they finally That’s really exciting. While the experiment
detected the minuscule ripples in space caused by didn’t turn up dozens of new detections, it did help
the collision of two black holes in a distant galaxy. in confirming one that was previously dubious. As
This first detection by the LIGO experiment we enter the new era of public announcements of
was quickly followed by another, and another, LIGO detections, we’ll be able to use techniques like
and finally the spectacular discovery last year of those in this paper to combine results from multiple
gravitational waves from a gamma-ray burst that observatories. Together, they’ll tell us everything
was also seen by telescopes in space and around we could possibly want to know about the most
the world. That event, with gravitational wave dramatic and violent events in our Universe’s history.
and ‘traditional’ astronomers working together,
ESO/L. CALÇADA/M. KORNMESSER
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
BULLETIN DECEMBER 15
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
16 BULLETIN DECEMBER
V
ega is the second brightest star in it. The fact of the non-detection, coupled with your
the northern hemisphere, and was understanding of the sensitivity of your equipment,
well known to ancient Babylonian, allows you to place tighter and tighter constraints
Assyrian and Chinese stargazers. It on what could be present but yet remain undetected.
was the northern pole star when In this case, that turns out to be the maximum size
the last Ice Age was thawing 14,000 of any planets orbiting Vega: if they were orbiting
years ago, before precession of Earth’s axis rolled within the warm dust belt and were any larger than
round to align with Polaris instead. Vega was also the 20 times the mass of Jupiter, Meshkat and her team
first star ever to be photographed – by astronomer would have spotted them.
William Cranch Bond and photography pioneer John Something is clearly sculpting the debris disc in
Adams Whipple using Harvard College Observatory’s the Vega system, and we now know a lot more about
15-inch Great Refractor – in July 1850, as well as one how big these planets could be, even without
of the first to have its distance estimated by parallax. actually having discovered them. With the launch
So for many reasons, Vega is considered to be one of of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021, and its
the most important stars in the history of astronomy. much greater sensitivity, we will be able to spot any
It was also significant in Carl Sagan’s novel Contact; planets in the Vega system right down to the mass
CHRIS BUTLER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
being the star from which humanity received an LEWIS DARTNELL is an of Saturn (which is about a third the mass of
unambiguously artificial radio transmission. But astrobiology researcher Jupiter). Vega is unusually bright and nearby, and so
does Vega actually possess any planets? at the University of this would offer us a spectacular opportunity to
Westminster and the study a whole new solar system still in the making.
What we do know is that Vega is pretty young
author of The Knowledge:
– about 450 million years old – and is still How to Rebuild our
surrounded by a swirling disc of dust; we can see an World from Scratch LEWIS DARTNELL was reading… A deep search for
‘infrared excess’ from Vega emitted by these warm (www.the-knowledge.org) planets in the inner 15 AU around Vega by Tiffany
grains. This is the raw material from which new Meshkat. Read it online at arxiv.org/abs/1809.06941
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
ellco e ’s my how
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WHAT’S ON DECEMBER 19
What’s on
Forgotten Astronomical Events
and Astronomers of WWI
Room 411, Babbage Building, University of Plymouth,
14 December, 7.30pm
Our pick of the best events from around the UK During the First World War,
women like English astronomers
Fiammetta Wilson (pictured)
and Grace Cook ensured that
PICK scientific work was carried out on
OF THE thousands of meteor observations
MONTH while their male colleagues
were off fighting. In this talk for
Plymouth Astronomical Society, Sheila Evans discusses
the astronomical events of those four years and the
astronomers who studied them. This talk is free for
members and £2 for non-members, followed by a
Christmas quiz. Visit the society website for more info.
www.plymouthastro.btck.co.uk
Winter stargazing
Castle Semple Centre, Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park,
Lochwinnock, 17 December, 7pm
include Uranus and Neptune along with group discounts for families available. along with Peake’s
deep-sky objects like the Andromeda For more information and ticket prices, spacesuits, as part of an
Galaxy, while the constellation of Orion visit the observatory website. interactive exhibition on until
will be high in the sky, offering the www.the-observatory.org/open-evenings February 2019. The exhibition includes a virtual reality
‘journey’ from the ISS back to Earth, narrated by Peake
himself. The exhibition is free, but the VR experience is
£6 per person and restricted to those aged 13 and over.
BEHIND THE SCENES www.museum.wales/cardiff/whatson
THE SKY AT NIGHT IN DECEMBER
Four, 9 December, 10pm (first repeat Four, 13 December, 7.30pm)*
TELESCOPE ON A PLANE! MORE LISTINGS ONLINE
The team look at SOFIA, a 17-tonne Visit our website at www.
NASA telescope housed on a Boeing skyatnightmagazine.com/
747SP. SOFIA observes our Galaxy whats-on for the full list of
this month’s events from
from about 12km high and can peer around the country.
through cosmic dust into the heart
of the Milky Way to see how stars To ensure that your talks,
form. It may even be able to answer observing evenings and star
one of the most puzzling questions: parties are included, please
why aren’t more stars being created? submit your event by filling
in the submission form at
One of SOFIA’s primary goals is to study *Check www.bbc.co.uk/skyatnight the bottom of the web page.
the formation of stars and stellar objects for subsequent repeat times
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
IN ASSOCIATION WITH SUE RIDER MANAGEMENT PRESENTS
with
special guest
A PASSION FOR
F
or many years our of the planet, and what
attention has been impact would this have on
grabbed by the the planetary atmosphere?
rings of Saturn, Are the mysterious X-ray
the ice caps of emissions on the night side
Mars or Jupiter’s of the planet similar to
Great Red Spot. Missions to Earth’s aurora, and if so,
these planets have provided what can these features tell
a wealth of information about us about Mercury’s space
our Solar System. However, weather? Also, what exactly
there is an anomalous planet is the dark material that
that continues to perplex MESSENGER discovered
scientists, so much so that we on Mercury’s surface, and
have just launched our second does it play a role in the
dedicated mission there this BepiColombo launched in October 2018 formation of mysterious
century: Mercury. and is due to reach Mercury in 2025 holes – known as ‘hollows’
Understanding the – on the planetary surface?
formation and evolution of Mercury may compression), as its metal-rich core takes On 20 October this year I witnessed the
provide the key to unlocking some of the up a far greater fractional volume of the launch of the joint European-Japanese
outstanding mysteries of our Solar System. planet than any other. This could be the BepiColombo mission, carrying a suite
It’s so close to the Sun in the sky that the result of a huge collision that removed the of instruments (including one built at
majority of our current knowledge has outer layers of rock, but Mercury’s surface Leicester) to Mercury. It’s a pioneering
come from in situ spacecraft observations. appears to be rich in the volatile elements mission composed of two spacecraft that
Even getting a satellite to Mercury presents that would be the first to disappear as a will travel together until they arrive at
a huge challenge, requiring a seven-year result of such a collision. How then – and Mercury in December 2025, then split
journey incorporating several flybys of where – did Mercury form? apart and orbit the planet separately.
Earth, Venus and Mercury to slow it This configuration will enable some
down enough to be captured by Mercury’s Enduring a solar assault ground-breaking studies of the surface and
SPACECRAFT: ESA/ATG MEDIALAB; MERCURY: NASA/JPL
weak gravitational field. And that’s just Over the four years it orbited Mercury environment, seeking to explain Mercury’s
the first step; the environment around from 2011-2015, NASA’s MESSENGER formation, evolution and dynamics, with
Mercury presents huge engineering and spacecraft made the remarkable discovery implications for our Solar System and
operational challenges. Chief among these that Mercury’s magnetic field is offset to beyond. It’s a long journey, but I can’t wait
is the heat: orbiting spacecraft must endure the north of the planet. It also revealed to see what discoveries our new mission will
temperature swings from +450°C to –180°C tantalising hints that Mercury’s space bring to light! S
in periods as short as 30 minutes, while weather may be fundamentally different to
most of the instruments on board are Earth’s, because Mercury’s giant iron core ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR SUZIE IMBER
designed to operate at room temperature. is fending off the powerful solar wind in is a space physicist at the University
Mercury is the densest planet in the the inner heliosphere. Can the solar of Leicester researching Mercury’s
Solar System (accounting for gravitational wind from the Sun ever scour the surface magnetosphere via BepiColombo
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
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A
lifelong interest in astronomy, of a UNESCO-led education event. The local army
space and drawing has led me to donated a 3x3m tarpaulin and everyone at the event,
developing workshops for children. from professors to local orphans, took part in
These workshops always have an creating an enormous Sun on it. Using data from
element of art or creativity involved, the Solar Dynamics Observatory every sunspot,
as drawing can cut across every prominence and filament was made from paper
perceived issue in a child’s capacity to learn. No matter with joy. The creation went on display on the floor
their ability, a child’s attempt to draw a planet offers of Bosscha Observatory under a 12-tonne telescope.
learning in the simple act of putting pencil to paper. Thousands of drawings have been produced in my
There are many branches of astronomy, but workshops over the past 15 years. Showing children
choosing topics for the workshops is easier than you the latest images from space, or what the Sun actually
might expect. I’ve found that dealing with current, looks like, is real, sustainable education: drawing
tangible events has the most impact on learning, so on a page is a simple pathway to enhancing their
I teach about current missions or upcoming understanding. And I love every second of it! Sharing
ANDRÉS LOZANO/FOLIO ART
astronomical events. Since these also have a high drawing techniques gives me endless pleasure, as
chance of being covered in the media, this has the does extending the learning by encouraging venues
bonus of bringing the subject directly into the child’s to hold exhibitions of the children’s drawings. S
home life, extending their learning experience.
It’s always better to do an activity that’s fun as DEIRDRE KELLEGHAN is an amateur astronomer,
well as educational, and something that involves artist and educator based in Wicklow, Ireland
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
24
Interactive
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MESSAGE
OF THE
Free (uni)verse MONTH
When my
daughter was
almost seven she
This month’s top prize: asked Santa for a
telescope, a metal L O O K UP As black holes eat the
four Philip’s books sky
detector and
The ‘Message of Look up Will this war ever end?
a microscope. What do you see?
the Month’ writer Or is it the battle of
will receive four top titles courtesy of Obviously Santa The stars of your futu
re eternity?
brought them, but The stars of my past
astronomy publisher Philip’s: Robin
The cycle of night This battle overhead
Scagell’s Complete Guide to Stargazing, Rhianna only ever actually used the
On its spinnin g wheel Prove s our
Sir Patrick Moore’s The Night Sky, Mark telescope. She is now almost 11 and for her Oh Sister Sky in significan ce
Thompson’s Stargazing with Mark last birthday her Grandpa upgraded her to Oh Father Space In the movements of the
Thompson and Heather Couper and the Celestron NexStar 6SE. She loves all Oh brother Unkn own Universe
Nigel Henbest’s 2019 Stargazing. things astronomy thanks to the patience of Why mu st it be Mothe I lon g to escape the
r
Winner’s details will be passed on to Octopus Earth who watches ove limits that bind us
the guys at Sunderland Astronomical r
Publishing to fulfil the prize us? Don’t you?
Society, who are always there to support
Don’t you wish to be
and guide us. Rhianna’s other passion is Deep in space free?
writing, and I had the opportunity see A battle of ages Don’t you wish to
Tales from some of her work at a parents’ evening Balls of fire clash with
warrior of the night
unlock the secret s of the
night?
THE EYEPIECE recently. I thought this poem she wrote
about the chosen theme – space– was
Galaxies of an ger
collide
But space will always
have its mysterie s of
Stories and strange tales from the world brilliant, moving and thought provoking! Stars go supernova darkne ss
of amateur astronomy by Jonathan Powell Sarah Ball, via email Addin g to nebulas of
blood Rhianna Ball
Back in the early 1980s, telescopes could
(10½ years old)
be readily purchased from high street What an evocative piece of writing by
electrical shops and even the odd chemist, Rhianna! It touches on why many are
placed next to the tinsel in the shop
windows in the festive period. My first
drawn to observing the night sky. – Ed
telescope, a 60mm refractor I’d asked
Santa for, duly came down the chimney
one year. Trying the beastie out, I focused telescope in the Scottish Highlands and
on a signpost a quarter of a mile away, provides stunning views of the night sky for
only to be disappointed at not being anyone with an interest in astronomy, is
seeing a fly waving back at me. In truth,
located next to Culloden Battlefield.
my telescope was better to look at than
look through. However, the failing was not More chocolate cake was consumed
with the telescope, but my expectations of when the public were able to meet our
its capabilities, which I only understood as members and see the 14-inch Schmidt-
I gained experience. My first scope still Cassegrain catadioptric telescope in its
holds fond memories for me, as it gave 3m rotating dome along with our club’s
me many hours of happy observing in the
other observatory telescopes and examples
years that followed.
Email your own tales to Jon at
The Highlands life of our activities at a Highland Council-
Chocolate cake abounded at the September supported Doors Open Day event. Families
TalesfromtheEyepiece@themoon.co.uk
meeting of Highlands Astronomical Society were entertained with astronomy-related
Jonathan Powell with club members and visitors celebrating games and learned of our Youngstars
is the astronomy
correspondent for the
10 years since the opening of our Jim group for children aged 8-14 years.
South Wales Argus Savage-Lowden Observatory. The Highlands Astronomical Society is
observatory, which houses the largest public a very active club with public observing
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
INTERACTIVE DECEMBER 25
Aprill Harper
Assisting a total newbie, along with the Sandy
Astronomical Society, to put together a scope
SOCIETY in focus gifted to them a while back, then showing
them Mars and the ISS.
evenings three times a year at its dark-sky
coastal site at Carnewas near Newquay. Richard Steltner
Visitors are treated to a guided tour of the I met Britain’s first astronaut, Dr Helen Sharman.
Sun, planets, stars and nebulae with
a range of large scopes on hand, some Stephen Cheatley
constructed by members. I saw the clearest view of the Milky Way in
Also, twice a year the National Trust UK in years whilst on Anglesey. Jaw dropping.
invites us to the Tudor house and grounds
at Trerice to put on a static display, Natalie Penwill
demonstrations, a video show and a line-up SpaceX leaving a Tesla in orbit. It’s so
of telescopes. On 20 October we had a unbelievable to imagine a car floating in space!
Kernow Astronomers is a mid-Cornwall crystal-clear Cornish autumn sky in which
group of about 40 amateur astronomers Saturn, Mars and the Moon were shining Kevin Andrew Hasson
with a wide range of expertise and brightly. Amazingly, nearly 400 people, The Andromeda Galaxy shrank! Our Milky
knowledge. We meet twice a month at young and old, turned up to view these Way expanded! The black hole at the centre
St Columb Major Academy, often to hear sights and they were not disappointed. It is of our Galaxy was joined by thousands!
expert speakers, and at Trevarrian on the always a thrill to get a, “Wow!” or,
north coast for practical observing during “Amazing!” as Saturn’s rings or the Gillian Rushforth
the darker months. Through our informal mountains of the Moon are seen for the first My northern lights experience in a northern
and fun meetings we invite newcomers to time, and very satisfying to be asked so Iceland winter and the constellations were the
learn about all things space. many searching questions about space by clearest I’ve seen anywhere – magical.
As a club we also bring our love of excited new viewers of the night sky. Long
astronomy to the wider public. Some of our may it continue! John Maclean
members visit schools or other groups to www.kernowastronomers.com Being frozen to the ice while, idiotically, lying
give talks, and we link with the National Glynn Bennallick, publicity officer, Kernow down to look at the stars in the Antarctic. My
Trust to put on free ‘Sun, Stars and Planets’ Astronomers friends had to free me with a shovel!
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
SAVE WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE
TO THE DIGITAL EDITION
Available from
The perfect addition to your stargazing, BBC Sky at Night
Magazine is your practical guide to astronomy, helping you to
discover the night skies, understand the Universe around us and
learn exciting techniques for using your telescope.
Hotshots
YOUR
BONUS
CONTENT
A gallery
containing these
and more of your
stunning images
This month’s pick of your very best astrophotos
PHOTO
OF THE
MONTH
S Pickering’s Triangle
JEAN M DEAN, GUERNSEY, 23 JULY – 7 AUG 2018
Jean says: “I find the Veil version. I think this gave additional depth and from the page. Other images we have seen
Nebula fascinating; the detail to the image.” of this object are very faint, and pale in
scattered remains of the comparison to this winning astrophoto.”
supernova have created some Equipment: Starlight Xpress Trius mono
amazing filamentary structures CCD camera, Takahashi FSQ-106 refractor, About Jean: “Growing up in the Apollo
that I wanted to capture. I created two Sky-Watcher AZ EQ6-GT mount Exposure: era I developed a fascination for space
synthetic RGB versions, one as normal and 13x20’ each for Ha, OIII, SII Software: exploration and astronomy. My passion for
one without stars. I removed the stars from PixInsight, Photoshop astrophotography has grown from that and
the individual monochrome narrowband every time a new deep-space object appears
images before combining into a starless BBC Sky at Night Magazine says: “Jean’s on my sensor I still get a feeling of amazement
version. Each RGB was stretched separately image is so detailed and crisp that the features that I have just recorded a very distant moment
and then combined into a final blended almost look 3D, as if they were protruding in the history of the Universe.”
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
HOTSHOTS DECEMBER 29
W The
Andromeda
Galaxy
VITTORIO MARINONI,
AOSTA VALLEY,
ITALY, 8 SEPT 2018
Vittorio
says: “I
wanted
to image
some
deep-sky objects but
alignment problems
meant I could only
aim at something
clearly visible.”
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
30 HOTSHOTS DECEMBER
W Sadr
region
DAVID SLACK,
NORTHUMBERLAND,
10 SEPTEMBER 2018
David
says:
“My
biggest
worry
was having gaps
when joining the
images together as
I hadn't used any
software to calculate
the frames; I did it by
eye using the preview
on my laptop screen.
I really enjoyed the
challenge of
processing it.”
Equipment: Starlight
Xpress SXV-H9 mono
CCD camera, Takumar
135mm lens,
Sky-Watcher HEQ5
Pro GoTo mount
Exposure: 49x5’
Software:
DeepSkyStacker,
Microsoft Image
Composite Editor,
Photoshop CS5
WORTH
£49 ENTER TO WIN A PRIZE! We’ve teamed up with Altair Astro UK to offer the winner
of next month’s Hotshots an Altair Astro Premium 1.25-inch
CLS-CCD Filter with UV/IR Block & AR Coating, designed to reduce the effects of light pollution and skyglow
for DSLR, CCD or CMOS cameras – www.altairastro.com • 01263 731505
Submit your pictures via www.skyatnightmagazine.com/astrophotography/gallery or email
hotshots@skyatnightmagazine.com. T&Cs: www.immediate.co.uk/terms-and-conditions
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
6
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2019
A year of
celestial wonders
Will Gater previews the sights we
have to look forward to in 2019
A
s the Sun sets on 2018, we thought we would take this
opportunity to look forward to what we can expect in the
night sky in 2019. Keen imagers and observers will certainly
have a packed schedule right from the very get-go with Comet
ABOUT THE WRITER 46P/Wirtanen still around (hopefully), a total lunar eclipse, a
Will Gater is an meteor shower and some fine planetary gatherings all within
astronomy writer and the first few months of the year. And the rest of 2019 boasts plenty more sights
presenter. Follow him too – in addition, of course, to the ever-revolving backdrop of constellations
on Twitter at @
and celestial objects that come with each season.
WILL GATER
willgater or visit
willgater.com So read on as we highlight the key dates for your diary in 2019, a veritable
year of celestial wonders. >
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
OBSERVING IN 2019 DECEMBER 33
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
34
Totality returns to
THE MOON
If you missed July’s total lunar eclipse you’ll
get another chance to observe this beautiful
underway when the Moon enters the
Earth’s penumbral shadow at 02:36 UT
neighbour’s light is dimmed considerably.
Imagers may find a pleasing wide-field
spectacle on 21 January. and totality – when the lunar disc is composition in the pairing of the totally
This time the position of the lunar disc in completely immersed in the darker umbral eclipsed Moon and the Beehive Cluster
UK skies at the time of the eclipse will be shadow – begins at 04:41 UT. (M44), which will be around 7° apart.
much more favourable, meaning that, if the Totality will see the Moon’s disc tinted a Totality finishes at 05:43 UT and at 07:48 UT
clouds stay away, we’ll be able to watch striking coppery red and many fainter stars the Moon will slip fully out of Earth’s
totality from start to finish. The eclipse gets will become visible as our nearest penumbra, bringing an end to the eclipse.
will be sitting in a brightly moonlit sky. close pairing of the planets that morning will still
Similarly on the 17, 18 and 19 February provide an interesting target. Wherever in the
Jupiter and Venus had a
Venus – now much lower in the sky during country you view or image the event from, ensure
close encounter in 2015
the darkness preceding early morning you conclude your observations well before sunrise.
and will again next year
twilight – will pass close to Saturn.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
The Perseid meteor shower
in 2019 will be at the
mercy of a gibbous Moon
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
Imagers should be ready for a photo op
in mid-February when the Moon has an
encounter with the Hyades
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
OBSERVING IN 2019 DECEMBER 37
2018 has been lacklustre year for planetary like Jupiter will only be around 15° above the and only begins to become prominent again
observers in the UK with Mars, Saturn and, horizon from the centre of the UK. in the evening sky – in the west – in the last
to a lesser extent, Jupiter all sitting low in the At the beginning of the year Mars is in few weeks of December. Good times for
sky where poor seeing and haze has often Pisces, but its apparent diameter will have spotting Mercury in 2019 include after sunset
combined to frustrate high-resolution imaging already shrunk considerably since its on the nights of 25, 26 and 27 February and
and observation. So what does 2019 hold for opposition in July of this year, and it won’t be in the darkness before dawn on 27, 28 and
those interested in our cosmic neighbours? The until October 2020 that it’ll be at opposition 29 November.
picture’s not much better, unfortunately. once again. That being said it will have a In the distant reaches of our planetary
Jupiter reaches opposition on 10 June when close approach with the Pleiades in late neighbourhood, Uranus is at opposition in
it will be in the bright Milky Way star fields in March and early April, which should make a the constellation of Aries on 28 October
the southern half of Ophiuchus. From the beautiful photo opportunity for wide-field while Neptune is at opposition in Aquarius
central UK, though, it will only reach an imaging with the contrast between the Red a few weeks earlier on 10 September; as
altitude of around 15° at this time. Planet and the cluster’s blueish stars. always both these worlds are tremendously
Saturn, meanwhile, reaches opposition on In the inner Solar System Venus reaches rewarding to track down through a medium-
9 July in the constellation of Sagittarius, but greatest western elongation on 6 January to-large aperture telescope. S
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
38
360º VISION
&5($7,1*$1,*+7ƨ6.<
PANORAMA
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
PANORAMIC ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 39
Constructing a panoramic
shot lets you see all the
visible objects in the sky in
relation to each other
C
reating a panorama can be a bit of images, where there’s no perspective change as
an art. Many aspects need to be your camera is moved. It’s also best not to spend
considered, and in this article we’re more than 20 minutes taking the images that will
going to explain how to capture the be combined: any longer than that and the Earth’s
images to form a 360° picture, as rotation will cause the stars to shift positions. To
well as the equipment needed to do minimise this star shift, it’s also better to shoot in
it. You’ll find it a very rewarding experience once rows first, then columns so you can photograph the
STUART MCINTYRE, ISTOCK
you start to see the image come together. sky faster. You also want the images to overlap so
So what is a panorama? Put simply, it’s a 360° that they can be easily combined later.
picture made up of multiple images taken from one Lens choice plays an important role in the capture
location. They can’t be any old images, though: to technique. I typically like to work at f/2.8; it lets
get the best results you need to take non-parallax plenty of light into the image but also allows for a >
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
40
d
To make sure that you can capture all your images
_ = 2 arctan
within 20 minutes, you now need to calculate the
number of images in rows and columns. If you
sensor size (remember to calculate horizontal and 180÷37.1 = 4.8 frames, which you can round up
vertical separately) and f is the focal length of the to five. That’s a total of 7 x 5 frames, which is 35
lens. The table (above right) shows the field of view photographs. Using the 500 Rule you can work out
that different focal lengths provide with a 35mm you want a 20-second exposure from the 24mm >
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
PANORAMIC ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 41
A panoramic image
showing the Milky Way
arching over the horizon
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
42
> lens, which means a total exposure time of just level off its legs perfectly, as any tilt on the horizon Þ Covering all points of
under 12 minutes, or 24 minutes with dark frames. of images for a panorama has a very disorienting the compass lets you see
Therefore photographing the rows first is important effect when you’re stitching them together. If you your image in the same
way as you would in real
in some cases to avoid the stars shifting positions don’t want to invest in a panoramic head, good life, although the effect
when you’re stitching the images together. results can be achieved with a geared tripod head is lost in 2D
and a right-angled bracket. With these tools, the
The practice challenge is to minimise the movement of the
That’s the theory of panorama imaging taken care objects in view: as you move your camera, objects
of; now it’s time to start talking about equipment. at different distances will move different amounts.
A tripod is essential and it’s important that you So compose your image without any objects in the
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
PANORAMIC ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY DECEMBER 43
1 Adjust this
arm length…
<Þ You’ll need to set the camera’s horizontal (left) and vertical (above)
nodal points before embarking on a panoramic imaging session
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
44
50APOLLO
YEARS OF
APOLLO 8
7KH ƅUVW PLVVLRQ WR WKH 0RRQ FKDQJHG KRZ ZH ORRNHG DW (DUWK IRUHYHU
Elizabeth PearsonWHOOVWKHVWRU\RIWKHƅUVWPDQQHGOXQDUUHWXUQ
A
lthough 21 December 1968 was
the shortest day of the year, for the
astronauts of Apollo 8 it would be
MISSION BRIEF
Launch date: 21 December 1968
one of the longest of their lives.
Launch location: Launch Complex 39 A
The three men started it sitting on
Lunar orbits: 10
top of an untested rocket about to
Lunar orbital altitude: 111km
travel further from Earth than any human had been
Mission duration: 6 days, 3 hours and 42 seconds
before. They were destined for the Moon.
Return date: 27 December 1968
But Apollo 8 wasn’t originally intended to go
Main goals: Demonstrate translunar injection; test navigation,
that far. The mission brief was initially to stay in
FRPPXQLFDWLRQV DQG PLGFRXUVH FRUUHFWLRQVUHƅQHV\VWHPVDQG
low-Earth orbit and practise manoeuvring with procedures for future lunar operations
a lunar lander. By June 1968, however, it had Firsts: &UHZHG ƆLJKW DURXQG WKH 0RRQFUHZHGƆLJKWDFURVV9DQ$OOHQEHOWV
become apparent that the lander wouldn’t be ready OLYH 79 EURDGFDVW IURP OXQDU RUELW
in time for the mission’s launch. Christmas menu:7XUNH\VWXIƅQJFUDQEHUU\JUDY\EUDQG\ OHIWXQRSHQHG
The timeline to meet the 1969 deadline for a
lunar landing was already tight – a delay to Apollo
8 would derail it entirely. To avoid wasting the launched Zond 5, sending the first living creatures
mission, NASA considered bringing forward the (including a pair of tortoises) to the Moon and back.
Apollo 9 mission plan and sending Apollo 8 to It seemed a crewed Soviet mission couldn’t be far
orbit around the Moon. It was an outrageous behind. With public support for Apollo already
suggestion – only one Apollo mission had flown strained, NASA could not afford to be beaten by the
with a crew and the Saturn V rocket they planned to Russians again. Apollo 8 was in a race to the Moon.
use on 21 December had never been launched with Three months later, the Apollo 8 astronauts were
humans on board. Was it really a good idea to send strapped into the Command Module waiting to
astronauts to the Moon as the rocket’s first big test? launch. When the countdown hit zero, the crew
NASA X 10
Ultimately, the decision was made not by NASA, began to fear that something might be wrong
but by the Soviet Union. In September, the Russians – the entire spacecraft was shaking like a freight
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
APOLLO 50TH ANNIVERSARY DECEMBER 45
the astronauts
Commander: Frank Borman
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on the 14-day Gemini 7 mission. After Apollo 8, he was
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“beat the damn Russians” and left the agency. He worked
for Eastern Airlines before retiring in 1986.
The Saturn V rocket
blasts off carrying the
Command Module pilot: James ‘Jim’ Lovell Apollo 8 astronauts
$ QDY\ WHVW SLORW EHIRUH MRLQLQJ 1$6$ LQ /RYHOO ƅUVW ƆHZ into Earth orbit
in space on Gemini 7 with Borman. After Apollo 8, he was
SDUW RI DQRWKHU 0RRQ PLVVLRQ DV SDUW RI WKH LOOIDWHG $SROOR
13 crew. He left the space programme in 1973 and worked in
the corporate world, retiring in 1991. He still travels around
the world giving speeches about his experiences.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
46
> crew performed their final checks before burning landscape they had come so far to see, Lovell and Þ William Anders took the
the engines for four minutes and seven seconds. Anders were captivated by its expansiveness and famous photo that came
to be known as ‘Earthrise’
“Longest four minutes I ever spent,” said William stark contrasts. Borman, however, was less taken
‘Bill’ Anders as they waited for the timer to count by the scene.
down. But when the crew re-emerged from radio “My own impression is that it’s a vast, lonely,
silence, they were in lunar orbit. forbidding type existence… It certainly would not
For the next 20 hours the crew’s main task was appear to be a very inviting place to live or work,”
to image the lunar surface, particularly the five he said during a live television broadcast.
spots NASA had lined up as potential landing sites But as the crew emerged from behind the Moon
for future Apollo missions. As they looked at the for the fourth time, they were treated to a sight
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
APOLLO 50TH ANNIVERSARY DECEMBER 47
mission
timeline
21 Dec 12:51 GMT
The Saturn V
carrying Apollo 8
launches from
Cape Kennedy.
“Did you guys ever think
that one Christmas you’d
21 Dec 13:02 GMT
Apollo 8 enters
be orbiting the Moon?”
Earth orbit. – Jim Lovell
21 Dec 15:18 GMT
After 1.5 orbits of
Earth, Apollo 8 that managed to break through even Borman’s
receives permission apparent apathy. “Oh my God!” he exclaimed.
to go for translunar “Look at that picture over there! Here’s the Earth
injection. coming up. Wow, is that pretty?!”
21 Dec 15:41 GMT
The S-IVB stage starts A new perspective on home
its burn, sending The globe of Earth floated in the darkness, the only
Apollo 8 towards the point of colour in an infinite Universe of black and
Moon. Six minutes grey. Anders frantically searched for some colour
later, translunar film and took what would go on to be one of the
injection is achieved.
most iconic photographs of all time: ‘Earthrise’. Þ Top: Frank Borman at work in the tight confines
“The vast loneliness up here of the Moon is awe- of Apollo 8’s command module
24 Dec 09:49 GMT
inspiring,” said Lovell during one of the Apollo 8 Above: Jim Lovell makes minor adjustments to
Apollo 8 approaches
Apollo 8’s trajectory using the spacecraft’s thrusters
the Moon and mission’s six live television broadcasts. “It makes
disappears around you realise just what you have back there on Earth.” “We came all this way to explore the Moon,”
its far side, losing One of the live television broadcasts the crew William Anders said after the mission’s successful
contact with Earth.
made while at the Moon fell on Christmas Eve. return, “And the most important thing is that we
24 Dec 09:59 GMT NASA predicted the historic transmission would discovered the Earth.” S
The crew burn the reach the largest audience ever assembled and
engines for four tasked the crew to do something appropriate. With ABOUT THE WRITER
minutes to enter the TV camera pointed out of the module’s window, Dr Elizabeth Pearson is BBC
lunar orbit. looking at the lunar landscape slowly rolling past, Sky at Night Magazine’s news
editor. She gained her PhD
the crew took turns reading from Genesis, about the
25 Dec 02:34 GMT in extragalactic astronomy
Apollo 8 broadcasts creation of the planet they could see floating in the at Cardiff University
its Christmas black void of space.
message.
Þ The Apollo 8 crew scouted and imaged the lunar Þ Seeing Earth in the blackness of space had
surface for possible landing sites for future missions a profound effect on the crew of Apollo 8
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
Astronomically accurate
christopherward.co.uk
December The Sky Guide 49
who presents his tour of the can be read ✦ Mercury and Jupiter put on
The Sky at best sights using a red a show in the dawn sky
Night monthly for both eyes light under ✦ The Moon buzzes the
on BBC Four on page 60 dark skies Beehive Cluster
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
50 The Sky Guide December
DECEMBER HIGHLIGHTS
Your guide to the night sky this month
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
MONDAY
5 6
If you grabbed a Tonight and
3
Early risers will view of the waning into tomorrow
be greeted by crescent Moon near morning comet 46P/
the sight of the 17%-lit Venus on 3 December, Wirtanen will be
waning crescent Moon that was good training for this located less than a degree
forming part of a right-angled morning’s encounter between a from mag. +3.9 Eta (d) Eridani.
triangle with mag. –4.6 Venus slender, 4% waning lunar crescent The comet moves from a
and mag. +1.0 Spica (Alpha (_) and mag. +0.9 Mercury. Catch position southwest to northwest
Virginis), the star marking the them around 70 minutes before of the star throughout the night.
right-angle. Catch them after sunrise, low in the southeast.
05:00 UT, low in the southeast.
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY X
12 13
This evening and Tonight
into tomorrow sees the
morning, comet peak of the
46P/Wirtanen Geminids. An
– brightening hopefully – passes early waxing Moon will set
approximately 1° to the east of around 22:00 UT leaving the
two close stars in Taurus, mag. rest of the night good and dark
+3.6 Omicron (k) and mag. +3.7 to enjoy the show.
Xi (j) Tauri.
SATURDAY
15
Mag. –0.3
Mercury is
currently visible low
in the southeast
before sunrise. Today the planet
reaches greatest western
elongation, when it will be
separated from the Sun by 21.3°.
SATURDAY
FRIDAY
22
Tonight is the
peak of the
21
A 95%-lit
waxing Ursid meteor
gibbous Moon shower, but a
appears centrally full Moon will somewhat spoil
within the V-shaped Hyades this year’s display.
cluster and 2° from Aldebaran
(Alpha (_) Tauri) at 05:00 UT.
SATURDAY X
29
Look out
for mag.
+8.9 dwarf
planet Ceres,
3° north of mag. –4.4 Venus.
PETE LAWRENCE X 8
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
December The Sky Guide 51
NEED TO
KNOW
The terms and symbols
FRIDAY X MONDAY used in The Sky Guide
10
Locate mag. This evening
5$ ƙ5,*+7 $6&(16,21ƚ
$1' '(& ƙ'(&/,1$7,21ƚ
These coordinates are the
FRIDAY X night sky’s equivalent of
14
This evening,
longitude and latitude,
the 44%
describing where an object
waxing crescent
is on the celestial ‘globe’.
Moon lies 4.6°
south of mag. +0.2 Mars. A
telescopic view of the Moon from FAMILY FRIENDLY
21:00 UT reveals the clair obscur Objects marked with
effects known as the Lunar X and this icon are perfect for
Lunar V. They’ll be at their best showing to children
around 21:50 UT.
NAKED EYE
Allow 20 minutes
for your eyes to become
W SUNDAY TUESDAY THURSDAY dark-adapted
16 18 20
This This evening Mag. –0.4
morning and through Mercury is PHOTO OPP
and over the to the morning of 1.8° from mag. Use a CCD, planetary
course of the 20 December, –1.6 Jupiter this camera or standard DSLR
next day, comet 46P/Wirtanen comet 46P/Wirtanen will be morning. Visible low in the
will pass between the Pleiades passing approximately 6° east of southeast approximately 80 BINOCULARS
and Hyades open clusters in NGC 1499, the California Nebula. minutes before sunrise, the planets 10x50 recommended
Taurus. The comet will pass the A bright Moon will hamper views. appear even closer at just 1°
Pleiades by around 4°. The comet is closest to Earth today, apart on 21 and 22 December. SMALL/
passing us by 11.8 million km. MEDIUM SCOPE
Reflector/SCT under 6 inches,
refractor under 4 inches
SUNDAY W TUESDAY LARGE SCOPE
23 25
Comet This
Reflector/SCT over 6
46P/ morning,
inches, refractor over 4 inches
Wirtanen a bright 91%-lit
passes less waning gibbous
than a degree east of Capella Moon passes 1° to the south of
(Alpha (_) Aurigae) this evening the Beehive Cluster, M44, which
and into tomorrow morning. lies at the heart of Cancer, the
Crab. The closest approach is
around 05:30 UT.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
52 The Sky Guide December
DON’T MISS
URSA
MAJOR CAMELOPARDALIS
LYNX ASSIOPEIA
Comet 46P/
31 Dec
31 Dec
38P/Stephan-Oterma
Wirtanen
26 Dec
PERSEUS AN ROMEDA
GE INI
1 Dec
Castor Capella
AURIGA
21 Dec
Algol
NGC 1499
BEST TIME TO SEE: 15-18 December Elnath
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
December The Sky Guide 53
Geminids peak
BEST TIME TO SEE: Active from 4-17 December, peaks on 13/14 December
Morning Venus
planets
BEST TIMES: 3, 4 December for Venus-
Moon conjunction; 21, 22 December
for Mercury-Jupiter conjunction
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
54 The Sky Guide December
HE
1 DECEMBER AT 00:00 UT
A
STAR CHARTS
ST
15 DECEMBER AT 23:00 UT
JO
R
Arcturus STAR NAME 31 DECEMBER AT 22:00 UT
PERSEUS CONSTELLATION
On other dates, stars will be in slightly different positions
a
NAME because of Earth’s orbital motion. Stars that cross the
GALAXY
sky will set in the west four minutes earlier each night.
OPEN CLUSTER
HOW TO USE THIS CHART
`
M
GLOBULAR
er
ak
CLUSTER
PLANETARY
NEBULA
DIFFUSE
`
NEBULOSITY
DOUBLE STAR
LEO
VARIABLE STAR
MI
LEO
NO
THE MOON,
R
a
SHOWING PHASE 1. HOLD THE CHART so the direction you’re facing
Sickle
is at the bottom.
_
COMET TRACK
2. THE LOWER HALF of the chart shows the sky
¡
ahead of you. LY
3. THE CENTRE OF THE CHART is the point
EAST
_ 25
ASTEROID directly over your head. th
Regu
TRACK
R
CE
lus
Castor
SUNRISE/SUNSET IN DECEMBER*
N
STAR-HOPPING
CA
Pollu
PATH DATE SUNRISE SUNSET
x
1 Dec 2018 08:03 UT 15:55 UT X
M4
`
METEOR
11 Dec 2018 08:16 UT 15:51 UT 4
RADIANT b
_
ASTERISM
b
MOONRISE IN DECEMBER*
YD
INOR
n
STAR BRIGHTNESS: 13 Dec 2018, 12:14 UT 29 Dec 2018, ––:–– UT tour, p62
Win
MAG. +1
gle
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 6
5º N
M4
UT
7
H
W COMPASS AND a
EA
E FIELD OF VIEW 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 T
S
S Sirius _
CHART: PETE LAWRENCE
MILKY WAY 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 M4
FULL MOON
29 30 31
December The Sky Guide 55
NORTH
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Paul and
YOUR BONUS
M79 Pete’s Virtual
CONTENT Planetarium
SOUTH
56 The Sky Guide December
THE PLANETS
PICK OF THE f
PISCES
e c
MONTH 19X
Circlet
a
PEGASUS
h `
31st
Mars g
e
Best time to see: 1 December, 06:20 UT
Altitude: 28º Steering Wheel
(Water Jar)
Location: Aquarius /
Direction: South Mars d
c
Features: Polar caps, albedo
markings, phase _
a
Equipment: 28-inch or larger q
7th
If there were ever an award for the s2 s1 6th
s 3 h AQUARIUS
most frustrating planet in the sky for UK Neptune
observers, Mars would win it hands down. 1st
It reached a favourable opposition on Moon
14 Dec e
27 July of this year but from the UK this
happened very low down in the south. This
month, as the distance between Earth and Þ Mars’s apparent size shrinks as it moves away from Earth, but at least it climbs higher in the sky
the Red Planet increases, Mars starts to
gain altitude – of course! The following evening the positions swap,
The increase in distance means that Mars moving to a position 11 arcminutes
our view of Mars through a telescope east of Neptune. On 12 December, mag.
now shows a much smaller disc – just +0.2 Mars lies 20 arcminutes from mag.
9 arcseconds across on 1 December, +4.2 Phi ( ) Aquarii. A 43%-lit waxing
shrinking to just 7 arcseconds by the Mars 6 Dec crescent Moon sits near Mars on the
end of the month. Compared to the evening of 14 December.
24 arcseconds Mars presented back On 22 December, mag. +0.3 Mars
in July, it’s now looking rather small. slips across the border from Aquarius
Mars 7 Dec Neptune
The Red Planet is currently an into Pisces and by the end of the
evening object in Aquarius. On month, it can be seen moving south
1 December it lies 2° southwest of mag. past the Circlet asterism. By the end
+3.7 Lambda (h) Aquarii and shines at of December its magnitude will have
mag. 0.0. It passes 40 arcminutes south of dropped to +0.5. This is when it manages
Lambda on the evening of 4 December as to attain a maximum altitude, due south,
PETE LAWRENCE X 3
it heads towards a close encounter with of 36° (just over a third of the way up the
Neptune on 6 and 7 December. Þ Mars will lie 27 arcminutes west of Neptune sky from the horizon) as seen from the
On 6 December, mag. +0.1 Mars lies on 6 December, but the on the following night centre of the UK. This is 3.6 times higher
27 arcminutes west of mag. +7.9 Neptune. the two planets will have swapped sides than it managed at opposition!
THE PLANETS IN DECEMBER The phase and relative sizes of the planets this month. Each planet is
shown with south at the top, to show its orientation through a telescope
MERCURY
1 Dec
MERCURY
15 Dec
MERCURY
0” 10” 20” 30” 40” 50” 60”
31 Dec
ARCSECONDS
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
December The Sky Guide 57
Mercury sunrise. On 21 December, mag.
Best time to see: 21 Dec, –0.4 Mercury appears 1° above
one hour before sunrise
JUPITER’S Altitude: 6º (low)
Location: Ophiuchus
mag. –1.6 Jupiter, low in the
southeast around 07:00 UT.
By 31 December, Jupiter will
MOONS Direction: Southeast
Mercury is in a good position
be trailing mag. –4.4 Venus
as both planets climb into the
DECEMBER
Using a small scope you’ll be able to spot Jupiter’s biggest moons.
in the morning this month. A
4%-lit waning crescent Moon
sits 7.5° west of mag. +0.8
Mercury on 5 December.
morning sky.
Saturn
Best time to see: 1 Dec,
Their positions change dramatically during the month, as shown on A telescope will show an 17:00 UT
the diagram. The line by each date on the left represents 00:00 UT.
8 arcsecond, 23%-lit crescent Altitude: 5º
DATE WEST EAST on this date. Both phase and Location: Sagittarius
1 brightness increase as the Direction: Southwest
planet moves towards greatest Saturn is low on the southwest
2
eastern elongation (21°) on horizon at the start of the
3 15 December when mag. –0.2 month but soon lost in the
4
Mercury rises two hours before post-sunset glare. On the
the Sun. On 21 December mag. evening of 9 December it
5 –0.4 Mercury passes 1° from appears 5.3° west of a slender,
6 mag. –1.6 Jupiter, a situation 5%-lit waxing crescent Moon.
repeated the following
7 morning. At the end of the Uranus
8 month mag. –1.6 Mercury rises Best time to see: 1 Dec,
above the southeast horizon 23:20 UT
9 about one hour before the Sun. Altitude: 48º
10 Location: Aries
11
Venus Direction: South
Best time to see: 1 Dec, On 1 December, Uranus is in
12 07:00 UT Aries, the Ram. By 3 December,
Altitude: 20º it slips over the border into
13
Location: Virgo Pisces. The mag. +5.8 planet
14 Direction: Southeast continues moving west until, at
15 Venus rises nearly four hours the end of December, it’s 1.2°
before the Sun. There’s a lovely north of mag. +4.3 Omicron
16 meeting between mag. –4.5 (k) Piscium. Uranus passes its
17 Venus and a waning crescent highest point in the sky, due
Moon on the mornings of south, in darkness all month.
18 3 and 4 December. A telescope
19 shows a 25%-lit crescent, Neptune
40 arcsecond across on Best time to see: 1 Dec,
20
1 December. By the end of the 18:30 UT
21 month it appears 46% lit and Altitude: 30º
26 arcseconds across. Location: Aquarius
22
Direction: South
23 Jupiter On the evening of 6 December,
24 Best time to see: 31 Dec, mag. +0.1 Mars is 0.5° west of
one hour before sunrise mag. +7.9 Neptune. The
25 Altitude: 7º following evening, Mars
26 Location: Ophiuchus appears 7 arcminutes to the
Direction: Southeast east. Neptune is well placed all
27 Jupiter was in conjunction month, passing 14 arcminutes
28 with the Sun on 26 November to the south of mag. +6.2
and this month returns to 81 Aquarii. However, it only
29
the morning sky. Look for an reaches its highest position in
30 encounter with a less than the sky in darkness until 10
1%-lit waning crescent Moon December. After this, Neptune
31
on the morning of 6 December, slips ever westward, losing
1 the Moon lying 4° above Jupiter altitude each passing day as
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 around 40 minutes before darkness falls.
arcminutes
Jupiter Io Europa Ganymede Callisto
YOUR BONUS CONTENT Planetary observing forms
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
58 The Sky Guide December
MOONWATCH “There is a curious, curving
Rutherfurd N progression of craters
Type: Crater formed in different eras”
Diameter: 55km
Longitude/latitude: below that of Clavius. It appears and bumps stretching
12.2º west, 61.1º south quite rugged with small hills to northwards. The texture of the
Age: Younger than 1.1 the north and a larger more channels under high-resolution
billion years contiguous, wave-like region suggests they are made from
Best time to see: covering approximately one- closely overlaid craterlets. This
A day after first quarter (16 third of the floor area towards is particularly evident along the
Dec) and a day after last the south. channel that passes from
quarter (1 Dec and 30 Dec) Large smooth patches on Rutherfurd but is interrupted
Minimum equipment:
Rutherfurd’s floor are most by Clavius D. These features are
50mm binoculars
likely the result of lava melt extremely narrow and best seen
pools, regions where molten through large telescopes when
lava has flowed, levelled and the surface lighting is oblique.
At 55km across, Rutherfurd inclusion in what is essentially cooled. The region to the Porter is another crater that
isn’t exactly a small crater. a craterlet sequence is probably north, and more particularly interrupts Clavius’s rim, this
However, its location on the another reason why it tends to northwest, of the crater’s time to the northeast,
southeast rim of 225km Clavius be disregarded in favour of its ‘central’ peak is particularly mirroring Rutherfurd across
tends to mean it’s somewhat larger host. bumpy with many small hills. the horizontal axis of the
overlooked. Clavius is a Rutherfurd is a well-defined, These are easier to see when the elliptical-looking Clavius. In
favourite target for all sizes of young crater named after Lewis lunar terminator is nearby. reality Clavius is quite round,
telescope because it’s large, easy Rutherfurd who took the first To the south of Rutherfurd lie its elliptical appearance the
to find and full of interesting photographic images of the its allocated sub-craters; 10km result of foreshortening due to
detail. In particular there is a Moon through a telescope. The Rutherfurd A, 6km B, 13km C, its proximity to the southern
curious curving progression of crater’s sharp, crenulated, oval 9km D and 9km E. The region limb. The same effect adjusts
craterlets, formed from impacts rim has a long axis orientated to the north is interesting our view of Rutherfurd and
of different ages, starting roughly north-south. It has a because of the ejecta pattern Porter, but as the latter is nearer
at 12km Clavius J, moving 1km high ‘central’ peak offset that appears to extend north the lunar equator, it appears
onto 13km Clavius N, 21km northeast of Rutherfurd’s true towards 53km Porter. This less distorted and slightly
Clavius C and 28km Clavius D. centre. The rest of the floor has pattern takes the appearance of larger. Porter is, in fact, a tad
Rutherfurd ends the arc and its a level approximately 1km a number of shallow channels smaller than Rutherfurd.
Clavius N
Clavius J PORTER
CLAVIUS
Clavius C
Clavius D
RUTHERFURD
Rutherfurd E
Rutherfurd A
Rutherfurd B
Rutherfurd C Rutherfurd D
PETE LAWRENCE X 3
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
December The Sky Guide 59
bright, young
and variable,
Rigel is one
THE MONTH of the most
ostentatious
Betelgeuse
_
Bellatrix
a
There are two famous supergiant stars in the Rigel has a mag.
main pattern of Orion. In the northeast +6.7 companion
corner lurks orange-hued Betelgeuse (Alpha 9 arcseconds away. b
Mintaka
the end of its life. In the southwest corner is particularly faint, Alnitak c
Alnilam
d
the blue-supergiant Rigel (Beta (`) Orionis). Rigel’s brilliance m
Rigel represents Orion’s foot – the name makes its companion `
originating from the Arabic ‘rijl al-Jauza’ hard to see. Rigel B
M43
meaning ‘foot of the Central One’ (Orion was is located 2,500 e M42
known to ancient Arabic astronomers as the AU from Rigel and f
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
60 The Sky Guide December
STEPHEN TONKIN’S of the vase, (Psi1 (s1) and Psi2 (s2) Orionis) is light
BINOCULAR TOUR
blue, but the colour changes to its asymmetrically
flared orange rim (Rho (l) Orionis and HIP
24450. The background stars add to the illusion:
Can’t see a bicycle in this month’s tour? If at the base of the vase is densest, and the curve
from 14 to 18 Orionis creates a smaller
ƅUVW\RXGRQŝWVXFFHHG3KL3L3VLDJDLQ secondary spray of flowers. SEEN IT
Tick the box when you’ve seen each one stars, the brightest of which is orange CE Tau. 5 THE 37 CLUSTER
There’s an interesting optical illusion going on
1 THE MEISSA CLUSTER here: CE Tau looks as if it might be closer than 15x Take a line from Alnitak (Zeta (c) Orionis)
70 to Betelgeuse, extend it a further 8°
10x We’ll begin with an easy object to locate the rest of the cluster, but it’s actually over four northwards to the pair of brilliant white mag.
50 and identify: the northernmost point of times more distant. SEEN IT +4.4 stars, Nu (i) and Xi (j) Orionis. Go back
the triangle of bright stars at the top of Orion:
0.5° towards Betelgeuse and you will find a tiny,
Betelgeuse (Alpha (_) Orionis), Meissa (Lambda 3 ORION’S SHIELD 7 arcminute-wide rectangular cluster of stars,
(h) Ori), and Bellatrix (Gamma (a) Ori). You
10x The Pi (/) Orionis stars are usually NGC 2169, with a void in the middle. Mounted
should see at least 10 stars close to hot, blue-white 50 depicted as an animal hide or a shield. 15x70 binoculars will show you that the brighter
Meissa, from which a trio of fainter stars leads They are not usually given much more than a (8th and 9th magnitude) stars form a two-digit
south to another blueish star, Phi1 ( 1) Orionis. glance before moving on to the famous objects number. In a perfect Universe, Messier would
The same distance east of Phi1 is Phi2 ( 2) Orionis, to the south, but this does them a disservice. The have found this cluster immediately after he’d
a cooler yellow star. Between Phi2 and Meissa group spans nearly 9° of sky, overflowing the catalogued M36! SEEN IT
are two short chains of 9th magnitude stars: a field of view of most binoculars, so you will have
yellowish one and a white one. SEEN IT to scan around to see it all, but it is a colourful 6 THE HANDLE BARS
starfield, from white Pi1 (/1) Orionis, through
15x Continue our Alnitak-Betelgeuse line a
2 COLLINDER 65 to the Sun-like Tabit (Pi2) down to blue Pi5 and 70 further 2.5° to the mag. +4.9 69 Orionis.
orange Pi6. SEEN IT
10x Use the triangle of bright stars we started See how it is bracketed by two short lines of 7th
50 with as an arrowhead to point to a misty and 8th magnitude stars, around 1° to the east
patch 6.5° north-northwest of Meissa. This is 4 THE VASE and west respectively, like the handlebars of an
Cr 65, one of 471 star clusters catalogued by the 10x If you imagine that the stars of Orion’s antique bicycle, with 69 Ori as the front light? We
Swedish astronomer Per Collinder. It’s about 4° 50 Shield are a glowing spray of flowers in can extend the bicycle image further by including
across, so it fits nicely in your binocular field, a vase, the vase itself is another colourful group the little kite-shaped asterism 2.5° to the north of
enabling you to see lots of chains and groups of that will fit into a single field of view. The bottom 69 Ori as a slightly skewiff saddle. SEEN IT
c
M35 Berkeley 21 CE
r1 2
Collinder 65 /1
/2
Mebsuta d r2 Secondary
¡ + Spray
18 /3
16 Tabit
14 /4
Saddle Orion’s
i
1 ORION Shield
Collinder 69 h
GEMINI Handlebars 69 i Meissa 3
72 5 q1
6 j
NGC 2169 q2
HIP 24450 /5
a Bellatrix a
/6
Alhena
+ 23 l
_ s2 21
Betelgeuse Vase
4
t s1
j
NGC 2264 b Mintaka
d
¡
Alnilam
Collinder 70
N Alnitak
m
Collinder 106 NGC 2237 5° c
NGC 1981
M42
CANIS W Rigel
MINOR MONOCEROS E f `
`
Gomeisa
S
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
December The Sky Guide 61
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
+12º
m
m
06h50
06h40
06h30
2
+10º NGC 2264
3
Christmas Tree S Sh2-273
Cluster
V641
1
+10º
HD 47887
Cone
Nebula
16
+08º
17
MONOCEROS
2º
+08º
1º
14
13
Collinder 111
+06º
NGC 2236
4
Collinder 97
Collinder 106
+06º
NGC 2252
5 NGC 2237
Rosette 6
Nebula
¡
06h40m
06h30m
+04º
December 7KH6N\*XLGH 63
TOUR
The Cone Nebula also falls under the ASCOM-enabled Go-To
heading NGC 2264. To find it, start at mounts can now take you
the Christmas Tree Cluster. Try to spot the to this month’s targets at the
reflection nebulosity surrounding S Monocerotis touch of a button, with our
and the small group of stars 8 arcminutes to Deep-Sky Tour file for the
the southwest. If you can’t, chances are you’ll EQTOUR app. Find it online.
This month’s star tour not be able to see the Cone. It’s a dark nebula
formed by an intervening dust cloud blocking
starts off with a suitably light from a brighter nebula beyond. Its shape 3.8° south and 1° west of S Monocerotis.
seasonal theme mirrors the Christmas tree, the cone and the Here you’ll find Collinder 106, a mag. +4.6
tree being aligned tip-to-tip. The most obvious open cluster. This is a large and sparsely
Tick the box when you’ve seen each one part of the Cone Nebula is where the populated object. It has an apparent size
background nebulosity is brightest, just south measuring 45 arcminutes across and
of HD 47887. A UHC filter will really help if consequently benefits from the use of a low
1 NGC 2264 PART 1: you have one. SEEN IT power, wide-field eyepiece. There are around
THE CHRISTMAS TREE 20-25 stars visible here mostly of 6th or 7th
magnitude. Although quite a poor example
CLUSTER 3 6+ƨ 7+( )2; of an open cluster, it does have the virtue
At mag. +6.5, NGC 457 isn’t )85 1(%8/$ of providing a good comparison with our
a tricky object. The official The Fox Fur Nebula is often grouped penultimate target, which can be found 1.7°
IAU designation NGC 2264 confusingly into the confused label NGC 2264 to the southwest of Collinder 106. SEEN IT
covers two objects – the Christmas Tree although it is uniquely designated as Sh2-273.
Cluster and the Cone Nebula. For our first
target we’ll look at the easier-to-see cluster.
Bearing a remarkable resemblance to a fox 5 NGC 2244
stole in long exposure photos, its nose is NGC 2244 is the open cluster at
The key here is to locate the multiple and located roughly between S Monocerotis and
variable star S Monocerotis, also known as the heart of the Rosette Nebula.
variable star V641 Monocerotis to the For many, this cluster is the only part of the
15 Monocerotis. The star’s variability range is southwest. The fur stole then sweeps in a
small, its brightness barely wavering between Rosette they get to see! Its half dozen brightest
broad arc around to the northwest for about stars look like a wobbly version of the dots on
mag. +4.6 and mag. +4.7. It marks the trunk 0.5°. This is part of a much larger and fainter
of a Christmas tree-shaped cluster of stars. the six face of a die. The brightest star, 12
region of glowing hydrogen gas. A nebula or Monocerotis in the southeast corner, is a
Mag. +7.2 HD 47887, located 26 arcminutes UHC filter is recommended for viewing the Fox
to the south, marks the top of the tree. The foreground object and doesn’t belong to the
Fur Nebula visually. SEEN IT more distant cluster. The star in the six dots’
upside down tree shape is surprisingly easy
to pick out with a small telescope using a low southwest corner is HD 46223. This is a true
power, wide-field eyepiece. We’d recommend 4 COLLINDER 106 cluster member estimated to be 400,000 times
We take a break from confusion brighter than the Sun and 50 times as massive.
making sure you’ve identified it correctly
for our next target by heading HD 46150 – the middle-west dot – is even
before moving on to target two. SEEN IT
more impressive at 450,000 times brighter
than the Sun and 60 times more massive.
NCG 2244 is about 18 lightyears across and
5,200 lightyears distant. SEEN IT
< NGC 2264 looks like an upside
down Christmas tree, with
bright star S Monocerotis 6 1*&
at the bottom of its $1' ƥ 7+(
trunk rather than
on its top
ROSETTE NEBULA
While our first target had one
designation for multiple objects,
our last reverses the trend by having multiple
designations for one object. The Rosette
Nebula is a large, circular patch of nebulosity
surrounding the open cluster NCG 2244. It’s
seen as several nebulous patches designated
as NGC 2237, 2238, 2239 and 2246. The
nebula is being excited by the hot young stars
CHART: PETE LAWRENCE, PHOTO: MICHAEL DEGER/CCDGUIDE.COM
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
64 The Sky Guide December
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY
Þ If you’re tracking a comet to keep it in focus, you may run into the problem of stars trailing region, which lies close to the nucleus,
using a planetary imaging camera. With
in Taurus mid-month, then NGC 1499, above mag. 4.0 could be on the cards and December skies in the UK is something
the California Nebula, before heading for if this does occur it begs the question as to get excited about.
a close encounter with Capella (Alpha (_) to whether it’ll be bright enough for less
Aurigae) on 23/24 December. conventional imaging techniques. One
Send your images to:
All but the Capella encounter have interesting opportunity would be the
hotshots@skyatnightmagazine.com
a reasonable distance between their possibility of recording the central coma
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
December The Sky Guide 65
STEP BY STEP
50mm (APS-C)
18 Dec
Pleiades
17 Dec
16 Dec
15 Dec
Hyades
14 Dec
13 Dec
STEP 1 STEP 2
Wide-field images can be taken with a tracking or non-tracking mount. For the comet’s Pleiades and Hyades encounter a lens shorter than
For non-tracking, you need a medium-high ISO and a wide lens (stop 50mm will comfortably fit all three in shot. For just the Pleiades and
down slightly if edge distortion occurs). Set exposure according to the comet, 120mm or shorter is ideal. For the close pass of the California
‘500 rule’; divide 500 by the focal length of the lens you’re using to get Nebula, try 60mm or shorter. The pass of Capella is close enough for
the maximum exposure possible before trailing becomes evident. a telescope with a focal length less than 1,000mm to be used.
STEP 3 STEP 4
Close-ups on the head of the comet will show any structure present. A If there’s no motion blur on the comet, repeat Step 3 adding 10” each
DSLR attached to a telescope is ideal. For equatorially driven telescopes, time. Once you have an optimal exposure setting, take numerous
a time limit will apply before the relative motion of the comet blurs the sequential images. Stack these using the comet as a reference (stars
image. Set your camera to a medium-high ISO and try a 30” exposure. will trail). Software such as DeepSkyStacker and PixInsight have
Call up the result and examine it on the camera’s review screen. routines to assist in combining stacked stars with a stacked comet.
STEP 5 STEP 6
If you collect many images of the comet over an extended period, If the comet is relatively bright, it may be possible to use a planetary
software such as PIPP (sites.google.com/site/astropipp) can be used to imaging setup to take sequential images of its core region using a
combine them into an animated sequence. The resulting movie will high-frame-rate planetary camera. Captured images can be stacked in
reveal how fast the comet appears to be moving against the background software such as AutoStakkert! (www.autostakkert.com). This techniques
stars. Any faint detail in its head or tail will also stand out well. is good for revealing faint dust jets close to the comet’s pseudo-nucleus.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE
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Includes:
Solar System Exploration in 2018 Peter Rea
100 Years of the International Astronomical Union
Susan Stubbs
Science Fiction and the Future of Astronomy
Mike Brotherton
In Total Support of Einstein: Eddington’s Eclipse, 1919
Neil Haggath
Part 8: Mars
In this month’s instalment of our guide to giving your astrophotos
PETE LAWRENCE
VFLHQWLƅF YDOXH ZH WXUQ WR WKH 5HG 3ODQHW )LQG RXW KRZ WR FUHDWH
IXOOFRORXULPDJHVDQGFDSWXUHFORXGVURFN\IHDWXUHVDQGSRODUFDSV
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
70
M
ars is an enigmatic planet. important too. Oppositions close to perihelion tend Þ A full-colour Mars and
As a rocky body with a thin to occur in a low part of the ecliptic. As far as the UK the filtered images from
atmosphere, it presents subtly is concerned, this is problematic because of Mars’s which it was built. Each
filter reveals a different
changing surface features, low altitude. A factor in the planet’s favour is its
aspect of the planet
weather and seasonal variations reddish colour. Longer (red) wavelengths tend to be
through amateur telescopes. The more resilient to seeing issues and this can help give
seasonal variations include changes to the shape a decent view of Mars, even when it’s at low altitude.
of the polar caps and dust storms, which can
sometimes expand to obscure virtually the entire
planet, as happened earlier this year. ABOUT THE WRITER
Sky at Night presenter
Oppositions occur every 2.1 years and it’s only in
Pete Lawrence is an
the months surrounding opposition that Mars shows astrophotographer with
significant disc size. Large apertures with long a particular interest in
natural focal lengths can extend the observing digital imaging
period but the position of Mars in the sky is
X AutoStakkert! (freeware, www.autostakkert.com) are contributed promptly. Waiting till the end of an apparition is not a good
X Image editor, eg, GIMP (freeware, www.gimp.org) or idea: you may miss the chance of making a great discovery!”
Photoshop (commercial, www.adobe.com/uk/products/ Dr Richard McKim, British Astronomical Association
photoshop.html)
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
IMAGING FOR SCIENCE DECEMBER 71
Imaging
BASICS
A low gain and a high frame rate will help you get ‘lucky’ when imaging Mars
Mars is best imaged using a high-frame-rate camera. The difference in the apparent
Around opposition its magnitude is sufficient to size of Mars when it’s at its most
favourable opposition and when
allow imaging at low gain and high frame rates,
at its most distant from Earth
optimal settings for the technique of ‘lucky imaging’.
Under typical seeing conditions, the recommended
imaging resolution is 0.25 arcseconds per pixel. This
can be extended to, say, 0.1 arcseconds per pixel
under exceptional seeing. The optimal focal length
for this can be derived using the formula:
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
72
Using
FILTERS
Imaging Mars in blue or infrared can reveal different aspects of the planet
You can image Mars through ilters to RGB imaging ilter can be used to create deinition between the dark, exposed rock
isolate speciic aspects of its appearance. full-colour images. Blue-iltered images features, lighter deserts and polar caps.
What kind of camera you’re using will are useful for showing clouds in the thin Depending on the sensor response curve,
dictate which ilters work best. For Martian atmosphere. Infrared pass ilters either monochrome or colour cameras may
example, a monochrome camera with an also work well with Mars, producing crisp be suitable for use with infrared pass ilters.
Step 2 Step 3
A typical full capture sequence should be Use a registration-stacking application such
completed in less than four minutes. Blue as AutoStakkert! to process each capture file.
Step 6
The final image
should be presented
according to the
requirements of
the organisation to
ALL PICTURES: PETE LAWRENCE
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
IMAGING FOR SCIENCE DECEMBER 73
Step 5 Step 6
To create a map from several .IMS files, select
Analysis Map Computation… Click the Edit Select the projection type required – the
Step 4 button and add the .IMS files to be used.
Define where the output file should go in the
process is quick enough for experimentation
– and press the Compile Map button (F12).
Save as an .IMS (image settings) file via WinJUPOS will automatically join .IMS files
Map file input box.
the Imag. tab’s Save button. Repeat for all taken at different dates to provide a more
capture images. It is recommended that complete picture. S
once the outline frame has been set, leave
it unadjusted for all similar images from the
same session.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
Dark sky
SPAIN
Clear skies, great views of the southerly
constellations and some well-organised
astro tourism all make Spain a go-to dark
sky destination, writes Jamie Carter
Perseid meteors
streaking above the
Albanyà Astronomical
Observatory in Catalonia
DARK SKY SPAIN DECEMBER 75
W
hen it comes to stargazing Sagittarius in the summer. Not only does Sagittarius
and astronomy, there contain the Galactic core, but it’s also home to some
are few more tempting fabulous deep-sky objects including the Lagoon
locations in Europe than Nebula (M8), Omega Nebula (M17) and the Trifid
Spain, where astro tourism Nebula (M20), to name but a few.
is taking off in a big way. Most of the places featured here are in protected
Although a big part of Spain’s attractiveness to areas that boast natural darkness, some of them
amateur astronomers is the better chance of clear certified as Starlight Reserves, Starlight Tourism
skies than in northern Europe, there’s another Destinations and Starlight Hotels by the Starlight
reason to do astronomy here that doesn’t get talked Foundation (fundacionstarlight.org).
about as much as it should, and that’s latitude. Up With clearer views of some of the night sky’s
near the border with France, locations like Albanyà most beautiful objects, plenty of rural areas free
and Parc Astronòmic Montsec are at around 41°N, from light pollution and an ever-increasing,
while Malaga in the south lies below 37°N. That puts well-organised network of Starlight Reserves and
the equatorial constellations much higher in the stargazing-friendly accommodation, Spain is worth
sky than in northern Europe year round, notably an entry on every stargazer’s bucket list.
If you’re in Andalucía to see the to the Observatorio Andaluz de night-sky-friendly lighting and holds
Alhambra in Granada or the Astronomía at La Pedriza, which runs regular stargazing weekends, the
Mezquita in Cordoba, consider occasional night-sky observation next one being a three-hour, New
driving for an hour to the fringes events and workshops. For a more Year’s Eve stargazing and tapas
of the Sierra Sur de Jaén Starlight organised astro tourism experience, event, hosted by local astro tourism
Reserve. A sparsely-populated head to Casa Olea Starlight Hotel. company AstroAndalus (www.
rural area, it boasts over 300 This six-room boutique B&B on the astroandalus.com).
clear nights a year and is home fringes of Sierra Sur de Jaén has More info: www.casaolea.com >
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
76
e-EyE, Extremadura
About 140km north-west of Seville in visitors can enjoy by renting a section in
Extremadura near the Portuguese border a state-of-the-art observatory shed. Each
is e-EyE, a comprehensive astro tourism section has an independent roof, fibre
complex ideal for amateur astronomers optic internet access and Wi-Fi, and
after clear-sky observations. there’s a team of technicians on hand.
e-EyE stands for Entre Encinas y You can even leave your own telescope
Estrellas, which translates as ‘between here and control it remotely from
At e-EyE you can oaks and stars’. Certified a Starlight anywhere in the world. Events are held
rent space in a state-of- Reserve in 2016 and with a typical sky around meteor showers and the complex
the-art observatory shed quality meter reading of 21.5 to 22, also organises star parties.
e-EyE has 250 clear nights a year, which More info: www.entreencinasyestrellas.es
Bosque, Andalucía
Fancy a few nights’ guided group observation and
astrophotography tuition in rural Spain? Twice a year
Dark Sky Wales organises a residential trip based in
El Bosque, including three nights’ access to a veritable
toy box of telescopes. Allan Trow and Martin Griffiths
from Dark Sky Wales host along with Andy Burns from
Wiltshire Astronomical Society. The star attraction is
a domed 6-inch iStar refractor, though there’s also
the chance to use Dobsonians, Tele Vue refractors,
astrographs and Sky-Watcher EQ6 and EQ8 mounts.
The trip includes wide-field imaging in the surrounding
Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park, notably from the
Puerto del Boyar mountain pass.
More info: darkskywalestrainingservices.co.uk
While the Iberian peninsula has much to offer stargazers, some areas are more suited than others
Although the southerly latitudes and clear northwest Spain. The regions of Galicia, natural barrier against clouds and light
skies of much of Spain make it an attractive Cantabria and the Basque Country in the pollution from cities. The rest of Spain has
location for amateur astronomers, don’t north of the country are subject to an Atlantic a Mediterranean climate and enjoys many
assume that the entire country is ripe for weather system that is not kind to stargazers. nights of clear skies throughout the year.
stargazing – it definitely is not. From a In the northeast, the Pyrenees mountains Summers and winters are dry, with most of
weather perspective it’s best to avoid that divide France and Spain act as a the rain falling during autumn and spring.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
DARK SKY SPAIN DECEMBER 77
Iberian eclipses
Although a few years away yet, it’s worth knowing
that on 12 August 2026, Spain will experience the
first total solar eclipse in Europe since 1999. Less
than a year later, it will witness another total solar
eclipse on 2 August 2027, and remarkably, an
annular solar eclipse on 26 January 2028.
Albanyà,
Catalonia
Here’s a great location for a summer astro camp. About
85km north of Girona in Catalonia (and not 30 minutes
from the beaches of Costa Brava) in the north-east
corner of Spain near the French border is the rural
village of Albanyà with the Albanyà Astronomical
Observatory nearby. It became the first International
Dark Sky Park in Spain in 2017, though a campsite
adjacent to the observatory, Bassegoda Park (which
also has bungalow accommodation), is itself a Starlight
Reserve. The observatory welcomes visitors and holds
regular stargazing sessions, while its resident
astrophotographer Juan Carlos Casado hosts frequent
tutorials. However, its astronomers also collaborate on
serious research into asteroids and exoplanets. The
observatory is closed in January and most of February.
More info: www.observatorialbanya.com
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
78 DARK SKY SPAIN DECEMBER
Teleférico Benalmádena,
Málaga, Andalucía
Just as Albanyà is an easy astro excursion during a
family holiday on the Costa Brava, Mount Calamorro is
a must-visit destination for stargazers if you happen to
be staying on the Costa del Sol, and the Teleférico
Benalmádena cable car offers a fantastic way of
getting there. Amateur astronomers from the Málaga
Society of Astronomy set up telescopes on the peak of
Mount Calamorro, just south of Torremolinos, from
10pm every night each year during July and August.
The view from on high overlooks the Mediterranean.
Special events are also held, most notably for the
Perseid meteor shower, which in 2019 peaks on the
night of 12 August and the early morning of 13 August.
More info: www.telefericobenalmadena.com S
Bilbao
Santiago de
Compostela 4
5
Valladolid
Zaragoza
Barcelona
Salamanca
Madrid
Valencia
Albacete
Badajoz
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
80
SKILLS
SKILLS
80 The Guide
82 How to
84 Image Processing
87 Scope Doctor
Brush up on your astronomy prowess with our team of experts
W
ith a telescope and concentrates that light at the focal point
a suitable mount, inside the scope. You can buy telescopes Choosing what you need
the single that make claims for high magnification or To calculate the magnification an eyepiece
accessory that zoom functions, but these are gimmicks will achieve with any given telescope,
will do the most that, for the most part, you can ignore. simply divide the focal length of the
to enhance your It’s the eyepiece that takes the gathered telescope (usually written on the scope’s
observing experience – no matter what size light and turns it into the sharp image that body near the focuser or the front lens)
ISTOCK, ILLUSTRATIONS BY PAUKL WOOTTON, STEVE MARSH X 3
of telescope you’re using – is a good quality reaches your retina. It’s the eyepiece that by the focal length of the eyepiece (found
eyepiece. After all, it’s the eyepiece and controls how large (how magnified) that on its collar).
not the telescope that actually produces image appears. And it’s the eyepiece that Another important factor in choosing
the magnified image. determines the field of view (FOV) – how eyepieces is eye relief, or how far away
A telescope’s job is to gather light; as big a swathe of the sky you’re able to see. from the eyepiece’s lens your eye needs
much light as possible in order to make So, what you need is a selection of to be to see the entire the field of view.
distant, faint objects look brighter. They eyepieces to match each of your different It’s a matter of viewing comfort and for
do this with an objective lens (in a observing objectives. anyone wearing glasses, a long eye relief
refractor) or an objective mirror (in a All eyepiece barrel sizes are standardised is preferable.
reflector) and the aperture of the objective to either 1.25-inch or 2-inch. There is no Of all the different types of eyepieces
is the key – the wider it is, the more light inherent advantage in one over the other; available, the Plössl eyepiece is perhaps the
the scope can gather. The objective then the difference is only to accommodate the most common, usually with an FOV of
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
SKILLS THE GUIDE DECEMBER 81
Field of vision
…Leaving
a smaller
image on
Objects far away our retinas
fill less of our field
of vision…
Þ A basic understanding of how the human eye works helps explain the function of eyepieces
view
Field of view (FOV) is how much
of the sky you can see when
using an eyepiece. It is measured
in degrees – the higher the
number, the wider the field of
view. These views of the Moon
show the FOV of three different
eyepieces used with the same
scope. The FOV is given in
25mm eyepiece 10mm eyepiece 10mm eyepiece and 2x Barlow
degrees (°) and arcminutes (’)
with a 650mm telescope with a 650mm telescope with a 650mm telescope
above each view.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
82
SKILLS
With
Paul Abel
How to…
Record the Geminid meteor shower
Graduate from casual shooting star observer to meteor-spotting citizen scientist
TOOLS AND
MATERIALS
D
ecember’s cold and frosty 3200 Phaethon has a rather eccentric orbit; X Warm clothing! The Geminids are
nights mark the arrival of the furthest it ever gets from the Sun is a in December and so it will be cold
the year’s richest meteor distance of 2.4 AU (aphelion) but its closest X A deckchair or sunlounger so you
showers: the Geminids. distance (perihelion) is just 0.1AU – closer can comfortably sit back and look up
The shower runs from to the Sun than the planet Mercury. 3200 at the sky
8-17 December with peak Phaethon has the distinction of being the X An accurate clock to record the
activity occurring on the morning of only asteroid in the Solar System to get this times of observations
14 December. This year the Moon sets close to the Sun! X Food and a hot drink that will keep
PETE LAWRENCE, PAUL ABEL X 2, ISTOCK, JON HICKS
before 21:30 UT so the display won’t be While it’s in the inner Solar System, heat you going in the cold early hours
drowned in lunar glare. Here, we’re going from the Sun causes particles to escape
to look at why these observations are from the surface of Phaethon and fly away
useful to researchers and how best to into space. Eventually, these particles the radiant and the location of the radiant
observe the Geminids and record them. collide with Earth; they burn up as they hit gives the name of the shower. The radiant
All meteor showers are produced by the atmosphere, causing a glowing trail, or for meteors in the constellation of Gemini
either a comet or an asteroid that we call what we call a meteor or ‘shooting star’. gives the shower its name: the Geminids.
the parental body. The Geminids are Since Earth is colliding with a cloud of Meteor showers are a good opportunity
caused by 3200 Phaethon, an Apollo-type particles, the meteors appear to us to come for astronomers to study their parental
asteroid that orbits the Sun every 1.4 years. from one direction in the sky; this is called bodies, so amateur observations are
SKILLS HOW TO DECEMBER 83
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
84
SKILLS
Image With
Stuart McIntyre
Þ A panoramic view of the Three Sisters peaks in the county of Argyll, taken using multiple frames stitched together in PTGui
M
ost people think of the panorama using the mid-tone images, Open PTGui and load in your mid-tone
astrophotography then PTGui ‘records’ how it’s achieved the files using the Load Images button – the
in terms of zooming stitching together so that it can do exactly interface walks you through the process.
in on tiny stars or the same to the ‘real’ photos. To the software stars all look pretty much
galaxies. But I want Export these mid-tone versions of the the same, so it’s unlikely that PTGui’s
to capture it all… images with their meta data included so automated stitching will be able to generate
literally. That’s why I create multi-pane that PTGui can read the focal length used. the final image without some help from you.
panoramas. In this article we look at how
to piece together those panes.
Once you’ve captured your images (see
page 38) you need to merge them with as
few errors and aberrations as possible. One
of the most reliable pieces of software to
do this is PTGui, which we’ll be using here.
First open your images in your preferred
image editing software so that you can
alter all the tones in every photograph to
mid-range. Edit one photograph and then
ALL PICTURES: STUART MCINTYRE
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
SKILLS IMAGE PROCESSING DECEMBER 85
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
N RE
ew y
H
3. pie
4m c
e
m e
pess
• We buy & sell used telescop
Observing
Scope
My new telescope is a Celestron CGX. Is
With it possible to download the magazine’s
Steve Deep Sky Tour and import into my mount?
Richards
GRAEME DURDEN
DOCTOR
Our equipment specialist cures your
We produce an
EQTOUR format
data file each
month to
accompany the
printed Deep Sky
optical ailments and technical maladies Tour (see page 5
for details).
Unfortunately,
A 15mm Plössl (left) or 9mm this data cannot
Þ EQTOUR being used with
orthoscopic eyepiece will help an planetarium software Carte Du Ciel be imported
8-inch Dobsonian peer into deep space directly into your
Celestron CGX mount or indeed any other. However,
both EQTOUR and your mount are ASCOM
compatible. This means that you can control your
mount using any ASCOM-compatible planetarium
software like the free Cartes du Ciel and Stellarium,
or paid-for programs like TheSky and Starry Night,
and run EQTOUR at the same time.
Controlling your Celestron CGX mount using a
laptop PC and a planetarium program is a fantastic
way of locating objects to observe or image. As a
bonus, you can then select each of the objects in
that month’s tour using EQTOUR and instruct the
planetarium software to slew the mount to point at
I have an 8-inch Dobsonian. What each object automatically.
H\HSLHFHV DQG ƅOWHUV ZRXOG \RX You can connect your mount to a PC using a mini
USB cable from the PC to the USB socket on the
recommend for viewing nebulae and hand-controller.
star clusters? (I have a K25mm, K12mm
and 7.5mm Plössl.)
PETER LEWIS
STEVE’S TOP TIP
Your telescope has a nominal Plössl eyepiece would be good :KDW LV D EDIƆH"
ximum
focal length of 1,000mm giving it additions to your current line-up. Astronomers strive to obtain the ma
pieces will
a relatively fast focal ratio of f/5, For lunar, planetary and double contrast that their telescope and eye
better against
meaning it gathers a good deal of light. star observations, high magnification allow so that dim objects stand out
contrast but so
Of the three eyepieces you mention and reasonable eye relief (to make the night sky. Light pollution spoils
inside the
you have in your collection, the K25mm viewing as comfortable as possible) are too does stray light bouncing around
and K12mm have the simple three- prerequisites. An orthoscopic design telescope tube.
ny telescope
element design of a Kellner eyepiece is an excellent choice in this regard, Baffles are frequently built into ma
from reaching
which has a relatively narrow apparent giving slightly better eye relief than a designs to stop this unwanted light
ks. A baffle
field of view, although this may not be Plössl with high contrast views. 4mm the eyepiece by stopping it in its trac
minium that is
an issue for you when making lunar and 9mm versions would be a good is a ring made of thin plastic or alu
l tube and is
and planetary observations. However, match for your telescope. attached to the inside of the optica
her absorb
Kellners work best in telescopes with a A filter would also be a worthwhile painted in a black matt finish to furt
re to be
focal ratio of f/6 to f/8 or greater. purchase. They screw into the internal unwanted light. It is common for the
Plössl eyepieces are excellent for threads within the barrel of your several such baffles within the tube.
ISTOCK, STEVE RICHARDS
general use although their eye relief eyepieces and help enhance the contrast
will diminish as the eyepiece’s focal of nebulae against the background.
length reduces. This design is most Popular choices are Ultra High
suitable for observing nebulae and Contrast (UHC) and OIII filters from STEVE RICHARDS is a keen astro imager
star clusters. A 15mm and 25mm Lumicon, Astronomik or Baader. and an astronomy equipment expert
HOW WE RATE
Reviews
Each product we review is rated
IRU SHUIRUPDQFH LQ ƅYH FDWHJRULHV
Here’s what the ratings mean:
+++++ Outstanding
+++++ Very good
+++++ Good
Bringing you the best in equipment and accessories +++++ Average
each month, as reviewed by our team of astro experts +++++ Poor/Avoid
90
If you’re planning
on replacing your
beginner’s binoculars
we have six suggestions
that’ll increase your
observing power at
a very reasonable cost
SEE INTERACTIVE
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90
best
Light but with apertures ample
enough to observe many faint
REMHFWV WKHVH DOO RIIHU D VLJQLƅFDQW
quality hike over budget offerings
Opticron Imagic
Helios Stellar II TGA WP
Price £159 • Weight 1,190g Extras • Wide, neoprene neck strap;
tethered objective caps and rain-guard; robust, lightly padded Price £179 • Weight 935g • Extras Wide, nylon neck strap;
fabric case • Supplier Optical Vision Ltd • Tel 01359 244200 tethered objective caps and rain-guard; semi-rigid vinyl case
www.opticalvision.co.uk Supplier Opticron UK • Tel 01528 726522 • www.opticron.co.uk
The Helios Stellar II binoculars are the only ones in this test that The Opticron TGA binoculars are more than 100g lighter than
have individual eyepiece focusing. This is the preferred option for any of the other Porro prism binoculars in this test group, but
astronomy, meaning you can set the focus and then leave it alone. this doesn’t come at the expense of ruggedness. Not only are they
These are also the heaviest pair, which means that they are the covered in a substantial rubber armour, but they come with a
most likely to tire your arms, although we did find that their mass semi-rigid case that offers excellent protection against the rigours
also helps to reduce shake. of regular, varied use.
We were impressed with the brightness and excellent colour Their field of view is on the narrow side at 5.3°, but this is
rendition of the image, which is sharp over the central 80 per cent compensated for by extremely good colour correction and colour
of the 6.5° field of view. This makes them ideal for scanning the sky. rendition. Star colours were vibrant in the eyepieces. Images were
They have several useful features, including tethered lens caps bright and stars were tack-sharp across the middle 75 per cent of
for the objective lenses and the eyepieces. By having these caps the field of view. We thoroughly enjoyed scanning colourful star-
attached to the binoculars, they won’t get lost and you’re probably fields with these.
more likely to use them, too. They are covered in a substantial, They are very well-balanced, which makes them feel even lighter
ribbed rubber armour that offers protection against everyday than they actually are. This means you can use them for long
knocks, and gives a secure grip even when the binoculars are periods before aches and strains set in. The ribbing on the prism
damp from dew. housing gives a very secure grip, even if they are damp with dew.
VERDICT VERDICT
If you want 10x50s specifically for astronomy, these would be A very versatile, lightweight all-rounder, which is also useful
a very good choice for astronomy
FOR Bright images, good colour rendition, wide field FOR Excellent colour rendition; lightest Porro on test
AGAINST Relatively heavy AGAINST Relatively narrow field of view
OVERALL SCORE +++++ OVERALL SCORE +++++
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
SIX OF THE BEST DECEMBER 91
Nikon Action EX
Price £179 • Weight 1,069g • Extras Wide, nylon strap with soft anti-slip neck patch; tethered rain-guard, tetherable objective caps;
lightly padded fabric case • Supplier Wex • Tel 01603 486413 • www.wexphotovideo.com
From the moment you take these binoculars out of their lightly the right eyepiece dioptre make adjustments easy, even when
padded case, they ooze quality. They have a robust feel in the you’re wearing thick gloves. The rubber armour stops them from
hand and everything – hinge, focusing, twist-up eye-cups becoming slippery when wet with dew.
– works smoothly with just the right amount of stiffness to
prevent accidental readjustment. The eyepiece rain-guard is
tethered, and the objective caps can be secured to the binoculars’
strap to prevent you mislaying them.
They are just as impressive under the stars, which
snap to focus anywhere in the central 85 per cent
of its 6.5° field of view, giving a bright, crisp, high-
contrast image. Colour rendition and control of
false colour are both very good. There is just enough
eye relief for spectacle-wearers to be able to see the
entire field of view. They are well-balanced and hence
relatively easy to hold steady, and the chunky lugs on
VERDICT
Very capable general-purpose binoculars that are good for both
day and night-time use
FOR Bright, good colour; wide flat field
AGAINST Heaviest centre-focus binocular
OVERALL SCORE +++++
9RUWH[ &URVVƅUH
Price £179 • Weight 924g • Extras Wide, padded neck strap; tethered objective caps and rain-guard; lightly-padded fabric case
Supplier First Light Optics • Tel 01392 791000 • www.firstlightoptics.com
The Vortex Crossfire is a good example of how modern that, the only other niggle is the high minimum interpupillary
manufacturing processes have narrowed the gap in optical quality distance (IPD: 60.5mm), which is an inevitable feature of the roof
between Porro and roof prism binoculars of similar prices. The prism design used for 50mm aperture.
6.1° field of view is on a par with the Porros and flat enough
that we could keep Albireo split into two components over the
central 90 per cent. Colour rendition was excellent; not only do
the deeply coloured stars seem vibrant, but the subtle differences
between similarly coloured ones are easily visible as well.
The focus is smooth and precise and the short-hinge
design leaves more room for your fingers, making
these binoculars very comfortable to hold. There is
enough eye-relief to allow you to observe while wearing
spectacles. The objective lens caps are tethered to the
screw in the adaptor bush in the hinge, so they become
untethered if you mount the binoculars. Apart from
VERDICT
If you want a compact but capable and versatile 10x50, this could
be ideal for you
FOR Bright, sharp views, superb colour; lifetime guarantee
AGAINST Large minimum IPD
OVERALL SCORE +++++
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
92 SIX OF THE BEST DECEMBER
Celestron Outland X
Price £129 • Weight 790g • Extras Narrow, nylon neck strap; tethered objective caps and rain guard; lightly padded fabric case
Supplier David Hinds Ltd • Tel 01525 852696 • www.celestron.uk.com
Weighing just shy of 800g, these are easily the lightest binoculars ‘fully multi-coated’. In common with most 50mm roof prism
on test. We found them very comfortable to handle and enjoyed binoculars, the minimum interpupillary distance is limited by
the sharp on-axis views they gave. Colour correction was quite the design and is relatively large at 61mm.
good, as was the colour rendition – it was easy to distinguish
the orange of Herschel’s Garnet Star (Mu (+) Cephei) from the
brilliant white of Alderamin (Alpha (_) Cephei) and the yellow of
Zeta (c) Cephei.
The eye relief is a very short 10mm, and some of this is taken up
by the recess of the eye lens. Consequently, we were unable
to see the entire field of view when we tried observing
while wearing spectacles.
They are specified as being ‘multi-coated’ and,
although the anti-reflective coatings on the lenses were
effective, the image was noticeably dimmer than with the
other binoculars in this test, all of which were specified as
VERDICT
Okay if you want some lightweight, general-purpose binoculars for
occasional astronomical use
FOR Good colour rendition, lightweight
AGAINST Inadequate eye relief, large minimum IPD
OVERALL SCORE +++++
Pentax SP WP
Price £159 • Weight 1,060g • Extras Wide nylon strap with soft neck patch, untethered caps and rain-guard, lightly padded, strapless
fabric case • Supplier 365Astronomy • Tel 02033 845187 • www.365astronomy.com
The Pentax SP series of Porro prism binoculars is characterised on the lunar limb towards the edge of the field. The minimum
by an unusual focusing mechanism. Gone is the familiar eyepiece interpupillary distance of 52mm makes these binoculars suitable
bridge, because all the workings are internal, aiding with for people with small faces or close-set eyes.
waterproofing. It also allows them to incorporate an enormously
useful feature: focus locking. This is achieved by sliding the
centre-focus band along its spindle. Another helpful design
feature is the inclusion of large lugs on the right eyepiece dioptre,
which make it easy to adjust even with thick gloves.
The first thing you notice about the image these
binoculars produce is how much of it is very sharp: the
two components of Albireo only merged in the outside
10 per cent of the field of view. However, this field of
view is only 5°, the narrowest of all the binoculars we
tested. Colour rendition is faithful, and on-axis chromatic
aberration is very well controlled; false colour only appeared
VERDICT
Optically and mechanically very good, these binoculars will suit a
wide range of people
FOR Sharp image, locking focus
AGAINST Narrow FOV; ill-fitting, untethered lens caps
OVERALL SCORE +++++
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
SP IT
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EC I O
IA N
COMING SOON
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94
Celestron 114LCM
computerised telescope
WORDS: PAUL MONEY
W
ith modern optics and has a database of 4,000 objects from the main
VITAL STATS computerisation, today’s deep-sky databases (Messier, NGC and Caldwell).
starter telescopes are a Also included are the Solar System, variable stars
• Price £349 far cry from the scopes and double stars. Power is provided by eight AA
• Optics 114mm many of us began our batteries that sit in a built-in compartment.
Newtonian telescope
astronomy adventures aAlternatively you can use a power tank providing
• Focal length 1,000mm,
with. Celestron’s 114LCM Computerised Telescope, 12V 750mA.
f/9
• Mount Motorised
for example, combines reasonable optics with a
altazimuth computerised mount to give beginners Ducks and dumbbells
• Tracking rates a tantalising taste of what there is to SKY SAYS… The 114LCM has five alignment
Sidereal, solar see in the cosmos. modes. We tested them all and in each
and lunar The 114LCM consists of an optical
A reasonable case achieved the best alignment and
• Hand controller tube with a 4.5-inch mirror and a focal viewing and tracking using Celestron’s bespoke
NexStar computerised length of 1,000mm giving a focal ratio imaging platform SkyAlign system. Solar System Align
hand controller with
of f/9. It has a basic rack and pinion for beginners is also useful for daytime alignment,
4,000-object database
focuser that takes 1.25-inch eyepieces: especially if the Moon is up. Using the
• Power 8xAA batteries
or 12V DC 750 mA 25mm and 9mm eyepieces are provided giving 25mm eyepiece we checked the quality of the field
• Extras StarPointer red magnifications of 40x and 111x. A built-in of view by targeting Altair (Alpha (_) Aquilae). The
dot finder, 25mm and StarPointer red dot finder helps to aim the star was pin sharp across 75 per cent of the view
9mm 1.25-inch fit telescope, especially during the alignment phase. with a little coma towards the field edge. The view
eyepieces The tube is attached to the motorised base via a through the 25mm eyepiece is big enough to fit in
• Weight 5kg (OTA 2kg) Vixen-style mounting bar that connects to the all of the Moon and more – we estimate it has a
• Supplier David Hinds aluminium tripod using a bolt on the underside. It’s field of view of just over 1.25°.
Ltd quick and straightforward to assemble as there are Using the Sky Tour option we explored a wide
• Tel 01525 852696
just three main sections: tube, base and tripod. The range of targets. M11, the Wild Duck Cluster, was >
• www.celestron.uk.com
114LCM comes with a NexStar hand controller that
high when the tripod legs are at their shortest and only 122cm high
at their longest. With the telescope aligned vertically, the eyepiece
is just 4cm higher at both points so even objects at the enith are
easily accessible. The fully extended height puts the eyepiece in a
comfortable position for adults. The tube on its own is only 2kg – two
bags of sugar – making it easy to lift onto the motorised base. We
could lift the whole fully assembled system up and quickly take it
outside for a quick look at the stars, which makes this a good grab-
and-go computerised system that can be run on batteries.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
FIRST LIGHT DECEMBER 95
Optics
The LCM114 has a 4.5-inch primary mirror with a
focal length of 1,000mm, which gives you a focal
ratio of f/9. For its size, it offers good views with
pin-sharp stars across almost three quarters of the
field of vision in the supplied 25mm eyepiece.
accessories tray
The telescope stands on three
lightweight aluminium telescopic
legs that can be clamped using
the integral locks to raise/lower
the assembly. The accessories
tray locks the legs in place
and provides somewhere
to place the eyepieces
during use. The tripod
was reasonably stable,
although breezes did
shake the view a little.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
96 FIRST LIGHT DECEMBER
FIRST LIGHT
SKY SAYS… > a hazy patch with
Now add these: a bright star and a
smattering of almost-
1. Celestron 7Ah resolved stars around it,
powertank especially when we
2. Celestron swapped to the 9mm
eyepiece for more An eight-pane mosaic
eyepiece and magnification. The
of the Moon taken with
a GPCAM290C
ƅOWHU NLW Dumbbell Nebula, M27
3. SkyPortal – a planetary nebula
– was quite bright and < GPCAM290C
Wi-Fi module webcam image
mottled while M57, the of Alberio, made
Ring Nebula, was a ghostly hoop of up of a stack of
smoke hanging in space. Albireo 1,000 frames
(Beta (`) Cygni), the late-summer/
early-autumn showstopper, is a double star and
with the 114LCM its gold and sky-blue components
were clearly separated and very colourful.
Andromeda was rising in the east during the test
period so we took in M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Hand
It’s a large object so with the 25mm eyepiece we
could see the inner core and just get its companion, controller
M32, in the view by slightly offsetting from the
The NexStar+ LCM
centre. The fainter satellite galaxy, M110, was not hand controller lets
easy but could be spotted with averted vison. M45, you control, align and
the Pleiades star cluster, filled the view of the 25mm operate the telescope.
eyepiece with stars while the Orion Nebula, It has a database of
M42/43, was awash with nebulosity. 4,000 targets including
Although it’s not designed as an imaging system, Solar System, Messier,
we used the 114LCM with our webcam to see what NGC and Caldwell
results were possible. Deep-sky imaging is not objects, along with
double stars, variable
possible but we did capture a shot of Saturn and its
stars and more. It has
rings, as well as producing an eight-pane mosaic of
lots of utilities to get the
the Moon, which was very satisfying. We also most out of the system.
captured a poor image of the Moon using an
iPhone. The low quality was partly down to a
damaged adaptor, but it shows there’s potential
with this set-up.
The view while focusing can be a little shaky,
but you can lessen the effect by making small
adjustments to the focuser. There’s no denying this
telescope has a plasticky feel but this helps keep its
cost down. My own astronomy adventure began
with a 60mm refractor but I wish this scope had
been available back then, as it whets the appetite,
and that’s what a beginner’s telescope is all about. S
WWW.THESECRETSTUDIO.NET, PAUL MONEY X 2
Verdict
Assembly +++++
Build and design +++++
Ease of use +++++
Features +++++
Optics +++++
OVERALL +++++
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
98
Nano refractor
WORDS: STEVE RICHARDS
Portable and easy to use, the Nano offers everything a new stargazer needs
T
he Bresser Messier shield (also with a nicely blackened
VITAL STATS AR-80/640 Nano is a SKY SAYS… interior) cuts down on unwanted light
complete beginner’s Affordable, entering the telescope, as well as doing
• Price £169 telescope. It’s a 3-inch portable and an excellent job of keeping dew at bay.
• Optics 3-inch achromatic refractor
very capable the Externally, the optical tube is
achromatic refractor that’s bundled with finished in high-gloss white with
• Focal Length 640mm, everything a newcomer needs to get
Nano is a great Bresser’s trademark red pinstripe
f/8 started: a manual altaz mount, a red scope to start around the base of the dew shield.
• Mount Twilight Nano dot finder, a star diagonal and a 26mm stargazing with The optical tube is clamped in a
altaz
Plössl eyepiece. Its 3-inch aperture is plastic clamshell mounting ring, which
• Extras Red dot finder,
26mm Plössl eyepiece,
more than adequate to allow observations attaches to an aluminium Vixen-style dovetail bar.
1.25-inch star of a wide range of celestial objects, its altaz The dovetail bar has been drilled and tapped to take
diagonal, smartphone mount is intuitive to use and the whole thing both 1/4-20 and 3/8-16 tripod mounting bolts, so it
camera mount, is a doddle to set up. can be used with other mounts, while the scope’s
T2 adaptor ring, Achromatic doublet lenses, like the ones in this aluminium construction keeps the weight down,
planetarium software, scope, are made from two types of glass that work making it highly portable.
instructions, together to minimise chromatic aberrations – an
planisphere unwanted effect that produces coloured halos A complete package
• Weight 5kg around bright objects. More expensive optics have The left side of the plastic focuser housing has an
• Supplier Telescope
House
a number of special coatings applied to reduce inverted T-slot for mounting the supplied red dot
• Tel 01342 837098
reflections and increase light throughput, but this finder. The finder has adjustable brightness and
• www.telescopehouse. lens assembly has only one coating of magnesium makes locating bright celestial objects very easy.
com fluoride (MgF2) – the minimum required. The complete system comes almost fully
The inside of the seamless aluminium optical assembled and, to further assist in any beginner’s
tube is nicely blackened, though and has a single first forays into observing, it’s supplied with
baffle to help reduce unwanted internal reflections. Stellarium planetarium software on a CD and a
A substantial, non-retracting, aluminium dew waterproof planisphere to help locate suitable >
Simple-to-use mount
The AR-80/640 Nano’s altaz mount is simple to use as it has no control knobs to
adjust. The mount consists of a single arm that’s slightly offset towards the right and
to the rear. It holds the telescope in such a way as to prevent it from clashing with the
ALL PICTURES: WWW.THESECRETSTUDIO.NET
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
FIRST LIGHT DECEMBER 99
Smartphone holder
A lightweight smartphone holder is included,
which attaches to the eyepiece tube with
a collar and thumbscrew. A smartphone
is then strapped to the holder with
an elastic strap and held over the lens
Tripod
The steel and plastic tripod is lightweight
but adequately stable for this size of
telescope and mount – especially so in
its retracted state with the plastic leg
spreader in use. The stainless steel
legs are 1.25-inches in diameter
and provide height adjustment
from 80-124cm (measured at the
centre of the telescope tube).
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
100 FIRST LIGHT DECEMBER
FIRST LIGHT
SKY SAYS… > objects to observe.
Now add these: Construction-wise,
the emphasis is on
1. Bresser PL lightweight materials
10mm eyepiece throughout, making it
31.7mm/1.25- a good ‘grab and go’
inch instrument to encourage
beginners to leave the
2. Revelation city lights and head for
Astro 2x Barlow a dark observing site.
lens
3. Explore
Observations
We used the AR-80/640
6FLHQWLƅF )LOWHU Nano to observe a range
Set 1 – Moon of objects, a couple of
and planets which have been tricky
to see from our fixed
50mm
observatory location this
year because they’ve
been too low on our tree-lined iPhone 5S image using the
southern horizon. But the AR- AR-80/640 Nano’s smartphone
adaptor and 26mm eyepiece
80/640 Nano scope is so light and hassle-free that it
allowed us to observe both Mars and Saturn simply
by moving the whole setup to suitable positions in elastic retaining strap that was supposed to hold
the garden. We located the two planets using the the smartphone in place had a tendency to slide
26mm eyepiece supplied, clearly observing Saturn’s off the mount’s oval surface.
rings, then enjoyed more close-up views using 8mm Overall, however, we were very pleasantly
and 5mm eyepieces.
Views of the Moon were also very good
surprised at how well the Bresser Messier
AR-80/640 Nano performed and would
Red dot
with only a tiny amount of chromatic certainly recommend it to astronomy ƅQGHU
aberration visible on the limb. We then newcomers or anyone looking for
turned to deep-sky objects and observed a lightweight, easy-to-set-up A basic red dot finder
M13, M92, M31, Albireo, Vega, the telescope to supplement a is provided with the
AR-80/640 Nano
Double Cluster, M103, M45 and finally more advanced system. S
for locating celestial
Orion, in the early morning. We used Vega objects. It helps you
as our optical test star and found excellent star locate bright objects
shapes out to just over 80 per cent of the field of such as stars by
view using the 26mm eyepiece. projecting an apparent
The setup includes an eyepiece mounting for a red dot on the sky.
smartphone and we used this to capture some Moving the telescope
images of the Moon using an Apple iPhone 5S, the until the star and dot
26mm eyepiece and the volume control button on are aligned with each
other automatically
our headphones as a shutter release. The individual
aligns the telescope
images were then stacked in AutoStakkert! to
with the object.
produce a final image that any beginner would be
delighted with. We did, however, find that the
WWW.THESECRETSTUDIO.NET, STEVE RICHARDS
Verdict
Assembly +++++
Build and design +++++
Ease of use +++++
Features +++++
Optics +++++
OVERALL +++++
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
102
Books
RATINGS
★★★★★ Outstanding
★★★★★ Good
★★★★★ Average
★★★★★ Poor
New astronomy and space titles reviewed ★★★★★ Avoid
Argentina is developing its own satellite- and science journalist historian from 1990 – 2002
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
BOOK REVIEWS DECEMBER 103
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
104 GEAR DECEMBER
Gear
Elizabeth Pearson rounds up the latest astronomical accessories
1 1 Celestron PowerTank 4
Lithium Pro
Price £239 • Supplier Harrison Telescope
01322 403407 • www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk
This 20x15x10cm powertank will keep your
electronics charged for up to 17 hours.
Lightweight and with multiple ports, it’s a great
power source for remote observing trips.
4 Farpoint 2-inch
desiccant cap
Price £48.60 • Supplier 365astronomy
020 3384 5187 • www.365astronomy.com
Fill the cap with desiccant sachets, then slide
it into the drawtube of your scope to keep
your optics moisture free during storage.
5 Meteorite necklace
Price £35 • Supplier MSG meteorites 6
msg-meteorites.co.uk
3 Carry a shooting star with you wherever you
go. This necklace contains a slice of meteorite
that’s been specially treated to bring out the
beautiful Widmanstätten pattern.
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
The Home Counties Astronomy Specialists
Tel: 01442 822997
The UK’s friendly Experts with over 100 telescopes & bin
noculars on dis la
Visit our website for prices and all our latest Special Offers
Showroom open 5 days a week - Free on-site parking
Tring Astronomy Centre Ltd, Unit 10 Silk Mill Business Park, Brook St, Tring, Herts, HP23 5EF
M
ars is a good example of a planet stretch of Mars’s atmosphere; that gives you a large
we think has undergone drastic sample for spectroscopy and a greater chance of
climate change in its early days. It detecting even minor gases in the atmosphere. This is
is presently a cold desert, but a technique known as limb sounding.
in winter there are large The same instruments used for this will
weather systems very look straight down at the planet as well.
similar in scale to those we experience This will give us another source of
in the UK. The intriguing question information because the surface is
is: while Mars is currently very relatively warm and gives off
cold and dry, could it have been infrared radiation that will be
warmer and wetter in the absorbed and re-emitted by
past? Certainly, there’s gases in the atmosphere as it
evidence in the rocks on the rises up towards to the TGO.
surface that it was. So was
it ever habitable? Could it Life lessons
have even been – in the Why are we doing this? One
distant past, four billion reason is so that we can test
years ago or so – a place our models of Earth’s
where life could have started? climate systems. It might
My role involves monitoring change our ideas about how
and understanding the current our own atmosphere works or
state of the atmosphere on Mars help us understand what’s
but also looking for tiny traces of important about Earth’s climate,
gases that may reveal something and what causes climates to change
about Mars’s past using the Trace Gas and become less habitable.
Orbiter (TGO) to ‘sniff’ them out. The second reason is learning how
The TGO was launched in March 2016 and Mars has evolved and asking if Mars were
arrived at the Red Planet in November 2016. There ever a habitable place, which opens up some huge
The Trace Gas Orbiter
were no observations until it got into its science questions. Just because life could evolve somewhere,
will be using sunsets
orbit in late spring of this year. We are now getting and sunrises to have does it always evolve? Or is life still incredibly
science data on a regular basis. a really good look for unlikely? We have only one example: Earth. Was
We know that the bulk of the atmosphere is anomalous gasses in that just an incredible fluke?
carbon dioxide, nitrogen and a few noble gases, but Mars’s atmosphere Of course, you can’t actually smell Mars – if you
what we really want to know is are there any other took your helmet off you’d die fairly quickly. But
trace gases that don’t fit in with the equilibrium thinking about what it might smell like is a way
gases that possibly give a hint of something that’s speculating about what Mars’s atmosphere might be
happening on Mars today, or long, long ago? made up from. The main gases, including carbon
dioxide and nitrogen, don’t smell of anything. But
A very useful heat haze ABOUT PROFESSOR we are trying to look for tiny trace amounts of
We are looking down to parts per billion; it takes STEPHEN LEWIS out-of-balance gases. We are not directly smelling
some very sensitive spectroscopy to find gases that Professor Stephen them, but looking at their spectra.
Lewis is a professor of
are such tiny components of the atmosphere. So to Essentially, there would be a sort of rusty smell
atmospheric physics in
give us a better chance of finding them, the the school of physical that you’d get from the dust of oxidised rocks. The
spacecraft will also be looking as the Sun rises and sciences at the Open other smell might be a methane-farty smell – to put
sets through the Martian atmosphere. University. He is it crudely – if there were bacterial or microbial life
Why? Well, currently TGO is about 400km above co-investigator for the on Mars. Methane is one of the trace gases we are
ESA/DAVID DUCROS
the surface, orbiting every couple of hours. In every NOMAD instrument looking for, but its presence wouldn’t necessarily
aboard the Trace Gas
orbit it sees one sunrise and one sunset. For a brief prove the presence of life, now or ever. It could have
Orbiter craft currently
few minutes as the Sun sets or rises, the TGO will, orbiting Mars come from a totally non-living process, like
because of its angle, be looking at it through a long geothermal activity. S
skyatnightmagazine.com 2018
The Sky Guide
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Comet 46P/Wirtanen makes its closest One of the longest and faintest
a
approach to the Sun and Earth this constellations, Eridanus, the River, is
month, possibly reaching 4th magnitude. visible in the evening sky. Its headwater is
b
ive h
Best viewed in the late evening it starts the the mag. +2.8 Cursa (Beta (`) Eridani), near ee B
X
44
month high in Cetus and heads north, Rigel in Orion. Consisting of around two M
26
roughly following the border between Cetus dozen 4th to 5th magnitude stars, the River
IN
_
and Eridanus. On 15-17 December it passes snakes its way south, ending at one of the
O
`
R
oc
between the Hyades and Pleiades star most isolated 1st magnitude stars, Achernar n
yo
b
clusters in Taurus, when it is expected to be (Alpha (_) Eridani), near the Small
LEO
at its brightest. Wirtanen moves quickly Magellanic Cloud. Eridanus resides in deep-
into Auriga, and on 23 December will be sky heaven, as the area is the home of
just 1° from the bright star Capella. numerous galaxies. M
MONO
Alphard
7+(3/$1(76
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Saturn is low in the evening also visible, departing in the early morning.
EAST
DR
twilight early in December. The action then switches to brilliant Venus
_
Look for the thin crescent Moon nearby on rising in the predawn, followed by Mercury
9 December. With the ringed planet’s exit, well down in the dawn glow. Jupiter returns
Gh
Mars is prominent in the northwest, setting to the morning, passing Mercury on 22
ost
around midnight. Neptune and Uranus are December when they will be only 0.8° apart.
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In northern Eridanus you’ll find the 42.5m, Dec. –13° 29’. Although only mag.
naked-eye mag. +2.9 star Zaurak +11.4, it makes a rather pleasing white
(Gamma (_) Eridani) at RA 3hr 58.0m, streak, with an obvious halo around a
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Dec. –13° 31’. This star is rare, being one short, pencil-line core. Move 5° south to
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of the brightest known red giants (class enjoy two spiral galaxies in the same field,
M0). Binoculars will assist in seeing any NGC 1400 and 1407. Separated by only
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NORTH
The Sky Guide
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