Watch Venus pass through the morning sky this Valentine’s Day. Get the details in the latest episode of our weekly stargazing guide podcast.
Chris: Hello and welcome to Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night magazine. You can subscribe to the print edition of the magazine by visiting skyatnightmagazine.com or to our digital edition by visiting iTunes or Google Play.
Ezzy: Greetings listeners. And welcome to Star Diary, a weekly guide to the best things to see in the Northern Hemisphere’s night sky. As we are based here in the UK, all times are in GMT. In this episode, we’ll be covering the coming week from 12 to 18 February. I’m Ezzy Pearson, and I’m joined this week by Paul Money.
Hello, Paul.
Paul: Hello, Ezzy. Hey, we’re gonna start with something interesting.
Ezzy: Ooh, really? Please do let us know what we’re getting started with on this week’s stargazing.
Paul: Well, for once, we’re starting in the evening sky. The last few weeks, we’ve been having to start in the morning sky, because all the activity’s there.
But we’re in the evening sky, and we are getting the final views of Saturn. It’s really low in the twilight. So, you know, grab it while you can, because it will be lost at the end of the week into the solar glare. So grab it the beginning on February 12th sort of thing.
The Moon will be to the upper left of Neptune. So you’ve got Saturn, you’ve then got Neptune, and then you’ve got the Moon.
Neptune will be closer to the Moon, than Saturn. So we’re looking around about, well, probably a quarter of the distance from Saturn to the Moon. If you go from the moon, back down towards Saturn, go a quarter of the way, and that’s roughly where Neptune is.
It also, as it gets darker, you’ll keep Neptune, and because it’s fainter, that’ll give it an advantage of trying to spot it. But it’s also near the Circlet of Pisces. So that makes it easier to see it as well. Although I always think Circlet is a bit of an odd name for that. ’cause it , it’s definitely not a circle as such, but they call it a Circlet of Pisces.
So with Neptune definitely use binoculars or a large tele or a telescope to actually observe it. But we’ve got a few more weeks yet of Neptune, but sadly Saturn will be gone after this.
Ezzy: Yes, so definitely keep an eye on Saturn. It’s your last opportunity to see it for a while.
Paul: Yes, and when it’s gone, it will be gone for several months before it re emerges in the morning sky because this sort of time of year, as we move through the year, the first half of the year, And of course, the skies are getting lighter.
Boo! Us astronomers are going, Boo! But the thing is, it means the morning sky, planets emerging into the morning sky, seem to take longer to get clear of the twilight, because the twilight is getting sort of earlier and earlier through the night sort of thing.
So, yeah, so it takes Saturn a while. The advantage of the brighter planets, when they’re emerging, that they’re bright, is the fainter planets, in particular Uranus and Neptune, that really struggle in the twilight.
And Mars is doing that, and that brings us round, actually, to, well, 14 February. Happy Valentine’s Day! Now, if you’re an astronomer, and your loved one, or partner, is too then why not get early and view Venus, the goddess of love? How romantic is that?
Ezzy: What a nice little pair up on that day.
Paul: Well, a little story.
Me and Lorraine used to go to the Algarve to an astronomy holiday place called Koa and one morning I’d been out most of the night and as I was coming back to bed it was beginning of twilight and there with a crescent Moon hanging right next to it was Venus. So, I was very romantic. I woke the wife up.
She came to the front door, slid them open, and said, Look, Venus, the goddess of love! Yes, love. Now back to bed.
But no, no, she, she is into astronomy and she could see the crescent moon there. She thought it was a lovely view in the twilight. But it’s surprising, just as we watched, of course, the sky got lighter and lighter and you lost the effect.
So it’s better when there’s a deeper twilight to get it. But yes, see, I’m a romantic at heart.
It is lucky. It’s better if you’ve got a partner who’s into astronomy as well, I have to say. So there we are.
Ezzy: Especially if you’re getting them up in the morning.
Paul: Yes, exactly. The evening sky is not too bad, because I’ve done it in the evening sky and it’s not so bad because you’re already up, etc. Oh, look at Venus in the evening sky, my dear.
But yes, morning sky, I mean, it was just one of those circumstances. So I just thought I’d try it and she did enjoy the view. Well, that was the impression I got anyway. So, Venus, though, is rapidly… we are beginning to lose Venus. It may be a bright planet, but it’s dropping rapidly back towards the solar glare.
And so, each passing morning, it’s lower and lower. And it’s actually heading towards Mars. It doesn’t actually reach Mars this particular week, before it gets lost in the twilight. So, you need to be looking.
Again, towards southeast. Really have a level. Horizon, nothing in the way to block the view. We’re gonna be looking about 6:40AM, but again, as we always said, don’t spend too long before the Sun rises, because the thing is, we don’t want to damage your eyes or anything like that. But, these are the last moments to catch Venus in the morning sky. And I just think, sort of thing, well, you know, Valentine’s morning, what a great way to start the day with your loved one.
Meanwhile, I can’t stop myself chuckling. Meanwhile, in the evening sky, on that same day, the crescent Moon lies to the lower right of Jupiter this evening. So the Moon, Jupiter, Uranus, and M45 form a slightly curved line. So it’s quite a nice arrangement in the night sky. The next evening, 15th, the Moon lies almost level with Uranus, forming a triangle with it.
And Jupiter. We always find shapes, don’t we? We find identifying things. It’s better if you can create a triangle or a square, and that, with these objects sort of thing. So Uranus being fainter will need binoculars, but if you know that it forms a triangle with Jupiter, it gives you an idea of the area you need to be looking at.
And then February 16th finds the first quarter Moon very close. to the Pleiades. It starts off early on in the evening, about 7PM sort of thing, just under, but it creeps and passes, just catching the lower edge of the cluster, through the course of the night itself.
So, you know, that’s, I mean, we’re gonna have… this year is the beginning of a sequence where you’ll start to see the stars of the Pleiades being occulted by the Moon.
And this is part of the lunar cycle, the 18 year cycle, where it sort of like goes through this phase of occulting the stars, and then the tilt of its lunar orbit sort of gradually means it actually starts to miss them.
So we’re in that exciting phase for the next few years. We’ll actually see some occultations of the stars of the Pleiades by the Moon.
So this is, we’re in at the beginning now of when this takes place. And it just skirts that lower edge of the Pleiades star cluster. Of course, the moonlight will actually obliterate a lot of the fainter stars. But I have photographed it before when it was close, similar to this position, and been able to capture the Pleiades with an overexposed Moon.
But that actually brought out the Earthshine. And normally when the moon’s getting past first quarter, the Earthshine is harder because you get such a glare from the brightly illuminated side. And so it tends to sort of spoil the view. It’s sort of like, you know, it spreads out over the whole picture.
But you can do it sort of thing. And what a lot of people do is shorter exposure and perhaps use a previous picture of the Pleiades and you can overlay them. I mean, it’s not quite the same as taking the exact picture itself, but you know. One sometimes can be a bit artistic, can’t one?
Ezzy: There are definitely lots of techniques that people can use to try and capture something like that.
We have guides on how to do a lot of them. over on our website, skyatnightmagazine.com, and in the magazine as well. So always make sure that you have a look there and hopefully you’ll be able to capture some.
I think there’s going to be some opportunities for some really unique images. Ones that you don’t normally get for something like that.
You know, these sorts of things, as you say, it does happen. You know, there is a bit of a cycle. But there’s not that many times or places on the sky where something like this does happen. And if anybody does manage to create some kind of interesting image with the Moon passing through the Pleiades, please do send it into us.
You can find the details on how to do that in the notes below as well.
Paul: Now that was on 16th, and we were talking about the Moon, but let’s just backtrack one evening to February 15th, because again, we’ve got a transit.
This is Io again, transiting. Because Io whizzes around the planet, it’s going to have a lot of these, and at the moment, they are occurring when Jupiter is still up above our horizon.
So, we want to be looking around about twilight. For the transit of Io and then later till about 10 PM when the shadow transit ends itself. So, you know, you’ve got the shadow and you’ve also got the moon as well. And so the moon tends to merge in with the belts. So he’s not as easy to say, but the shadow will be actually quite prominent sort of thing.
So there we are this evening, catch the actual transit or Io and the shadow transit of Io shadow going across Jupiter itself.
Now the first half of the week. Whilst the Moon hasn’t quite reached it, we’ve also got the minor planet Vesta. Now Vesta’s are about magnitude +7.3 and it’s lying between the horns of the bull sort of thing and so it’s towards the far end of Taurus the bull not too far away from Zeta and in fact the Crab Nebula.
So again this might be an interesting sort of sequence whereby you can take a few pictures. If you get a run of clear nights take a few pictures showing the asteroid moving slowly against the background stars and with the Crab Nebula and Zeta Tauri as well as a guide.
Now, by the time we get into the second half of the week, the Moon is getting larger in its phase, it’s growing in phase, and it’s getting closer, so the moonlight will begin to interfere and sort of spoil the view. It’ll wash out the Crab Nebula. So the first half of the week, you could try getting Vesta, not too far away from the Crab Nebula and Zeta as well, and do a wide field photograph.
We often see these close ups, don’t we? We see fantastic close ups of the Crab Nebula, etc. But, you know, sometimes I like to take wide field pictures because it gives you context then, especially with the Crab Nebula in relation to Zeta as well. Instead of just seeing the Crab Nebula, you get the art context of where it is in the sky.
And of course, they’ve got the added bonus of Vesta as well in the particular view.
Ezzy: I think that is an important thing because so often when you do see these absolutely beautiful and incredibly intricate images of Nebula, you don’t really get a scale of size and then you actually see it on the night sky and it’s like, oh, it’s this tiny thing.
And it really brings home just how incredible it is that we can see these things in such detail and that people are able to do as much with them as they can. So I do think definitely a couple of wild field shots are always worthwhile.
Paul: Indeed. Now moving on to February 18th, the Moon will form a wide triangle with Capella and Aldebaran, but also it lies on the line between Capella and Betelgeuse.
In fact, it’s an interesting position. You’ve got Auriga, you’ve got Gemini, you’ve got Orion, and you’ve got Taurus, and you’ve near enough, got the Moon right in the middle. And interesting enough, that happens to coincide actually with the actual plane of the Milky Way. The anti-galactic center. So it’s the point exactly opposite the galactic center lies in this area as well.
So as it happens, the Moon will be passing through this during the course of the night. And I always find it interesting because we sometimes talk about the winter hexagon. So we include some of the other stars like Procyon and Sirius as well. But in this case, we’ve got sort of like a parallelogram because you’ve got Capella, Castor and Pollux sort of thing, Betelgeuse, and Aldebaran as well.
But let’s say the Moon is playing I wouldn’t say piggy in the middle, it’s right in the middle of all four.
Ezzy: It is, it’s nicely framed.
Paul: That’s it, that nicely framed in the actual view as such. So, there we are. And the moonlight will swamp out a lot of the faint stars. So you will only be left with the brighter stars around it.
So, again, that’ll be a nice wide angle picture. And with the smartphones nowadays, you can capture these things really well, can’t you? I mean, I’ve been amazed what I can do with my smartphone. I mean, it’s come in on leaps and bounds since we first started seeing smartphones and people trying to use them for astrophotography.
So nowadays, they’re far better and can pick up lots more stars. Moonlight, of course, will spoil it a little bit. But, I mean, you always want to look out. You never know. You might have a lunar halo as well if there’s a slight haze in the sky. So that’s something to look out for as well.
Finally, for this week, you know what, it seems to be that we always seem to be ending the week with Ganymede, and it’s happened again!
Late evening, that night, on 18th, this is the Sunday night, you can watch Ganymede, not the shadow! This time, at last, we get Ganymede! The timing is just right. You want to be looking from about 9pm until Jupiter sets, which is about half past 11 ish, sort of thing. And this time you can watch Ganymede cross the southern hemisphere.
And of course, it takes a while. Once it leaves the disk, it’s actually several hours before the actual shadow begins to transit. Or by then Jupiter will have set. So this time, the circumstances, we get to see the moon itself going across, Jupiter’s disc, sort of thing. So, That’s again, we’re finishing on Ganymede, but that’s just the way how things work out sometimes, don’t they?
But it’s a good week.
Ezzy: It does sound like there’s lots of things to get on with in the night sky this week, so thank you very much for taking us through all of that, Paul.
Paul: Pleasure.
Ezzy: And if our listeners at home would like to keep up to date with even more stargazing highlights, do subscribe to the Star Diary podcast, where we will bring you all of the latest tips.
But to summarise this week again, we start on 12 February with a few final views of Saturn before it disappears into the twilight. You’ll also be able to capture the Moon to the upper left of Neptune as well.
Then on 14 February you can see Venus for Valentine’s Day and you might also be able to capture Mars as well. And that’s in the morning sky.
In the evening sky on 14th, you’ll be able to see the crescent moon, Jupiter, Uranus and Pleiades forming a nice gentle curve across the night sky. Then on 15th, the Moon will be almost level with Uranus and forming a triangle with Jupiter as well. On 16th, the Moon is going to skirt very close to the Pleiades.
It’s getting closer and closer every month at the moment, so definitely one to be looking at and capturing those two together this month as well.
Going back to 15th in the evening, you can see the moon Io as it transits across Jupiter, followed soon by its shadow as well. For the first half of the week, you can also see the minor planet Vesta.
It will be near the Crab Nebula and star Zeta Tauri. On the second half of the week, the Moon will be getting larger and will wash out the Crab Nebula though, so make sure to capture that in the first half of the week.
On 18th, the Moon forms a triangle with Capella and Aldebaran and will also be in line with Betelgeuse and Capella, so it’ll be nicely framed by several stars all around it.
And then finally, on the evening of 18th, Ganymede itself is going to transit across Jupiter. So you’ll be able to see that moon transit across Jupiter. Unfortunately, its shadow will be going across a little bit too late for those of us in the UK, as Jupiter will have already set. But still, a lot of really interesting things to see in the night sky.
And we will see all of you here next week. If you want to find out even more spectacular sights that will be gracing the night sky this month, be sure to pick up a copy of BBC Sky at Night magazine, where we have a 16 page pull out sky guide with a full overview of everything worth looking up for throughout the whole month.
Whether you like to look at the Moon, the planets, or the deep sky. Whether you use binoculars, telescopes, or neither. Our Sky Guide has got you covered, with detailed star charts to help you track your way across the night sky. From all of us here at BBC Sky at Night magazine, goodbye.
Chris: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Star Diary podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night magazine.
For more of our podcasts visit our website at skyatnightmagazine.com or head to Acast, iTunes or Spotify.