Watch Mars as it passes by the Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, in this week’s night sky, while bright Jupiter shines nearby. Find out how to see the sight for yourself by listening to this week’s episode of Star Diary, 15 to 21 July, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
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Chris Bramley: Hello and welcome to Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine. You can subscribe to the digital edition of the magazine by visiting iTunes, Google Play or Apple News, or to the print edition by visiting skyatnightmagazine.com.
Ezzy Pearson: 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 BST. In this episode, we’ll be covering the coming week from 15 to 21 July. I’m Ezzy Pearson, the magazine’s features editor and I’m joined today by Katrin Raynor, an astronomer and astronomy writer.
Hello, Katrin.
Katrin Raynor: Hi, Ezzy. How are you?
Ezzy: I’m doing well. Can you tell us what we’ve got coming up in the night sky?
Katrin: Certainly. Well, actually, do you know what? Since we last spoke, I’ve ticked off two things from my astronomy bucket list.
Ezzy: Oh really?
Katrin: Yes, it was very exciting. I enjoyed the northern lights from my back garden. And yeah, it was fantastic. And I also managed to see the ginormous sunspot that caused them. It was brilliant. I just didn’t even expect to see the northern lights from where I was. Yeah, and I hope one day that happens again soon.
Ezzy: I don’t think many people were expecting to see the northern lights back when we had …
I believe that was back in May?
Katrin: May, that’s right, yeah.
Ezzy: That was a particularly spectacular one because the Sun is at its active peak at the moment so that’s why we’re seeing lots of that kind of activity.
Katrin: Yes, I got some lots of nice photographs and I enjoyed seeing everyone else’s as well on social media. Something I will never forget.
We do have some great observing opportunities this week for the Moon lovers and the planet lovers and let’s not forget we have the fabulous noctilucent clouds. And there’s also a special anniversary this week. It’s now been 30 years since Comet Shoemaker Levy 9 impacted Jupiter, but more of that later.
So I’ll kick off with noctilucent clouds. We’re still in the midst of noctilucent clouds season, or NLC season, and I’ve seen some fantastic photographs circulating online, and 2024 is just turning out to be a great year for NLCs.
They’ve been visible since June and we should see them into August, so there’s still plenty of time to see them if you haven’t spotted any yet.
And if you’re wondering how to see them, well, look to the northwest horizon around 90 to 120 minutes after sunset. Or a similar time towards the northeast before sunrise.
These clouds, they don’t occur in space, but instead in the very high altitudes of Earth’s atmosphere. On a good night or a good morning, you may be able to see them for quite some time.
And you just need your eyes, you don’t need any specialist equipment. They look blue white and they’re almost like electric blue colour. It should be quite obvious when you do spot them.
Ezzy: I know Mary back in a couple of podcasts ago, she was a bit worried because NLC season had started and none were appearing and it took a while for this season to get started.
So it’s good to hear that it sounds like things are definitely picking up.
Katrin: Yeah, fantastic. I haven’t seen any from where I am, because obviously I’m in the valleys. But yes, some in Cumbia and in Oxfordshire I’ve seen. So yeah, they’re just beautiful. They just look so amazing. They kind of remind me of bioluminescence that you see along the coast. They’re very similar. Absolutely gorgeous.
So yeah, I will try and go somewhere to see them before August arrives.
Ezzy: It’s worth the travel.
Katrin: So the moon on 17th, if you look to the southern sky, say around 10:30PM, you will see an 85% lit waxing gibbous Moon near bright star Antares, the heart of the scorpion.
Antares is a variable star and a red supergiant which will be shining at a magnitude of approximately +1.0. And when you look at Antares with your naked eye, it is distinctly reddish in colour. So I think this will be a lovely target for naked eye observers or for those who want to get the binoculars and telescopes out.
Of course if you’ve got a DSL camera it’d be a lovely opportunity to take some pictures.
And if you’re out that night looking at the Moon, see if you can spot the diamond ring on the Moon. If you can locate Crater Gassendi, located on the northern edge of Mare Humorum, the Sea of Moisture.
Its satellite crater, Gassendi A, lies along the northern rim and makes up the diamond on the ring. So really, you know, we don’t need to wait till a solar eclipse to see a diamond ring, we can see one on the Moon. It’s a lovely effect.
Ezzy: Absolutely. Mary was also talking about another diamond ring in the night sky a couple of weeks ago, which is Polaris, which has a ring of stars with Polaris as the sort of shining diamond at the top.
So it seems to be that there’s lots of rings out there in the Solar System.
Katrin: There’s a theme here isn’t there?
Ezzy: There’s always Saturn as well.
Katrin: And on 19 July we have an almost full Moon in The Teapot asterism, which forms part of the constellation of Sagittarius. And dwarf planet Ceres is nearby in the asterism as well, but this is going to be a challenge to see because obviously it’s very dim and the Moon is just going to be so bright it will wash out, so that will be a challenge to spot.
On 21st, we have a full Moon, so you can watch it rise in the east after sunset at around 9:40PM. As it rises, it may appear orange and pink, and this effect is caused by the scattering of light through the Earth’s atmosphere.
And this full Moon is called the Buck Moon, which is a name that originates from the Native Americans, and it’s so called because at this time of year, young deer called bucks are sprouting new antlers.
Throughout the year, you will often read in the media or hear, you know, on the radio about full Moons with different names. So like the Buck Moon, these names have originated from Native American culture.
And some of my favourites, I love the Snow Moon in February, I think that’s a lovely name, and the Strawberry Moon in June.
So the Buck Moon will reach peak illumination at 6:17AM when it is below the horizon, but if we were to see it, the difference in how bright it looks would barely be noticeable, so we aren’t missing out. But yeah, do take the opportunity to see the Buck Moon on 21st.
Ezzy: I think those names, the things like the Strawberry Moon and the Snow Moon and the Buck Moon in this case. They’re the ways that people in the past used to keep track of the seasons, because the Buck Moon was when all the young deers are about, so that’s the time where you go hunting deer.
The Strawberry Moon is when the strawberries are out, so that’s what you… so it’s all linked with the calendar and these incredibly important things to different civilisations.
Katrin: It’s lovely, isn’t it? I think the December moon, is that called the cold moon, I think?
Ezzy: Oh, that’s lovely.
Katrin: Yeah, it’s really nice. I think we should just, you know, call them by these names every month.
Ezzy: One of the issues is because there are a bunch of different names because different cultures called them slightly different things. You know, someone that’s in the south was going to have a slightly different things going to be happening at that time of year too, if you’re further north and so on. But I do think they are lovely.
It’s an aspect worth diving into in terms of astronomy.
Katrin: Yes, absolutely. It’s very poetic. It’s really, really nice.
So yeah, Solar System wise there are planets aplenty this week with some exciting observing opportunities happening in the morning skies.
Click here to read more about what the planet’s are up to in July 2024
So Saturn’s going to be visible all week, it will rise just before 11:30PM on 15th and rise slightly earlier each night as the week progresses. It will be highest in the pre dawn sky and we also have Jupiter, a morning planet which rises in the wee hours of the morning.
And on 15th, Mars and Uranus appear in conjunction this morning and tomorrow morning, the 16th, at around 2am, so towards the eastern horizon.
If you locate the Pleiades star cluster in the constellation of Taurus, the two planets will be kind of downwards and to the right, and bright orange Mars is going to be really easy to spot.
And if you have a telescope or large binoculars, you will be able to see the green hue of Uranus.
Bright Jupiter is going to be super easy to spot. It’s going to be lower down on the horizon and to the left of the Pleiades, rising around 2:15AM.
So yeah, Ezzy, I think this is just going to be a really great portion of the sky to explore in the early hours.
Ezzy: It is good to hear that the planets have been getting better because it has felt a little bit for the first couple of months of 2024, it was just constantly, “the planets are a bit rubbish. The planets are a bit rubbish.” But now we have lots of really good ones on the way.
Katrin: Yes, the planetary drought is over.
Ezzy: Yes, absolutely. And if people would like to learn more about how to photograph the planet specifically, we recently had a masterclass series. So if you go to our website, www.skyatnightmagazine.com, you can find that series there on demand to watch through if you want to get to grips with how to photograph some of these things.
Because the planets are absolutely beautiful. Like you said, Uranus, you can tell that it’s got this blue green colour to it, and it’s a really pretty colour.
Katrin: Absolutely, and I think, you know, obviously as the year goes on now, it’s just going to keep getting better. So, yeah, it’s quite exciting, I think. Although, that also means that summer is going to be left behind quite quickly.
Ezzy: It’s a bittersweet time. The nights get longer, but also the summer disappears. So…
Katrin: We’ll have to put up with the cold, but at least it’ll be nice and dark and hopefully clear and we can all get back outside.
Ezzy: I like to see that. It’s an advantage of both. You’ve got one thing to look forward to and one thing to miss.
Katrin: Well, that’s it, yeah. And I think, you know, I do tend to do more observing in the wintertime, obviously. Because as we’ve spoken at length before, you know, kind of staying up late in the summer, I do struggle with. I do quite look forward to the autumn and winter.
And speaking of getting up, on 17th there is something to get up for this morning. So, the shadow of two of Jupiter’s moons transit the giant gas planet.
This is going to be really exciting because I’ve not ever seen anything like this before. And Jupiter has 95 moons that are recognised by the International Astronomical Union.
Ezzy: At least at time of recording. They do have a habit of suddenly announcing, oh we found another 12 more. So, at time of recording there were 95 moons.
Katrin: Yes, that’d be amazing if like you know, in the next couple of months they find a few more.
Ezzy: It’s happened!
Katrin: At the moment, at the time of recording today, there’s 95 moons that are recognised by the International Astronomical Union, but only four of them are large and bright enough to be easily seen through a telescope. So these four moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
Io and Europa’s shadows will cross or transit Jupiter between 2:06AM and 2:31AM. The light and colour of the four large moons do actually blend in quite well with the light and colour of Jupiter.
So seeing the moons themselves can be a challenge to see in front of Jupiter, you know, when they are transiting the planet. The shadows of the moons are easier to see on Jupiter’s surface because we see them as dark points against the bright planet.
As I said, yeah, I’m going to get up for this. I think if it’s clear, take my six inch [Dobsonian] outside. And I’m really excited to see this.
And yeah, if you’ve got the equipment, DSLR, you know, it’s going to be a brilliant photography opportunity as well.
Ezzy: The moons are always a great thing to see.
Katrin: Yeah, I mean, I remember seeing through my two inch scope a few of the moons just through that, and it was just incredible.
There was no detail, and it was just like, you know, a bright dot for Jupiter and then a couple of tiny dots for the moons. It was just, it was mind blowing.
Ezzy: That’s one of the things I quite like about the planets, is that you can look up with the naked eye. And if they’re bright, you know, it’s a Jupiter or a Venus, you can make them out really easily. Then you can look at them with binoculars. And as you get better telescopes, your view is constantly improving. So it’s one of those things that as you go through your astronomy journey, and you improve, you can see these things better.
Katrin: Yes, and your money starts running out very quickly because you want more equipment.
Ezzy: That is definitely a problem.
Katrin: That’s the problem. You see something, you know, through a small telescope, you’re like, Oh, well now I want to know what it looks like through a bigger telescope. And then, yeah, before you know it, you’ve got like five telescopes in my house. So last week the Delta Aquarid meteor shower kicked off the summer meteor shower season.
However, these are best seen in the southern hemisphere, but from the UK we do get a chance to see them as they radiate from the southern horizon. It’s not the best show of the summer season, so I wouldn’t get too excited about them.
But one meteor shower to get excited about is the Perseids. So the Perseid meteor shower will begin around 17 July, but won’t peak until the night 12th and into the dawn of 13 August.
This is a really active meteor shower, probably one of the best of the year, and as each night progresses towards a peak, you know, obviously you’re going to start seeing more meteors visible in the sky.
So the meteors originate from debris left over from Comet Swift-Tuttle and the meteors can appear in any part of the sky but they seem to originate from the northern portion of the constellation of Perseus.
The best time to see them is after midnight and before 5:00AM. Now a few years ago I was in the Brecon Beacons with Dark Sky Wales during the peak of the Perseids. And again, it’s just a moment I’ve never forgotten. It was just absolutely incredible.
Because I normally see them from my back garden, which is quite dark, but to see them from an International Dark Sky Reserve, it was brilliant.
It was just seeing some of the best meteors ever.
Ezzy: I always say you can see meteor showers, you can catch some meteors pretty much wherever you are. Just try and find somewhere that’s away from immediate sources of light and as dark as you possibly can. Being able to see them from a properly dark side, you do just see so many more.
Katrin: It’s incredible, and you’re just seeing the trails and the trains that they leave behind. It’s, yeah, it’s fantastic. Really, really good. So on 21st, Mars and the Pleiades and the constellation of Taurus will be at conjunction in the early morning sky. Another great event to see through binoculars or a telescope, but you will be able to see the Red Planet and the star cluster together using just your naked eye.
So bright Jupiter will also be visible in Taurus, shining a magnitude of -1.93. Like we said, you know, having the planets back in the morning sky and also, you know, so close or within Taurus with Aldebaran and the Pleiades. Why wouldn’t you want to get up and have a look?
Ezzy: Exactly. There’s a lot going on in that small field of view, so I think it’s worth it.
Katrin: And just to finish off the week, you know, I mentioned beginning this week is the 30th anniversary of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacting Jupiter. You can read the full article in this month’s Sky at Night magazine.
I wrote that article and I have to say it was just such a fantastic topic to research and write about. And I won’t go into too much detail now, but just to give you a brief background:
In March 1993, comet hunters David Levy and Carolyn and Gene Shoemaker. photographed a train of comets located near Jupiter from the Paloma Observatory in California.
Now, studies of the historical data of the comet showed that the comet had once been whole, but as it was captured by Jupiter’s gravitational field, it broke up into 21 fragments, not long before its discovery.
Now, scientists and astronomers made predictions about these fragments and they made the most amazing announcement in 1993 that the fragments were actually going to impact Jupiter the following year.
And sure enough, on 16 July 1994, the first fragment impacted Jupiter. And the largest fragment on 18 July, which impacted Jupiter, created such a massive dark spot on the surface of the planet. It was actually larger than Earth.
So yeah, I mean, it was a really exciting event. It was the first time that astronomers and scientists have predicted a planetary collision and the first time that collision could be monitored through Earth based and space based telescopes. And it also kind of highlighted the threat that Earth potentially faces from near Earth objects.
If the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 had hit Earth, it would have just wiped out life as we know it. So yeah, it was a really important event in history, I’d say.
Ezzy: Yeah, absolutely. It was definitely a big deal at the time. And it was, as you said, a timely reminder of there are lots of things flying around the Solar System, so it’s best to keep watch on those.
So yes, please do pick up a copy of the July issue of Sky of Night Magazine if you’d like to read more of that.
And subscribe to the podcast if you’d like even more stargazing highlights. Thank you very much, Katrin, for taking us through all of those.
To summarise everything again:
We’re still in NLC season, so keep an eye out for those night shining clouds.
If you look to the southern sky on 17th, you might be able to see the Moon near the bright star Antares.
Keep an eye out for the diamond ring on the Moon near the crater Gesendi on the northern edge of Mare Humborum.
On 19th, there’s an almost full Moon passing through The Teapot asterism.
Then, the full Moon will be on 21st, which will be the Buck Moon.
In terms of planets, Saturn is going to be visible all week. It’ll rise just before 11:30PM on 15th, rising slightly earlier each night.
Jupiter’s going to be a morning planet. And on 17th, Io and Europa will both transit across the gas giant as well.
Also on 17th is going to be the start of the Perseids meteor shower.
On 21 July, Mars and the Pleiades are going to be at conjunction in the early morning sky as well.
And finally, this week also sees the 30th anniversary of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet impacting on Jupiter in July 1994.
So lots going on this week and hopefully you’ll be able to get out there and observe them for yourself.
That’s everything from us, we’ll see you soon. 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 Night Magazine, goodbye.
Chris: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Star Diary podcast from the makers of BBC Sky Night Magazine, which was edited by Lewis Dobbs.
For more of our podcasts, visit our website at skyatnightmagazine.com/podcasts, or head to Spotify, iTunes, or your favourite podcast player.