Star Diary: 28 August to 3 September, 2023
What’s in the night sky in the week of 21 to 27 August, 2023 in our weekly stargazing guide. This week, be sure to catch the Super Blue Moon as it passes through the night sky.
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 for 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 BST. In this episode, we’ll be covering the coming week from 28 August to 3 September. I’m features editor Ezzy Pearson and I’m joined this week by reviews editor Paul Money.
Hello Paul.
Paul: Hello Izzy.
Ezzy: Right. So what do we have coming up for us in this week’s night sky?
Paul: Well, last week started in the evening sky, so it is inevitable that we’d have to start this week with the morning sky won’t we? I’m sorry folks! It’s one of those things you’ll have to get up and it is in the morning twilight. Venus is back. Now it’s possibly, you may have picked it up. Venus is such a bright planet that it’s possibly, you may have picked it up sooner if you’ve been out walking the dog before you go to work, something like that. You do need to be looking around about 5:00 AM as the twilight is just really beginning to set in.
So Venus is quite low down. It’s actually in the constellation of Cancer, the crab, and won’t be too far away actually from the star cluster Messier 67. But that’s for next week. We’ve got an encounter, but… So if you wanna have a look for Venus sort of thing. It’s always nice when it comes back into, it’s surprising how quick it’s swings back into the morning sky.
We’ve lost it for a long time. The evening sky, because the ecliptic was quite shallow, so although it was a reasonable distance from the sun, it was set in at almost the same time as the sun, so we couldn’t see it. But I have friends who actually followed it through conjunction because it was about seven degrees away from the Sun and were able to get a picture.
I think good old Pete [Lawrence] was able to do that sort of thing. And and one of our other contributors, Dave Eagle has managed to get it at conjunction as well. I mean, that’s quite something. Mm. When it’s seven degrees away to image. It’s very dangerous as well. So you have to be very, very careful. But then it bounds back into the morning sky. And because the ecliptic is steeper, it actually gets higher very quickly. So it’ll become very well placed. As I say, it’s in Cancer, it technically south of the Messier 44, the Beehive Cluster as well. So if you use binoculars a pick out Messier 67 and drift up and pick up Messier 44 as extra bonuses.
We like bonuses, don’t we? So the bonus objects in the night sky. But yes, Venus will guide you to ’em. It is very bright and it is now returned to the morning sky if you like getting up in the mornings, of course. Now I’ll be kind and we’ll do the next one. We’ll have an evening one, shall we? Now we tend, we, we have to follow the Moon because, you know, the Moon does go around us. You know, it is the prominent object when it’s in the sky. Most people notice the Moon first before anything else. But this month was interesting sort of thing because. The Moon was full at the beginning of the month, and it’s gonna be full at the end. But just before we get to that on August the 30th, the day before, look around about 10 o’clock for the almost full Moon. So if you use a telescope, you might get a very thin bit of darkness. Of course you see in the bright bit, but the, you’ll realize it isn’t quite perfectly spherical, but the moon will be below Saturn. So view anytime after nine o’clock in the evening as I say, when it lie directly on the planet. And then as they rise, the Moon will slowly move away from Saturn after that sort of thing.
So yes, it’s a good time to get Saturn and the Moon together. And I say the Moon is almost full, which brings us to the next night. It’ll lie closer to Neptune because there’s quite a gap now between Saturn and Neptune. And they will start closing the gap over the next few years, by the way. But the Moon will be full.
Now, this is, it’s one of those weird things. It’s a blue Moon because it’s the second one in the month, but it’s also a supermoon because it’s actually at its closest or closest to the closest point in its orbit to the Earth. So it appears. Larger. So we’ve got a blue supermoon to look forward to, but I will say it doesn’t look blue.
It’s not named that because it looks blue. It’s just one of those things that’s come into fashion over the years sort of thing to call it. The second full moon is blue. There’s several other definitions as well, which add and mud the waters? Yes. Or should I say muddy the skies?
Ezzy: I was about to say, we should probably do a bit more of a note on what exactly a blue Moon is because there are various different forms. The ones that gets used most often and the one that is being used in this context is when you get two Moons in a calendar month. So the cycle of the Moon is about 29 days. I think it’s 29 and a half days. So, Sometimes it, you know, you get managed to get two in a month. I think it happens about once….
Paul: Oh two full moons.
Ezzy: Two full moons in a month. Yes. Yeah
Two
Paul: full moons. Yeah, because Moon’s quite visible most of the month, isn’t it?
Ezzy: Yes, it happens every couple of years. So ‘once in a blue moon’ means every couple of years. But there’s also another type of blue moon, which is when you get four full moons in a astronomical season. Which actually there will be one of those next year. So we’ll have one of those to look forward to. Those are slightly rarer. I think they’re every sort of four or five years or something.
Occasionally you do actually get a blue moon where it looks blue in the night sky. Unfortunately that is usually because a volcano nearby has erupted and it puts up various things into the atmosphere which gets rid of all of the… So it scatters away all of the light that isn’t blue. And that’s why it tends to look blue. But those are, those are very rare when you actually see a blue Moon. I don’t think there’s been any for a long time. So, which is good because it means a volcano hasn’t exploded. I.
Paul: Yes. If a volcano explodes in the UK I’ll be worried, but we cause these, these volcanoes, when they go off, they can go off the other side of the world.
And when they get up into the stratosphere . Those particles spread out. And we do get affected, don’t we? So you know… not that I want a volcano to go off, just, just to see it bloom. I won’t be very nice itself, would it?
Ezzy: No.
Paul: So there we are sort of things, but remember Saturn lies off to the far right of the Moon, but Neptune lies closer, but it’s to the left of the full Moon. But you will need to say binoculars or a telescope, especially with the glare of the full Moon. And of course full Moon… Deep sky observers. We hate the Moon. When it’s full. It washes the sky with its own light pollution. But you know, nowadays with modern filters, it’s surprising what you can do and especially astrophotographers now finding they can photograph, especially in narrow band when the Moon’s up. So you know, I mean we used to think “oh good, the, the Moon’s up, we can have a rest”. So, but not anymore. You can carry on imaging all through the month if you so wish.
So, We’re getting towards the end of the week, and it’s 3 September sort of thing. And what we find is the Moon has moved across the sky more. It’s obviously losing its phase now. It’s diminishing in phase it’s a gibbous Moon now, and on the 3rd, 11 o’clock, so we’re on the late evening, you know, so that’s, that’s good news. I mean, it doesn’t mean staying up a bit, but late evening when Jupiter and Uranus and M 45 are up above the eastern horizon, the Moon will join them.
and on that, night 3 September, it’s like a shallow crescent. It’s like a shallow curved line, starting with the Moon on the right, then Jupiter, then Uranus, which of course you’ll need binoculars for, and the Pleides star cluster as well. So that’ll be quite a pretty, it’d pretty interesting to get a picture of that. But remember the Moon to get the rest of the objects, you know, sort of Uranus and the Pleiades, you’re gonna need a longer exposure, so the Moon will be burned out and Jupiter will make it quite bright. But, It’s worth trying sort of thing just to get something unusual and different, isn’t it.
Ezzy: I’m sure there’s also people out there who can do some kind of composite imaging. So you’ve got one where you do the exposure for the Moon and one for the things like the Pleiades and Uranus. And then, then put ’em together. I’m sure that’d be nice.
Paul: And then clever superimpose them..
Ezzy: And then, then you clever superimposed them. Yes. And of course if people are interested in learning how to do that sort of thing, we have guides on all aspects of astrophotography over on our website.
And as always, if you do manage to take a fun, interesting picture, please do send them into the magazine. Again, details can be found on the website. But thank you very much, Paul, for taking us through everything that we have to see this week.
Paul: It’s a pleasure.
Ezzy: So to summarise, once again, on 30 August, the almost full Moon will be just below Saturn. On 31 August you can look forward to a super-blue-moon when the Moon will be slightly closer and bigger and brighter to Earth. You won’t be able to notice the difference probably on the night sky, but it will be slightly brighter. And then on 3 September, the Gibbous Moon in the late evening will be joined by Jupiter, Uranus, and M 45, the Pleiades, to create a lovely shallow bowl.
So thank you again for listening, and if you want to get even more updates about what’s coming up in the night sky, do subscribe to the podcast and we will see you here next week.
If you want to find out even more spectacular sites 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 pullout 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 Childs 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 at Night Magazine.
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