{"id":25979,"date":"2021-11-18T11:26:24","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T11:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=25979"},"modified":"2021-11-18T11:26:23","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T11:26:23","slug":"welcome-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/2021\/11\/18\/welcome-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome<\/span><\/h1>\n\n

Get to know a different side of the Milky Way this winter<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

December night skies are long and dark \u2013 the ideal conditions for amateur astronomy. Orion\u2019s commanding presence is visible from early evenings as the constellation rises, and in this month\u2019s Sky Guide, you\u2019ll find Steve Tonkin\u2019s binocular tour<\/a> of the Hunter and some intriguing sights within. Many will know of Orion\u2019s Belt, now it might be time to discover Orion\u2019s Pelt too.<\/p>\n\n

Passing by Orion\u2019s left shoulder you\u2019ll find the Milky Way, the location of Stuart Atkinson\u2019s midwinter tour<\/a>. <\/strong>Here you\u2019ll discover a different side to our Galaxy, not the gaseous nebulae of summer skies \u2013 we look out on a different part of the Milky Way in winter \u2013 but a host of sparkling star clusters that are a beautiful sight in binoculars and small telescopes. Wrap up warm and go out to find them on the next clear, frosty night \u2013 we couldn\u2019t help but include the Christmas Tree Cluster at this time of year.<\/p>\n\n

Speaking of Christmas trees, if you\u2019re searching for astronomy-related gifts to put under yours, take a look at the Reviews section. <\/strong>Here we look at an affordable, entry-level telescope and a pair of binoculars, and you\u2019ll find more ideas in our Gear roundup here<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

But if the clouds do roll in, or you just fancy keeping warm indoors, we have you covered. Ian Ridpath delves into the history of celestial cartography here<\/a>, <\/strong>investigating the origin of the constellation of Canes Venatici, while Govert Schilling looks at the NASA mission<\/a> launching soon which will strengthen Earth\u2019s defences against asteroid impact: DART is on a collision course with a small space rock to test whether its orbit will be deflected by the impact.<\/p>\n\n

Enjoy the issue!<\/p>\n\n

Chris Bramley, Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

PS<\/strong> Our next issue goes on sale on Thursday 16 December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor Chris Bramley welcomes you to the December issue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":25977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"3","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"3","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_3-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_3-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"December-2021","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"December-2021","purple_external_id":"December-2021-3-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"December-2021-3-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000086547||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086547||","purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.199","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.199","purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.199","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.199","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"075fab74-0a21-4201-866a-899d6c41c40c","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[14],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/11\/8ac0b8da-8702-405d-ac4b-d1cc2d86e70a.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/11\/8ac0b8da-8702-405d-ac4b-d1cc2d86e70a.jpg",313,406,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/11\/8ac0b8da-8702-405d-ac4b-d1cc2d86e70a-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/11\/8ac0b8da-8702-405d-ac4b-d1cc2d86e70a-231x300.jpg",231,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/11\/8ac0b8da-8702-405d-ac4b-d1cc2d86e70a.jpg",313,406,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/11\/8ac0b8da-8702-405d-ac4b-d1cc2d86e70a.jpg",313,406,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/11\/8ac0b8da-8702-405d-ac4b-d1cc2d86e70a.jpg",313,406,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/11\/8ac0b8da-8702-405d-ac4b-d1cc2d86e70a.jpg",313,406,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Editor Chris Bramley welcomes you to the December issue","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25979"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26742,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25979\/revisions\/26742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}