{"id":44486,"date":"2023-05-07T07:03:57","date_gmt":"2023-05-07T07:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=118360"},"modified":"2023-05-07T09:33:59","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T09:33:59","slug":"star-diary-8-to-14-may-2023","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/star-diary-8-to-14-may-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Diary, 8 to 14 May, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venus and Mars pass through Gemini, and the minor meteor shower the Eta Lyrids will light up the sky in this weeks stargazing guide. <\/p>

By Ezzy Pearson\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 07 May 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

What\u2019s in the night sky in the week of 8 to 14 May, 2023 in our weekly stargazing guide. This week\u2019s highlights include Venus and Mars passing through Gemini and the minor meteor shower the Eta Lyrids.<\/p>\n\n

Chris Bramley <\/strong>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 www.skyatnightmagazine.com<\/a> or digital edition by visiting on iTunes or Google Play.<\/p>\n

Ezzy <\/strong>Greetings, listeners, and welcome to Starr Diary, a weekly guide to the best things to see in the northern hemisphere\u2019s night sky. As we are based here in the UK, all times are in BST. In this episode, we\u2019ll be covering the coming week from 8 to 14 May. I\u2019m Ezzy Pearson, the magazine\u2019s features editor, and I\u2019m glad to have Paul Money, our reviews editor joining me on the show today. Hello, Paul.<\/p>\n

Paul <\/strong>Hello there. Got another exciting week again.<\/p>\n

Ezzy <\/strong>Yes. So what do we have to look forward to in the night sky this week?<\/p>\n

Paul <\/strong>Well, with the problem of sounding a bit repetitive, as we start these each week, we\u2019re in the evening sky with Venus. Yes, it still dominates and it will do for a while now, but it is bright. I mean, -4.3. I mean, you know, it is incredibly bright. The moon now is past fall. So you will have a period whereby if you wait long enough, you might get to see, try it, get a dark site see if you can cast a shadow using Venus light<\/a> and try photograph with modern smartphones<\/a>. You should actually be able to photograph it because some of them that can take long exposures and they use image stabilisation. I can take a handheld picture of the constellations now. Handheld! I\u2019ll be interested if anybody does that, and I\u2019m sure they can send the pictures in \u2013 can\u2019t they? \u2013 to the magazine, we\u2019d be quite excited to see something like that, especially with a smartphone. I have to say yes.<\/p>\n

Ezzy <\/strong>You can always send in pictures. You can find out details of how to do that over on our website www.skyatnightmagazine.com<\/a>. We also have a article on there. When Pete Lawrence managed to photograph a shadow taken by Venus<\/a>. I\u2019ll put a link to that down in the show notes as well if anybody fancies a look.<\/p>\n

Paul <\/strong>So 8 and 9 May, Well, we\u2019ve got Venus as we\u2019ve already mentioned, But on 8th Mars forms a shallow triangle with Castor and Pollux<\/a>. But it\u2019s also close to Kappa Geminorum<\/a> now. And it\u2019s more of a curve, really, with those three stars on the planet sort of thing. And as a Mars, well, it\u2019s not the brightest, but, you know, it\u2019s on a par now with Castor and Pollux. Meanwhile, Venus now joined the in Gemini. As ironic as Venus comes into Gemini a bit later on in the month, Mars will leave Gemini. But there is nothing that Venus said or anything like that. But Venus on the night lies above the open cluster Messier 35<\/a>. This got an informal nickname of the Shoe Buckle cluster. I personally can\u2019t see it. I think I\u2019ll see a shape of a shuttle. But this is a nice chance to see photography. That would be a great picture to get with the actual brilliant Venus. And if you\u2019re into Deep Sky, there is actually another cluster right next to M35, NGC 2158, fainter and smaller, but they make a nice pair and I think get those in the frame of view with Venus as well will be quite something. Venus, of course, will be absolutely brilliant in the picture. So there are that\u2019s 8th and 9th. Now staying with the 8th to the 10th, we actually have in the morning sky. Yes. You have to get up for this. This is 4:00 in the morning. It\u2019s a real time folks. Those have to get up early in the morning will really know what I mean. Bull, if you\u2019ve got time for o\u2019clock in the morning, turn a telescope towards Saturn<\/a>, because in actual fact, Saturn is close to the star 58 Aquarii. Now. Saturn is actually quite bright magnitude 0.9. So that\u2019s +0.9. So pretty reasonably bright. The star is +6.3 magnitude. It\u2019s a pretty faint. She can\u2019t confuse them. And not only that, if you\u2019re using a telescope the star won\u2019t have rings around it. If the stars got rings around it, you need to have the telescope looked at.<\/p>\n

Ezzy <\/strong>Yes, that would be a definite sign. You\u2019ve got some kind of aberration going on there if your stars have rings.<\/p>\n

Paul <\/strong>Yeah, definitely a problem there\u2026 but it is gorgeous to see it and it moves slowly past the stars closest around about what light should take until 7th and 8th. So I think 8th I think will make a nice particular view. And of course you\u2019ve not just got the rings. If you look carefully, you might see some of the brighter moons. You\u2019ve got Titan, Iapatus<\/a> some of the moons like that to have a look at as well. They will change position. So if you\u2019re able to have clear mornings, say the 8th, 9th and 10th, you can see the moons of Saturn changing position as well. And again, we mentioned the motions in the last week of the of the sky and that he always seemed static. When you look at the moons of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter<\/a>, you can actually see them changing night after night. In fact, if used, there are times when sometimes if they\u2019re close to each other, you\u2019ve got two moons close to each other, then you can see the motion. That night, during that evening, over the course, a viewer, I don\u2019t know, but I actually get quite excited by that.<\/p>\n

Ezzy <\/strong>Yeah, it\u2019s some of the moons of Jupiter. They just whip round, you know, It takes, you know, like a week or so. I think there\u2019s one, it\u2019s three and a half days where it takes to go around or something like that, which is just, it\u2019s very quick.<\/p>\n

Paul <\/strong>Yeah. I mean, Io and Europa when they get close to each other. I mean their relative motion is of course if one\u2019s moving one way and one\u2019s moving in the other, because they\u2019re in different parts of the orbit, but just from our viewpoint, look as if they\u2019re in the same part of the sky. We can be quite dramatic. I\u2019ve seen some great animations where people have imaged them. And I\u2019m sure Pete must have imaged them as well. I\u2019ve done it, but I\u2019ve not created an image, you know, an animation from them sort of thing because you know, you need to take it over a period of a few hours and you can guarantee a house or a tree or get in the way or all clouds as usual or something.<\/p>\n

Ezzy <\/strong>And again, we do have guides on how to make an animation of, well, it\u2019s actually Jupiter, but it should work just as well for Saturn. Over on our website again, I will put a link down below.<\/p>\n

Paul <\/strong>Exactly. Now, we mentioned the Eta Aquariids last week. They were defeated by the moon. Now there\u2019s a really faint shower. Now I have to say it\u2026 I only bring it up because I thought to myself, well, these poor [meteor] showers<\/a>, these minor showers, they don\u2019t get much attention. You know, they\u2019re we always go for the big, bright brashy ones that have lots and lots of meteors. But they Eta Lyrid now. Yes, we have the April Lyrids, so I\u2019ll say. And they are they can be quite good. But this is the Eta Lyrids and it sort of lies between I always think of the wings of Cygnus<\/a> sort of thing. And so of Vega as well, the radiant lies between the two. So you can easily find it. But obviously when meet you don\u2019t look straight at the radiant. So then you get very short meteor streaks you need to look around about so about 60 to 90 degrees away from the radio to get the best view, but they have a peak of just three. But I thought it\u2019s worth mentioning because the thing is, although the Moon\u2019s in the sky, we\u2019re in the morning sky now. If you start observing, the moon rises at about 1AM. So this is on May 9th. So a lot of this meteor shower is not as well known. If you looking out something and you get something streak away from actual Lyra, then there\u2019s a chance you never know you might have caught. Well, even if you get one, if you get that one out of the three in though we know generally and you might be, you know, it theoretically would be even less than that because, you know, three is the perfect conditions if you\u2019re looking directly at the zenith as such. But you know, it\u2019s worth it. And the other thing about we mentioned about the full moon<\/a>, the foot when the full moon. So it really does dominate. But once it gets to the stage, it\u2019s a gibbous phase a few days later, it\u2019s very low. This time of year is very low. So it\u2019s actually in Sagittarius<\/a>, so it doesn\u2019t create so much of a hassle, it doesn\u2019t ruin the sky as much. So, you know, that\u2019s the key. You may as well have a look at it. The other reason I mention it is that there\u2019s particularly Eta Aquarids our associated with a comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock 1983 and that was my first comet I observed as he first one to see. And it was a bright one as well. We could see naked-eye race across the sky in about six days, and for most of that, shock, it was clear. But yes, it brings back memories. So it\u2019s one of those things I really want to have a look at this particular shower and on the off chance that I might see one speck and it will be particles shed by that comets. That would be my link to that comet back then. Bit of nostalgia for you.<\/p>\n

Ezzy <\/strong>Yes. For those of you who don\u2019t know, meteor showers happen because we passed through basically the trail of a comet. So it leaves behind this this dust and debris that hits Earth\u2019s atmosphere, going in incredible speeds, you know, tens of thousands of kilometres per hour, which causes the air around them to glow white hot. And that\u2019s what we see as a streak of a meteor. So, yes, and occasionally a comet comes through the solar system and we get a new meteor shower or refreshes an old one.<\/p>\n

Paul <\/strong>Yeah. And this is one of the new ones. Yeah. Does show it changes though. Because prior to the IRAS-Araki-Alcock coming in, they, you know, we didn\u2019t have this meteor shower, so. Yeah. So it\u2019s always nice to have something fresh, a new meteor shower on the go and they can occur. I mean, we never know, do we, when we\u2019re going to get that next bright comet that it crosses the Earth\u2019s orbit and we then encounter the swarm of particles. So, you know, so fingers crossed, you know, we might get some more in the near future. And of course, this probably also suggests some meteor showers will die off. There may be meteor showers thousands of years ago that were absolutely spectacular, but now there\u2019s virtually nothing left of them.<\/p>\n

Ezzy <\/strong>Yeah, And so it\u2019s always worth if you are out stargazing anyway, on the around 9th, just make sure you know where Lyra is in the sky. So if you do see a meteor, you can track it back and work out whether it was an [Eta] Lyrid or it was just a random meteor. If you happen to catch something whilst you\u2019re out and about.<\/p>\n

Paul <\/strong>So we\u2019re going to end this week. Gosh, this is a quicker week for once. I think we. And when? This week. This is actually May 12th to 14th,\u00a0 13th and 14th in particular, something the moon is actually passing Saturn. Now, the moon is at last quarter on the 12th. So if you like last quarter moons, you are. But you do have to get up in the morning. We\u2019re talking 4am again, as if of the twilight is beginning, though. The nights are getting lighter, of course, but on 13th and 14th, the moon is still on 13th to the lower right of Saturn on 14th. These to the lower left and of course, lower to the horizon as well. So that finishes our week by getting us to look into the morning sky. But to catch Saturn as well as they are, I would mention that Neptune technically is in the sky as well. But the twilight swamps it. I don\u2019t think you will really see Neptune. So we need to give that a few more weeks. And the problem with Neptune is that because it\u2019s faint, we\u2019re also going to find that as the sky gets lighter, it sort of overcompensate and swamps out poor Neptune for a while.\u00a0 It\u2019s why don\u2019t get too excited. Although I know it\u2019s in the sky, I don\u2019t get too excited yet because I know the sky brightness overwhelms it, which I think is a shame. But we got Saturn. We\u2019ll always have Saturn when we Ezzy.<\/p>\n

Ezzy <\/strong>We\u2019ll always have that. So to summarise, we begin the week on 8th to 9th of May when Venus is just coming into the constellation of Gemini. As Mars is starting to move out of it and Venus on 9th will also be near to M35 this new buckle cluster. Then on 8th to 10th, Saturn will be in the morning sky. It\u2019s a good opportunity to take a look at Saturn, perhaps even try tracking some of its moons. Then on the ninth, we have the Eta Lyrid meteor shower, a very minor shower. You might only expect to see one or so meteors an hour. But if you\u2019re out and about anyway, take a look at that one. Then on 12th to14th, we have the moon passing Saturn in the morning sky. So thank you very much, Paul, for taking the time to take us through all of those.<\/p>\n

Paul <\/strong>My pleasure.<\/p>\n

Ezzy Pearson<\/strong> If you want to keep up to date with all of the latest stargazing highlights, do be sure to subscribe to the Star Diary podcast and we hope to see you all here next week. If you want to find out even more spectacular sites that will be gracing the night sky throughout the month, be sure to pick up a copy of BBC Sky at Night magazine. Well, we have a 16 page pull out Sky Guide with a full overview of everything worth looking out for. 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 a detailed star charts to help you track your way across the night sky. From all of us here at BBC Sky and Night Magazine. Goodbye.<\/p>\n

Chris Bramley <\/strong>Thank you for listening to this episode of Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night magazine. For more of our podcasts, visit our website at www.skyatnightmagazine.com<\/a> or head to aCast, iTunes or Spotify.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

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