Venus, Mars and Regulus find themselves together in the night sky in this week\u2019s stargazing guide. <\/p>
What\u2019s in the night sky in the week of 3 to 9 July, 2023 in our weekly stargazing guide. Venus, Mars and Regulus find themselves together in the night sky in this week\u2019s stargazing guide.<\/p>
Chris Bramley\u00a0<\/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\u00a0www.skyatnightmagazine.com<\/a>\u00a0or digital edition by visiting on iTunes or Google Play.<\/p>\n Ezzy Pearson<\/strong> Greetings listeners and welcome to Star Diary, a weekly guide to the best things to see in the Northern hemisphere\u2019s night sky. As we\u2019re based here in the uk, all times are in BST. In this episode, we\u2019ll be covering the coming week from 3 to 9 of July. I\u2019m Ezzy Pearson and I\u2019m joined this week by Paul Money.<\/p>\n Paul Money <\/strong>Hello there, Ezzy.<\/p>\n Ezzy<\/strong>\u00a0Hello Paul. Good to see you again. So can you tell me what we\u2019ve got to look forward to in this month\u2019s night sky?<\/p>\n Paul<\/strong>\u00a0Well, we\u2019re hanging on to those inferior planets.<\/a> I always think inferior planets sounds sad, don\u2019t it, sort of thing.<\/p>\n Ezzy<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, yeah.<\/p>\n Paul<\/strong>\u00a0Cause you know the inferior. No, no, they\u2019re, they\u2019re quite superior to us really. They\u2019ve got some fantastic features on them. Mars and Venus of course were talking about.<\/p>\n Ezzy<\/strong>\u00a0I, for years, thought they were interior planets because they\u2019re-<\/p>\n Paul <\/strong>That would be common sense, wouldn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n Ezzy <\/strong>-inside the Earth. Yeah. Yes. I mean, it\u2019s probably like if you look into the etymology of the words, it\u2019s related, but yeah.<\/p>\n Paul<\/strong>\u00a0Yes, of course. The inner planets are the inferior ones and the outer planets are the superior ones. Which makes you think, that\u2019s why Jupiter thinks it\u2019s the king. It\u2019s superior.<\/p>\n Ezzy <\/strong>I think that\u2019s more to do with the fact that it can eat all of the others and fit them inside, but\u2026<\/p>\n Paul <\/strong>Oh, definitely. [laughs]. Oh dear. Well, we\u2019re sticking with the evening sky at the moment and yes, we\u2019re back with Venus<\/a> and Mars<\/a>. They, Mars now makes that almost perfect apex of a shallow triangle with Venus to the right, lower right. And then ironically, Regulus<\/a> is almost level in Mars now. Regulus is in a bright background. We\u2019ve got a bright sky. So the key here is use a pair of binoculars<\/a>. Should be able to get them all in the field of view of a good 10 x 50 or 7 x 50 binocular. And you should be able to pick out this very faint star to the left of Mars. But Mars is to the upper left of Venus as well. This is on 3 July, around about 11 o\u2019clock. If you leave it any later, they\u2019ll set. So we are getting to that period whereby we have this short period as the sky, the Sun sets, and then they set too quickly. So we don\u2019t have a lot of time sort of thing, about an hour and a half or such, which sounds a lot, but trust me, when you\u2019re looking towards the horizon, things seem to get to the horizon rather quicker than you expect.<\/p>\n Ezzy <\/strong>Yeah, it\u2019s that sort of, it\u2019s kind of like the same thing as the Moon illusion<\/a>. So the Moon illusion, when the Moon is closer to the horizon, it looks bigger because you\u2019ve got more of a flame\u2026 frame of reference. And I find it\u2019s a very similar thing with stuff that\u2019s when it\u2019s moving to the horizon. Because you can\u2019t tell how far something\u2019s moving across the top of the sky, but when you can see it like next to a tree or something, it suddenly seems much faster.<\/p>\n Paul <\/strong>It is. It\u2019s a matter of perspective, isn\u2019t it something? Mm-hmm. When you\u2019ve got familiar objects, you know where they are, so you can see the movement quite quickly. But high up, well, you know, I\u2019d challenge anybody with a naked eye to look and say, \u201ccan you see the movement of the Moon?\u201d I usually wait at least an hour and then you think, oh yeah, I can see one or two stars, the positions are slightly different and the same as at the moment with Mars and Venus as well, but we haven\u2019t got many stars because of the twilight<\/a>. Now, Mars will creep closer to regulars during the course of the week, but the big problem is of course, they\u2019re getting lower and the skies are quite light. So the light evening nights are really not helping them as such. But, this is why we\u2019ve got Venus. Venus is acting as a guide. It\u2019s a brilliant planet. I mean, you can\u2019t mistake Venus. Although having said that, we\u2019re not far away from regularly used RAF base. So I have seen some bright lights going across and realise it isn\u2019t Venus it\u2019s actually one of the Typhoons taken off as such. So you know, so I do bear\u2026 if it\u2019s moving, it could be the International Space Station<\/a> as well. . So that\u2019s the other thing to bear in mind, \u2019cause that\u2019ll be over in the west as well. Of course we don\u2019t do the timings for that simply because they can vary. We could say one night, the timing, and I\u2019ve literally had it done to me. They, they raised the orbit the next night. So it totally changed the timings.<\/p>\n Ezzy <\/strong>And to be honest, these days there are so many satellites that people can see. Generally can\u2019t see them if you are visually observing, it\u2019s only if you\u2019re doing astrophotography that you need to worry about most satellites. But\u2026 there are websites that you can go online and find out where those are. Um, we have a guide if you want to try and find where the ISS is on any given night on the website as well. I\u2019ll put a link down to that in the show notes if you are interested in finding out more.<\/p>\n Paul <\/strong>And of course if it\u2019s passing over, give it a wave.<\/p>\n Ezzy <\/strong>\u00a0Let them know someone\u2019s thinking of them.<\/p>\n Paul <\/strong>Yes, exactly.<\/p>\n Ezzy<\/strong>\u00a0Quite far away from home<\/p>\n Paul <\/strong>Actually. Some astronomers a couple of years ago actually, some group of American astronomers that I know actually did do an experiment with an astronaut on board. I think it might have been Don Pettit, but I can\u2019t remember exactly. And they deliberately aimed green lasers up. And they were able to see it from the ISS. This little group of people with these lasers pointing up. Of course we don\u2019t usually recommend green lasers \u2019cause they are very powerful.<\/p>\n Ezzy <\/strong>No,<\/p>\n Paul <\/strong>But they were doing this for a very specific experiment to see how visible they would be from the ISS.<\/p>\n Ezzy <\/strong>I\u2019m going to put a disclaimer on that one. I am pretty sure pointing lasers up into the sky is illegal in the UK. Um, or at least it\u2019s illegal to point them at other\u2026 at vehicles, at planes and such. ISS is probably a little bit out of that jurisdiction. But yes, please don\u2019t point lasers into the sky, unless you have a lot of licenses saying that you can.<\/p>\n Paul<\/strong> Now, we often miss out the points of things like full Moon<\/a>, unless there\u2019s an eclipse, but I particularly like this one where on 3 July, the full Moon actually lies down in Sagittarius<\/a>. The only reason why I pointed out is that. When it\u2019s in Sagittarius, it\u2019s really low. But the ironic thing is we\u2019ve got the light summer nights, so the full Moon doesn\u2019t have as big an impact on the night sky when it\u2019s low down in Sagittarius and it\u2019s in the summer, as it would do say a full Moon in the wintertime when it\u2019ll be high up in the dark sky.<\/p>\n So I, ironically, full Moon doesn\u2019t have that much of an effect for observers at this particular time of year simply because of its position and the fact that we have got the light nights as well. But it is full Moon on 3 July. So, uh, have a look at that \u2019cause people do like looking at the Moon, don\u2019t they?<\/p>\n They do like looking at full Moons. Um, they\u2019ll often talk about, you know, seeing whether they can see the difference. Again, it goes back to what we said earlier. I mean, physically seeing the difference. It\u2019s very difficult visually to actually see the difference from one- can you remember what the Moon size look like a month earlier?<\/p>\n Ezzy<\/strong>\u00a0No<\/p>\n Paul <\/strong>I certainly can\u2019t. I don\u2019t think I know anybody who actually can.<\/p>\n Ezzy <\/strong>The Moon is always smaller than I think it is. Yes. Which is, is that that a thing again of having very little frame of reference when you\u2019re looking at things up in the night sky.<\/p>\n Paul<\/strong> I was always amazed when I was a kid to read that you could blot it out with your little fingernails. I held up my arm at arms length and put it up and arms- I was absolutely amazed. The Moon disappeared behind my finger. Yeah. You know, and you do think it\u2019s huge, but, it wasn\u2019t, and it isn\u2019t, I\u2019m afraid.<\/p>\n Now we\u2019ll stick with the Moon because we have to jump a, a few days ahead because we haven\u2019t got a great deal happening this month. And so we, we jumped to 7 to 8 July, and we\u2019re actually again- now the Moon is passing Saturn<\/a>. So on 7th , it\u2019s to the lower right of Saturn. Saturn is in Aquarius at the moment, and then on 8th, it\u2019s actually to the far left of Saturn, but it actually forms again, a shallow triangle with Neptune<\/a>. But you\u2019ve gotta bear in mind you won\u2019t see Neptune with the naked eye sky<\/a>. So, you know, it\u2019s well worth having a lookout for the following the Moon. And the Moon does guide us to various other objects as well. We often use it to guide us to some of the more prominent double stars. Along the ecliptic<\/a> itself.<\/p>\n