The Night Sky April 2023

Our Closest Star.

Remarkably, I’ve never really written about our Sun in any detail. There are many reasons for that. Usually, it’s too bright to observe with your eyes alone unless they are protected and even then the features are not fixed as it is in effect a ball of mostly gas! Never-the-less NEVER try to observe the sun directly.

In modern times we have recorded the Sun’s solar cycle of activity and we are currently on Cycle 25. The last cycle lasted 11 years and had the lowest activity since records began in 1755. December 2019 marked the start of the new Cycle so it’s easy to work out we are heading towards peak activity (2025). It may not seem important and in some ways we are protected from the ravages of its activity but it can, and does, have an effect on our everyday life. During an active period it can impact on communications, power grids, GPS and electronics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFT7ATLQQx8

A powerful solar flare is measured using a scale - the smallest being B-class followed by C, M and X being the strongest. Within each letter there is a scale of 1 to 9. During 2003 at the solar maximum a flare was so strong it was estimated to be well off the scale!

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/remembering-the-historic-solar-storms-of-2003

The sun also has spots! Sun spots are a dark area where activity on the surface uncovers cooler regions and they appear as dots. It is a bit of a fallacy that sunspots affect the weather but they are an indication of solar activity and that does have an impact. Click the link below to see how sunspots develop actively on the Sun’s surface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SungFXUsoqw

Northern Lights

You will be familiar with the idea of solid, liquid and gas but there is a fourth state of matter called plasma. It can carry a charge and be bent by magnetic fields like our own Earth’s. When the Sun is active it can spew plasma towards the Earth. This is called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The electrical charge can collide with the gases in our atmosphere to create wonderful displays which we know in the north as the Northern Lights.

Photo Milan Davidovic

It is very unusual to be able to see them as far south as Yorkshire but recently, places as far south as Cornwall experienced them. There are apps that you can have on your mobile or computer that will alert you if there is a chance of seeing them. https://aurorawatch.lancs.ac.uk/

One word of advice; sometimes your eyes can’t pick up the wavelengths of light but a camera can. Take some snaps, you may get lucky!

Looking North. 20th April at 10 pm

If you have a telescope or binoculars then try to find Bodes Galaxy (see diagram above).

Photo- Milan Davidovic. Bode’s Galaxy (M81) from Embsay

The light collected in my camera for this image set off 12 million years ago. This is roughly when our first common ancestors with chimpanzees evolved. Bodes Galaxy is a beautiful spiral galaxy, alongside to the right is the Cigar Galaxy (M82) a starburst galaxy and has high levels of star formation.

Looking South. 20th April at 10 pm

If you want to find out about the Realm of the Galaxies and the Lyrids (Meteor Storm) both visible this month then click below, find my blog then scroll down to April 2022 where I wrote about them last year.

https://milandavidovic55.wixsite.com/mysite/home

Please note when looking back at earlier articles the position of planets and appearance of comets vary from year to year.

Full Moon -Thursday April 6th

New Moon - Thursday April 20th

Clear Skies

Milan Davidovic

The Night Sky March 2023

Star Trail

In mid-February I decided to leave my camera pointing upward to capture the trail of the stars arcing across the Embsay sky (see below). Unsurprisingly, it captured a classic astronomy image seen in many books and magazines. Polaris (the Pole Star) is fixed to one point, whilst others spin around this point : the further away from the Pole Star the larger the arc travelled.

I decided to ‘clean up’ the image by removing all of the wayward streaks but thought you would like to see what the unedited version looked like.

In this image, it is not just star trails we see. Firstly, there is the big bright arc. This is the International Space Station passing overhead. It is incredibly bright compared to the arcs made by the stars. You may be wondering why the break in the trail? My camera is set to open for 6 seconds, gather in all the light it can and shut, then it takes a while to process the image then open again for the next shot, hence the delay/gaps in recording. Smaller dotted or dashed lines tell the same story but they record satellites or aeroplanes. Our night sky is very busy place.

Our Night Sky this month.

Looking North 22nd March 9pm 2023 (Diagram produced by Stellarium)

Looking South 22nd March 9pm 2023 (Diagram produced by Stellarium)

Our Constellation this month is Leo.

Leo is a constellation rich in many galaxies and it is easy to find. Look South-East (from Embsay over the top of the quarry) and half way up in the sky there will be what looks like a large backwards question mark! This forms the lion’s mane and the triangle of stars to the left are its hind quarters. In Greek mythology this is the lion killed by Hercules. The bottom bright star of the inverted question mark is Regulus. If you have binoculars you may be able to spot The Beehive Cluster https://science.nasa.gov/m44-beehive-cluster close by, also known as M44. It is a cluster of dozens of stars. With a telescope you may be able to find the Leo Triplet, three faint galaxies together. These are some of the finest galaxy groupings for us to view in our night sky.

Just in case you still can’t find Leo this will help.

https://littleastronomy.com/how-to-find-the-leo-constellation/

A map of the constellation Leo the lion. Image via IAU and Sky & Telescope

Photo: Milan Davidovic . Leo Triplet (M56, M66, NGC 3628)

On the left M66 is a bright spiral galaxy, probably the brightest of the three. M65 at the bottom is a beautiful edge-on spiral, highly inclined to our view. Finally NGC 3628 at the top, lower in brightness and showing a dust line that extends the whole width of the galaxy. No apologies for how difficult it is to find this group (It took me years without the right gear) but it is worth the search!

The March Equinox

At the March equinox, day and night are the same length (more-or-less). It marks the beginning of spring and the days become longer. The Earth is bolt upright not tilted towards or away from the Sun.

Planets

March 1st

Jupiter and Venus will be a moon’s width apart in the West at 7.40pm

In general, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus are in the West during the evening whilst Saturn is a morning object in the East.

Full Moon 7th March

New Moon 21st March

March 26th British Summer Time begins.

Read more and past articles by clicking my blog at

https://milandavidovic55.wixsite.com/mysite/home

Clear Skies

Milan Davidovic

February Night Sky

The Night Sky 2023

Astronomy with your mobile.

Yes - it is possible! You can get a decent image of the moon and some of the brighter stars with a handheld mobile, particularly if you have night mode. This will remove camera shake and cope with the vastly differing light level. Better still, you can buy an attachment for a tripod or even a gadget to add a lens to the front that will allow you to zoom in. If you do have a telescope, it is possible to get an adapter to hold it in position over the eye piece to get some amazing results. Below is a link that may give you some ideas that you may want to try.

https://www.photographingspace.com/smartphone-part-1/

Imaging is a bit of a rabbit hole and can divert you away from just pure observing - but you will then have a record and something you can share with others!

Looking at the night sky this month.

Looking North February 20th at 10pm (or 6th Feb at 11pm)

Triangulum Galaxy

This is close by the Triangulum constellation looking low in the NW. Three stars form this triangle and I suppose any three would do it! But it seems these particular stars and shape were known and recorded by the Greeks 2000 years ago. It may be because there are many interesting objects close by the shape.

The Triangulum Galaxy

M33 or NGC 598

Under dark skies the galaxy is just visible to the naked eye. Within this region is a huge region of starbirth or stellar nurseries.

Photo Milan Davidovic

Embsay 2020

Update . Also the comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) may become visible to the naked eye . At its closest to us and given favourable conditions it will appear green with a tail (evening of Feb 1st), Between the horizon and the moon looking north.

There is plenty to look at in this region.

https://theskylive.com/sky/constellations/triangulum-constellation

Looking South February 20th at 10pm (or 6th Feb at 11pm)

When looking south, the imaginary line of the ecliptic (see last month’s article) runs half way up the sky from east to west. Mars is now moving from west to east along this path and beginning to fade as its distance from us increases.

Last month I wrote about the Quadrantids meteor shower. Some lucky people across the country were able to see a possible fireball from this shower as it entered the earth’s atmosphere burning up as it did so. https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/huge-shooting-star-meteor-trail-25935522

Full Moon 5th February

New Moon 20th February

Clear Skies

Milan Davidovic