top of page
Search
  • milandavidovic55
    • Dec 15, 2022
    • 2 min read

The Night Sky April

April 2022

The Realm of the Galaxies

In Spring, as the disc of the night sky turns, so we are presented with an amazing view towards the SE - half way up in the sky. This area is simply called the Realm of the Galaxies. It is a super cluster of hundreds of galaxies dominating our place in space. To get a view you really need something more powerful than just your eyes. Our local group of Galaxies, including the Milky Way, has fewer than 40 galaxies, but this special area (called the Virgo Supercluster Cluster) contains THOUSANDS. No other spot in the sky for us has such a concentration. Each galaxy is enormous but are so distant that only powerful binoculars or telescope will spot them and even then they will appear a smudge of light. To find this area, locate Leo with its backward ‘question-mark’ head and find its rear. Next to it is the bowl shape of Virgo and above this is the Realm of Galaxies.




There is just too much in this area to take in! Here are just 3 galaxies of so many that could be chosen.



In order:

NGC 4535 Image Credit – ESA

This is a Barred Spiral Galaxy, the bar structure being seen across the core of the image. Spotted by William Herschel in 1785. The outer spiral contains hot blue young stars and working inwards, yellow cooler, older stars.



M61 Image Credit- Hunter Wilson

Is called an intermediate Barred Spiral Galaxy. It is classified as a starburst galaxy due to its high rate of star formation.



NGC 4567 & 4568 Image Credit- Bill and Marian Wallace Adam Block NOAO AURA NSF

Also known as the Siamese Twins Galaxies or the Butterfly Galaxy.. These are a pair of colliding Galaxies.(A fate that our own Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy are heading towards in 4.5 million years).


Towards the end of March, I spent a series of beautiful dark evenings gazing at this glittering treasure trove of galaxies. Needless to say I couldn’t see them all but ….just wow!


The Lyrids

This month (22nd) the Earth will pass through the path of Comet Thatcher that orbits the sun every 415 years. As the Earth goes around the sun we cross its path at the same time each year. As the comet journeys, it leaves behind a trail of small fragments that break off and when they hit our atmosphere at 110,000 miles per hour they streak across our night sky. Tiny grains travelling at massive speeds can create huge streaks across the sky that can last for seconds. The pieces all seem to originate from the same place in the sky called the radiant. The radiant is very close to the constellation of Lyra, hence the meteor shower being called the Lyrids.

For more information


Planetary Parade

On April 20th Jupiter, Neptune, Venus, Mars and Saturn will make a near perfect line before dawn. You will need to be able to see the horizon to spot Jupiter.



There are going to be quite a few opportunities to spot planetary alignments this year. For more information visit:


New Moon 1st April

Full Moon 16th April


Clear Skies

Milan Davidovic


17 views0 comments
  • milandavidovic55
    • Dec 15, 2022
    • 2 min read

The Plough

The Night Sky March 2022


Probably the only pattern in the sky that you have called by different names is ‘the Plough’ or ‘Big Dipper’. The prominent and recognisable pattern that we see is called an asterism, smaller than the whole constellation of Ursa Major. It has three stars making up its handle, attached to four others making up a bowl. This pattern is visible all year round and the handle seems to rotate clockwise around the North Star like the hand of a clock over the course of a night and anticlockwise during the year.



Diagram ModernSurvivalBlog.com


During Autumn it seems to be sleeping close to the horizon, in Winter the handle dangles downwards and in Spring it seems to spend the evening upside down. As you can imagine it has helped humankind measure the time of day (long before clocks), seasons (long before calendars) and the direction by its two end stars of the ‘bowl’ pointing towards north (long before compasses). Just for a moment try not to focus on this pattern but look wider and you will see that the whole Constellation of Ursa Major is much bigger. It is, in fact, the third largest constellation. This constellation is also known as The Greater Bear.




With a Great Bear superimposed you can see how the handle of the plough is the tail of the bear but its limbs go further outward in to the night sky.



There are many deep sky objects to find in this area but M101 is easy to find as it makes a triangle with the end two stars of the Bear’s tail. This object is spectacular as it is a face on galaxy. Many galaxies are unfortunately tilted or even edge on from us, but M101 has obligingly tilted itself so we have a full view. Similar in shape, with spiral arms, just like our own Milky Way, it is a monster of a galaxy twice the diameter of our own and contains approximately a trillion stars. Its nickname, the Pinwheel Galaxy, is easy to understand as it is similar to the Catherine Wheels we hammer on to a garden post on November 5th and then light, spraying sparking trails as it rotates. When you try to observe it, it may seem a faint smudge as I did in my garden in Embsay! (see below)



Photo Milan Davidovic 2019

But here it is below in its full glory!




Finally, although the patterns and stars that make up the Great Bear or Plough may seem the same distance to us, it is just an illusion. The diagram shows that each star varies considerably from each other.



These stars are in our Milky Way and are relatively close in the scheme of things.

As for M101- I couldn’t fit them on this diagram as it 21 MILLION light-years away!


Planets

A good time to view planets this month is early in the morning. In particular 28th March at 6.30am when you will see a waning crescent moon, Venus , Mars and Saturn low in the South East.


New Moon 2nd March

Full Moon 18th March

UK Summer time 27th March. (Spring forward!)




Clear Skies

Milan Davidovic

50 views0 comments
  • milandavidovic55
    • Jan 28, 2022
    • 3 min read

The Twins

February 2022


The Twins (or Gemini) is an easy constellation to spot because of its two bright points of light to the left of Orion and higher up in the sky. These are the stars Castor and Pollux which form the heads of The Twins. The Romans raised them into the skies as Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome. In Greek myth Castor was mortal but Pollux was not. When Castor was struck down, Pollux refused to accept his immortality unless Castor could share this too. Their fate was to alternate days between the world of the Gods and the underworld. (Hades)


Looking South-East 1st Feb 2022 at 10pm (or 15th at 9pm)




Above is the view you should see. Can you spot other constellations by comparing this photograph with the sky map above? (Image taken from Embsay.)




A closer look shows that it resembles a rectangle on its side.


Castor, viewed with an unaided eye, appears as a single point. With a small telescope two stars can be seen, but in reality it is an amazing system of six stars (3 pairs of binaries), whilst Pollux is one giant star - nine times our sun’s diameter and thirty times as bright!

Central to the star map above there is an open cluster, M35, mostly all hot blue stars but some are orange and yellow. (Photo below.)



Photo N.A.Sharp/NOAO/AURA/NSF


By looking at the cluster and from the stars present, it is clear that it is a relatively young group of stars at 175 million years. Depending on the power of your binoculars or telescope, you should see either a patch of light or a rich field of hundreds of stars! At the bottom right is NGC 2158, a much older cluster of about 2 billion years old.

James Webb Space Telescope Update

Looking back to my previous article you will have seen a link that gives you the latest information on the progress of the James Webb Telescope. Webb's Launch GSFC/NASA It is now just over 30 days after its launch and has arrived at its destination. When operational, expect some astounding discoveries; it has much better eyes! It has a six and a half metre mirror as compared to Hubble’s two and a half. It is powerful enough to detect the heat of a bumble bee on the moon I know that’s not likely to happen!). It is hoped it will catch the light of the first galaxies that were formed and also continue the search for other worlds. For now though, mission control will spend the next 2 months activating and fine-tuning the instruments on board. We hold our breath as the mirrors are focused because when its predecessor, Hubble, was launched, an error of one fiftieth of the thickness of a human hair in the mirror caused it to have blurred vision! Subsequent missions by the space shuttle eventually corrected this.

Dark Sky Festival

As we feel more comfortable about going out and about, there are places that are out in the open and are naturally ‘socially distanced’. This includes a whole month of events in North Yorkshire that centre around the seventh year of its own Dark Sky Festival. Late in 2020 the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors were designated an International Dark Sky Reserve. Below is an overview link to the 2022 festival, followed by two specific links to the North Yorks and Dales events.


Our dark sky is very precious and we all should try to protect it for ourselves and our grandchildren. There are many people who will never see the glory of a beautiful moonless dark sky. So save on electricity and turn unnecessary outside lights off please.

For us in Embsay and Eastby…. just a reminder how wonderful a dark sky can be, here’s that video again!!!!…

New Moon 1st February

Full Moon 16 Feburary

22 views0 comments

bottom of page