The Unicorn

January 2022

You may not have heard of the constellation of Monoceros (the Unicorn), and to be honest it is pretty unimpressive to the naked eye. This is not surprising when its neighbour is the very famous blingy Orion! Try not to succumb to this and identify the fainter stars and shape of the Unicorn. With a pair of binoculars (or better still a telescope), it is a treasure trove of magical objects.

Looking South-East at 10pm on 2nd January (or 9pm on 16th January)

There are many other treasures to be discovered in this region.

At the top of the constellation there is the amazing (upside-down) Christmas Tree.

NGC 2264 is its designation number and is made up of two objects. The Cone Nebula and the Christmas Tree Cluster.

Photo- Dylan O’Donnell 2018

(Tree correct way up!)

Moving down the constellation is a Nebula that Edwin Hubble noticed varies in brightness over very short time periods, aptly called Hubble’s Variable Nebula.

Photo- Rick J of Cloudy Nights

Below that is the incredible Rosette Nebula, quite faint but a true winter showpiece. Its size is inconceivable at approximately 764,200,000,000,000 miles across!

Photo- Dylan O’Donnell 2019

Lower down in the sky is an ordinary- looking star to the naked eye. However, with a bit of magnification it resolves in to a beautiful triple star.

Photo- Marco Spiller

Finally, there is NGC 2346, a very faint and illusive butterfly-shaped nebula. The formation has been created when a star ejected its material near the end of its life.

Photo- Astronomy.com

There are some special events for this year, some of which I will cover in these articles nearer the time. In October there will be a partial solar eclipse of the Sun over Embsay similar to the one last year with about a quarter of the sun being blotted out by the black disc of the moon.

Much later in the year, during December 2022, Mars is going to be a real treat (no pun intended!). It has an orbit further out from the sun than us and therefore takes longer to go around the sun. We don’t get a close look every year but in December 2022 it will be on the same side of the sun travelling alongside and we will be able to get a close look.

Planets

At the beginning of the month we will be treated to another line-up of planets in the South West. Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury with the waxing crescent Moon in the late afternoon.

New Moon 2nd January

Full Moon 17th January

Clear Skies

Milan Davidovic

AllSky All night!

Happy New Year 2022!

For those of you who can't stay awake to watch a full moonless night sky here in Embsay here it is! Starting with a the International Space Station (bottom left ) in the first 2 seconds of the clip. To add to the drama clouds roll in as the street lights are turned off only to part again to reveal the sky in all of its glory!

Enjoy and clear skies !

Orion and its Gems

The Night Sky

December 2021

Orion and and its hidden treasures.

During this time of year, one of the most popular sights is the Orion constellation. Not many other sights are instantly recognisable in the night sky. Orion was a hunter in Greek myth. He maintained he could kill all living beasts, so a goddess sent out scorpions to kill him. The story is played out in the sky ‘for real’ as the constellation of Scorpio rises in the east, Orion sinks defeated in the West.

Looking South East on 4th December at 10pm (or 18th December at 9pm)

Here is a still from a time lapse ‘AllSky’ video I uploaded to Embsay Update recently. You can see Orion clearly at the lower right-hand corner.

Orion holds some amazing areas to observe with just your eyes, binoculars or telescope.

Unaided, you can see the three stars that form Orion’s belt and hanging from it is his sword. The sword contains the fuzzy blob of the Orion Nebula (M42 or Na’jr al Saif). This is a star cluster in the process of being created and one of our nearest star factories. With the aid of binoculars this area will appear pink.

Photo Milan Davidovic Jan 2017

With a telescope, at the heart of the cluster you will spot four closely grouped bright stars called the Trapezium. In my photo (above) they seem to merge into a white bright patch, first spotted by Galileo and recorded in a book of 1610. The Hubble Telescope has since studied these and each star has a mass between 15 to 30 times that of the sun.

Just below the left-most star (Alnitak), in Orion’s belt, is the Horsehead Nebula. Also known as Barnard 33, this ‘chess piece’ knight shape has been formed by interstellar material being lit from nearby stars. Here is an image I took 3 years ago from Embsay. It is also possible to see the Flame Nebula below and to the left. It is not possible to see this with just your eyes and even with a camera attached to a telescope it takes several minutes of light to be gathered to get this one image.

Photo Milan Davidovic Jan 2018

James Webb Space Telescope.

This month on 18th December, we will all hold our breath as the long-awaited launch of the James Webb Space Telescope will take place. It has a 6.5-metre-wide ‘eye’ that will see things we have never been able to see before. It will be able to see the faint light of the first galaxies and stars. To be able to catch this light that has travelled so long will be like looking further back in time. The challenges in getting this equipment into space have been huge. This has included a sun shield, bigger than a tennis court, that has been ‘folded’ into the nose-cone of the launch vehicle, sent 1.5 million km into space to be able to automatically unfold to protect the telescope. The process of unfolding will take over a month! It is being placed in a special position in space called Lagrange Point 2, which is on the other side of the moon to us where the gravity of the Sun, Moon and Earth balance out. This will mean that it will remain precisely positioned to do its work. If the James Webb Telescope is as successful as its predecessor, The Hubble Telescope, we will be in for some amazing discoveries as well as a better understanding of our Universe.

Webb's Launch GSFC/NASA

The Winter solstice is at 15.59 on 21st December and is the shortest day of the year. It is not a whole day and lasts only a moment. It is when the Earth for us is tilted as far away from the sun as much as possible. This means the sun’s path across the sky is as low as possible. Shadows are at their longest. It is a misconception that the Earth is furthest from the Sun.

New Moon 4th December

Full Moon 19th December

Clear Skies

Milan Davidovic