Spacetime Sunday: August at night

August is a great month for the Moon- or I should say Supermoon! There is also the Perseid meteor shower, and plenty of planetary happenings. Eyes up!

The Moon
This month, on the 10th, the moon will be super-duper-extraly-supermoonful. It is not only a full moon on the same day as perigee, but at the same hour! So its the brightest of our three in a row supermoon roll. Make sure you don’t miss it, especially when it is rising and so nearer the horizon, thanks to the tricks that our eyes get up to which make it seem even bigger! Moonrise for my area takes place around 8:12pm, and you can check yours here: Moonrise/Moonset

Perseids
The only annoying thing is that the Perseids are due to peak on the 11-13th Aug..and the moon will be nearly full and hence very bright. So the best time to try and see these meteors are either early August, around the two hours before dawn, or nearer the 11-13th after moon set or just before moonrise…though that may be difficult. But still try!
The Perseids occur every August as we swing through a Comet trail. As the name suggests, they will originate from Perseus, in the NNE sky.

Planets
Neptune is nearest earth on Aug 29, and will be visible with binoculars in Aquarius. This is the last planet before the Kuiper belt, and the outer reaches of our solar system. This was a hypothetical planet, only implied in equations before its discovery in 1846. Neptune is a really interesting place, and you can find out more about it here: Neptune Facts

The other planets visible this month are Mars and Saturn in the southwest sky, Saturn lovely and bright and higher than Mars. The moon will cross in between the two one hour after sunset on the 3rd which will look great.

On august 18th, looking east before dawn, Jupiter and Venus will look like they are touching, appearing on the sky very close together. This is worth getting up for!

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/Venusaug14.jpg

The ISS is also back over england, and I’m determined to see that at least once this month! You can find out where it’ll be near you in the links on my Astronomy Page 

Spacetime Sunday: May at night

This month has some great stuff going on at night! We pass through the trail of a comet on the 24th and that could make for quite the display. More planets are poking their heads up, too.

The dissertation went in last Monday, hence the lack of blog, so apologies for that. But I’m so glad it has gone in.
Second point: May the fourth be with you.

Okay, with the formalities over, let’s get to it.

Planets

 

Mosaic image of Mercury (ESA)

Saturn (NASA)

The two reigning planets are moving off the front of the show- Mars is still around but will begin to fade, and Jupiter is above the moon at the moment and will be nearby for a few days. Saturn takes centre stage as it moves into opposition on the 10th and is shining brightly below and to the east of Mars- possibly a little close to the horizon, especially if, like me, you have city lights to the south. If you have a telescope, it’s definitely worth taking a look as the rings are really visible due to the angle Saturn is at relative to us lately, and you’ll possibly even see a few of its moons. Saturn has always been my favourite, it is so dramatic, one of those ones you dream of seeing loom large on the horizon whilst stood on the surface of one of the moons. (I’d pick Enceladus given the latest news of water beneath its surface!)

Venus is a pre dawn delight for you crazy early birds, rising about an hour before dawn, Mercury will be brightening- best viewings for that one will be later in the month towards the west, and there’s a full moon on May 14th.

Meteoric May
The best thing about May is not one, but possibly two meteor showers. The Eta Aquarids, peaking tonight and tomorrow night, though since Aquarius is currently below the horizon in the East as I write this, you might only glimpse them in the northern hemisphere just before sunrise- if you’re up then make sure you look! The second one is hopefully going to be incredible, with astronomers saying there could be up to 1000 an hour! Eyes peeled on the 24th for that high in the northern sky. This is very tentative though; earth is going to sail through the debris tail of a comet (209P/LINEAR) and so we don’t really know too much of what might happen. I’ll definitely be going somewhere rural just in case though; this is a rare treat and it could be spectacular! For more meteor typed news, check out meteorwatch.org!

If you manage to get any pictures please share them with us!
Keep tuned for all sorts of fun things happening in spacetime and check out the Astronomy & Space page for more fun stuff.

New Feature! Spacetime Sunday

Welcome to the new feature of my blog: Spacetime Sunday. The idea is to share things about astronomy and space(time), and demystify various topics.

Also, on the first Sunday of the month, I’ll fill you in on various stargazing events in the Northern hemisphere that anyone can see, for example planets rising and other points of interest.

A few ideas I’ve had so far:

• Why is the sky blue?
• What is spacetime?
• Why do we need Space agencies like NASA?
• Monthly stargazing opportunities
• Featured Constellations and how to find them

I’d really like it if people could tell me things they’d like me to talk about so leave a comment letting me know.

I’ll be writing it (hopefully) in a way everyone can understand. I’ll also shortly be adding a page where I can collect useful links, blogs, etc related to Astronomy and space.