The Leonids meteor shower and Jupiter’s moons pass in front of the planet’s in this week’s stargazing guide. Find out how to catch them and other astronomy highlights in Star Diary 13 to 19 November 2023.
Chris: Hello and welcome to Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky and Night Magazine. You can subscribe to the print edition of skyatnightmagazine.com or to our digital edition by visiting iTunes or Google Play.
Ezzy: Greetings listeners, and welcome to Star Diary, a weekly guide to the best things to see in the Northern Hemisphere's night sky. As we are based here in the UK, all times are in GMT. In this episode, we'll be covering the coming week from 13 to 19 November.
I'm features editor Ezzy Pearson, and I'm joined by reviews editor Paul Money. Hello, Paul.
Paul: Hello, Ezzy. Really good one this week. We start off with a good one.
Ezzy: I think, seems like we've been having a run of good weeks lately. Please, do let us know what we've got coming up and what we've got to look forward to.
Paul: Well, you know how these TV programs often go "previously on..." well previously on our previous Star podcast, we actually had the opposition of Jupiter ten days ago. Now on November 13th, it's Uranus time! Gotta be careful how you sell that, don't you?
The green giant is at opposition today. So that's the 13th of November.
And that again means... Opposition means it's visible all night, of course, rising with the Sun setting, and setting as the Sun rises, etc. Now, Uranus, we've mentioned in the past that Uranus is technically naked eye. It really does need good eyesight. Dark skies sort of thing. Absolutely no light pollution and no clutter in the sky, and it's always handy if there's something nearby, but not too bright.
This is why we couldn't really see it that well with the Moon near it, a few weeks ago weeks ago. But it's magnitude +5.6 it, I mean, it's fairly easy to find because it lied directly between Jupiter and the Pleiades forming a bit of a shallow triangle. The interesting thing is there aren't many stars of the same brightness around it.
In fact, there are very few. There's a little group of them, a triangle above Uranus sort of thing. So if you find this triangle and there's another dot below it. You are likely to be looking at Uranus with a naked eye.
Now, you do need good dark skies. I mean, without a shadow of a doubt. But, I used to be able to do it before I had to wear spectacles, but now, um, ah yes.
I haven't seen it with the naked eye, i.e. with the spectacles. The trouble is, even with these multi coatings you can get for your spectacles, you still have a certain amount diminished, unfortunately. But I have seen it in the past before I wore spectacles when it was visible. I was quite gobsmacked.
But you do need a good star chart. And of course, that's where you refer to the magazine for star charts for this. But it's well worth having a look at. It does present a very small disc. It's only a few arc seconds across. But it is worth looking at. And, if you got, if you got a telescope to look at the disc, just make sure it does look greenish.
Really does look a greenish sort of thing. I've often thought of putting a picture up and just showing a picture of a pea. But I think somebody noticed that sort of thing. But it is quite, it's, I think it's a subtle green personally. It's not a, you know, really blazingly obvious green. But it's also got five moons.
And we've mentioned the moons of Saturn, we've mentioned the moons of Juptier over the last few weeks. Uranus has got five moons.
Now, two of them, I wouldn't say are easy. You do need decent aperture and quite a decent amount of magnification, but Titania and Obron are the two easiest, followed by Ariel, and they were the first ones I ever saw.
Umbriel lies between Titania and Ariel, but Umbriel's faint. It's a darker moon. Voyager found that out when they flew past. They found it was a darker.... they thought it was more boring, but they found two bright... one ring and one central peak of a mountain, just slightly brighter, as if slumping had taken place to expose fresh ice.
So that's why I said we need to go back. I want to know whether there's more slumping or anything like that. Or is the other side of Umbria even more interesting? We don't know.
So it is quite faint. So that's a tough one.
And then Miranda, it's quite close to the glare of the planet, so really it is a challenge.
And I remember many, many years ago, I, like many people, wrote to Patrick Moore. And he sent the the typical, you know, typed postcard back. But yes, I could almost do in his voice like: "yes, yes, I, I've seen all five of my 15 inch reflector", sort of thing, but Miranda is the hardest . And I had a 14 inch at the time, and I'd picked out four of them three of them.
So, uh, I was determined to get, and I eventually did get them all, but it is a quite a challenge.
I actually have an occulting disc to block out the glare of Uranus is handy. And you can use that technique to hide the glare of the planet and then pick out any phantom moons next to it. So, you know, if you like challenges, have a go at them.
Ezzy: So is that kind of a similar principle to like, coronagraphs where they block out the sort of center sun of it, like it literally, you put something in front of Uranus?
Paul: Yes. Yeah. What you do is you have to have a line, an absolutely crystal... It's got to be perfectly in focus, but it's a little strip of metal that creates a zone whereby you maneuver the planet.
This is where in the past, of course, when you use, you know, just slow motion controls, you're constantly jiggling it to keep Uranus behind the bar. Now we're spoilt with these GoTo telescopes.
I say spoiled. I used to be against GoTo and then I reviewed my first one for the magazine and I was sold on it. Sold on it so much I bought the thing.
I mean that's a terrible thing being reviews editor. I ended up buying the equipment. I'll never have any money, you know. I'm always buying equipment.
But yeah, this bar, it's an occulting bar. And basically you position the planet, so it's behind it and you angle the bi, you have it inside your eyepiece sort of thing, you know, at the focal point.
And so you tilt it until you can get it behind it and it leaves the Moon available. I mean, you know, the, the, it depends on the how clar-, how good the clarity is of the sky. 'cause there will be a little bit of glare.
But it's surprising what you can see. And you can do this for double stars as well, really faint double stars.
You block out the primary and you can pick out the faint secondary.
So good way of doing it for Sirius and the pup sort of thing, because Sirius is so bright and he's in the morning sky now. Oh it's back! It's back! But it's a challenge, I must admit.
Ezzy: But we always like a challenge here. So if there are any listeners at home who fancy a challenge, maybe that's a new technique that you can look into trying when you get home.
Paul: Now! The good news, 13 November is also new Moon day. Yay! The Moon's out of the way. Obviously, if you're an observer of the Moon, you're sad, unless it's an eclipse.
Which, of course, the other, the other month the Americans had the annular, the ring of fire, eclipse, the annulus where the Moon was further away slightly.
So of course you got a ring of the sun still visible, which still means you have to use the proper safe solar filters, you know, sort of thing. People thought it was similar to a fully eclipse. We're buying, oh, we can take the glasses off. No, not during an annular. You've gotta keep them on if.
Ezzy: If any of the, the Sun's disc is visible, you need to be wearing full proper protection.
Paul: Exactly. But with it being new, this is a great time to catch, and I still, I mean, we're November now, and yet, if you time it right, around about six o'clock in the evening, you still get part of Sagittarius over in the southwest. You've got some of the summer sky. Going up through Serpens into Aquila, through Delphinus and Sagittarius into Cygnus, then arching right across the sky, you've got Cepheus, you've got then Cassiopeia, and then it drops down through Perseus towards Auriga, and Taurus rising in the northeast.
I think it's amazing, it's November, and we've still got something that we'd normally class as the summer sky, but it actually means you've got, you've got summer constellations, you've got... autumn constellations which are right in the middle of the sky, so they're perfectly placed.
And then we've got the first signs of the winter constellations, which of course if you're an astronomer sort of thing, winter, yes, dark skies, etc.
So you get excited.
Ezzy: Bearing in mind that when you say something is a summer constellation or an autumn constellation, that just means that's the month when it's best viewed. It doesn't mean it's the month that it's only viewable. Um. Some of these constellations are visible for, for many, many months as they travel across the sky.
Paul: Yes, I always find it fascinating sort of thing to think that we can, it's like the Summer Triangle, we're talking about the Summer Triangle's still up, you know, so Altair, Vega and Deneb sort of thing, and they'll be up right through almost into December.
So, you know, it's surprising how long you can see the Summer Triangle for. Definitely, you know, sort of like in the spring, summer, autumn, um, yeah, three, three, three seasons. I think we should rename it the Three Seasons Triangle.
Ezzy: One star for each season.
Paul: Yeah, exactly. Now, last week we mentioned a lot about the transits of the moons of Jupiter, because we're at that phase at the moment where they're happening quite regular.
And so, again, on 14th, so the next night, uh, we're talking about, well, just after five o'clock ish.
So keep an eye, actually, on Jupiter. It'll be low down, because obviously it's rising sort of thing. So, you know. But it's in the evening twilight. And Callisto, it's an interesting thing, Callisto will be, appear to be gliding, slowly moving under the actual disk of the planet, so that's not causing the transit.
But Europa and its shadow will start to transit the disk, and there's quite a gap between Europa and its shadow, so Europa will move a on, then you'll have to wait, I'm not sure how many minutes, but you'll have to wait several minutes before the shadow then appears on the disc as well.
So, you know, with anything with these transits, you really ought to have a telescope and a decent amount of magnification to watch, but they're fascinating to watch. And again, you're watching the Solar System, in operation, real time, as you see the moons go past.
But I think it's just fascinating they've got this transit taking place while you've got the furthest of the four Galilean moons actually passing underneath Jupiter as well, just missing because it's further out from Jupiter, so it's orbit plane, because Jupiter's only slightly tilted, it's not a big tilt, but it's enough.
that Callisto will appear to, uh, actually miss the actual disk itself. It'll take a while before we actually see transits of Callisto going across Jupiter.
Ezzy: I always think it's nice when you can get a nice close in view of Jupiter, you know, sort of good enough to be able to see the, the bands and perhaps even the Great Red Spot.
And also get in a couple of the moons as well, which you can't always do, so that's always really nice when you can be able to do all of those things together.
Paul: It's where you always hope for the clear skies, don't you?
Ezzy: Yes, that is always the thing.
Paul: I don't want to jinx things, folks.
Now, two days later, we're talking about the crescent moon. We was at new on 13th. Well, by the 16th, it's, it's very low. We mentioned the ecliptic the other week and the fact that the giant planets were below the ecliptic. Now the Moon, its orbit means that during the course of the full month, it actually moves often from the below the ecliptic, the southern part of the ecliptic, and then crosses and then goes into the northern side.
At the moment, we're going through a phase in the evening sky where it's below the ecliptic. So sometimes, at different times of the year, we actually see the Moon quite quickly after noon, because the ecliptic is quite steep. The Moon's north of the ecliptic, so it's probably only a day or so before you get it back again.
It's actually quite exciting to see when is the youngest Moon you can actually see. You can't do that at the moment in the evening sky, because It's below the ecliptic, so it takes a few days before it finally emerges above the horizon in a decent time, so five o'clock, and of all things it's in Sagittarius, we're talking about the summer constellation, and we're talking about 16 November, you know, but it's in amongst the stars of Sagittarius on 16th at five o'clock, but don't leave it too late because of course it'll be setting, but you will also have the benefit of Earthshine as well as it is the crescent Moon.
Now, the next evening, we're still dealing with transits of Jupiter, we've got so many, it's worth putting in, because, you know, if you clouded out on one, you might get another. And this time, it's the biggest moon of Jupiter, it's Ganymede.
So on 17 November, we're talking around about, 5:30PM onwards for the start of the transit. Now, Ganymede takes a long time to go across. It is slow moving, and it's off the disk by the time its shadow appears on the disk of Jupiter as well.
So, well worth having a look at. And, it takes about two hours for the whole thing to take place. That's worth it, having a look at Ganymede.
And I have to say, some of the images I've seen from people, images like Damien Peach and Christopher Go et cetera, the detail they're picking up on Ganymede now, it's absolutely, it's just mind blowing.
I mean, when I first started, it was just a disc, you know, little tiny... bright disc, and that's it. And now to think that people, amateurs, can photograph details on that moon.
And in fact, virtually all the moons of Jupiter, the big moons, the Galileans, they've managed to image. I think it's absolutely incredible.
So if you are a planetary imager, you know, this would be a great time to capture the planet, the moon against the planet, Ganymede against the planet, and get details on Ganymede as well.
I think that would be quite something.
Ezzy: Absolutely, because it is such a great time to be looking for these transits because Jupiter has just gone through opposition a couple of weeks ago. It means that it's very well placed in the night sky at the moment. So, even though these transits do happen throughout the year, and you can find out when those are going to be happening in the print issue of Sky at Night magazine, where we have a planet guide in our sky guide every single month, but now is a particularly good time to be looking for these.
Paul: Now, we haven't mentioned meteor showers for quite a while, and usually because, quite frankly, some of the minor showers really are minor, and they're talking about a zenith hourly rate, which is the point directly above you, the zenith sort of thing, and it has to be under absolutely perfect conditions, and they're talking about a rate of say two to five meteors an hour, pretty low.
We don't always have those perfect conditions. In fact, we don't have... How many times do you have a meteor shower directly above you? You don't. So not, not certainly from the UK.
But the night of 17 November into the morning of 18th, and in fact you can try the next morning as well. We have the Leonid meteor shower peaking.
Now... The current zenith hourly rate is 15. It's still quite low, but it's worth having a look at. And the thing is that the radiant, the point that they appear to radiate out from in Leo, is actually in the Sickle, the top part of the Sickle asterism of Leo itself.
However, you need decent skies. The Moon, though, is out the way.
It's setting in the mid evening. And the thing about this is that Leo doesn't really rise until around about 11, 12 o'clock at night. So you're not really going to see any meteors until after then anyway. So you're looking at the second half of the night, the early morning hours sort of thing, so from midnight onwards, as Leo climbs higher into the sky.
So that'll give you a better chance to see meteors then. But worth it, just bear in mind, dress up warmly.
This is not like the August Perseids where you could have a barbecue and be out on your sun lounges. Or should that be meteor lounges? You can have your meteor lounges but definitely dress up warmly, have a nice, you know, flask of hot cocoa or something.
Well, actually a hot cocoa would probably put me to sleep. I'd have coffee myself, keep me awake.
But well worth having a look at because they can have, they can surprise us sometimes, sort of thing. They can have showers.
Every 33 years that go mad. But we're well away at the moment from that sort of thing, which is sad.
Oh, I've got a long time to wait yet. But, fingers crossed, sort of thing, you might, you might get a filament. There are filaments associated with meteors. These are streams of, debris that's been ejected at some point, and they spread around, around the orbit of the comet. That is the originator of the Leonid meteors.
And so what you tend to find is occasionally scientists identify one of these streams and just happen to notice that there might be a bit more enhanced activity. So there might be streams that we haven't yet discovered. We just don't know. So it's why it's worth looking.
Ezzy: And in fact, that's one of the ways that amateur astronomers in their gardens around the world, actually really help with science.
Because a lot of the sort of mapping of these meteor streams is actually done by people observing meteors and writing down when they see them, where they think they're coming from.
Not just on the night of the peak, but from the beginning of the showers right through to the end. And We have a guide, if you want to get involved with that, over on our website, skynightmagazine.com.
Because if you take that sort of information and you send it to the right people, they can use it to really get to grips with understanding what's going on in these, these streams of dust and debris that have been left behind by various celestial objects. So it's a good way to get involved with the science side of things, as well as looking up at the beauty of the night sky.
And even though it is one of the weaker meteor showers, if you're out and if it you're lucky enough to get a nice clear night, then you can look for meteors whilst also looking for other things in the night sky. I think we've established that there's a lot going on at the moment.
So you're probably able to see something else of interest whilst you're out looking and waiting for a meteor to to come your way.
Paul: I'm one of those and I'm sure many do it as well. If you are imaging the planets with a telescope, then a lot of this thing is now automated. It's like doing deep sky photography.
To learn more about imaging the night-sky, sign up for our online masterclass-series on deep-sky photography.
Basically, you just leave it running. So that leaves you free to put a chair out and look at and just enjoy the night sky. One of the problems is sometimes we've got so involved in doing photography, which is great. I mean, you know, it's amazing what we can achieve now, but sometimes it's well worth just taking a step back and looking at the sky.
I was lucky enough to have some clear skies, over the previous weekend, a few weekends ago. And it was absolutely crystal clear. But I made a point of just having a little tour around with binoculars whilst the camera And was photographing, the sky with a telescope while I was testing. And it's just so relaxing to pick out clusters and nebulae sort of thing with a pair of binoculars and then a few things with the naked eye as well, sort of thing, you know.
But at the same time, it's possible you might see something that's important, you know. So it's amazing, isn't it, that we can still contribute to real science, by doing astronomy.
Ezzy: Exactly. And there are various other ways that people contribute to scientific understanding. People finding a lot of comets have been found by amateurs.
Not so much anymore, but in the past. Supernova, there's people who hunt down supernova.
But I think looking for meteors and tracking meteor showers, that's a much more accessible one and one that's... People can get involved with quite easily because all you really need is a sun lounger, a flask of cocoa, your eyes and a notebook. Oh, and a watch as well. You need a watch.
But as I said, if you want to have more information about how to get involved with that, then go to skyatnightmagazine.com and look for one of our guides, or if you just want to find out how to see a meteor shower. with your naked eye and you'll have no interest in recording your findings, we also have guides on that as well.
Paul: Now, we finish off the week. We often mention the Moon going past bright stars. Well, this time we've got a planet, and we've actually got Venus, and it glides past Porrima, that's in Virgo.
So we're in the morning sky, we're looking on 17th and 18th, the mornings of 17th and 18th again. So, as we just mentioned, you're looking at the meteors well, have a watch out for Venus as well, sort of thing.
As before, before we get into morning twilight, and I say it's passing Porrima you've actually got a planet, for once, passing a bright star. In a few weeks time, it'll pass by Spica so, you know, we've got things to look out for, and it's nice when it, for once, it's actually a planet doing it instead of the Moon, because we're always mentioning the Moon, aren't we?
We've got two, you know, it's there, it's, you know, and, and it's fascinating in its own right, but this time we've got a planet, Venus, and a brilliant planet as well to look at. So that finishes off this particular week, so quite a good week, isn't it, Ezzy?
Ezzy: Definitely, it sounds absolutely fascinating and lots of things to get to grips with on that week.
If you want to find out what we've got coming up in the next week Sky, do subscribe to the podcast. And we'll see you here back next week.
But to summarise this week again, we start off on 13 November when Uranus is going to be at opposition. It will be between the Pleiades and Jupiter, so it might be a good opportunity to try and see it with the naked eye if you've never done that and you have access to a dark sky site because the Moon's going to be out of the way at the same time.
It is very difficult to see with the naked eye. You do need a very dark sky and you still might not be have good enough eyesight, but it is always worth the try. And also on the 13th, it'll be the new Moon. Which is one of the reasons why it's so great to be able to try and catch Neptune.
On the 14th, Callisto is going to be gliding under the planet Jupiter as Europa and its shadow transits across its disk. We have a guide to all of the things that are going on with the Galilean moons throughout the month in the magazine, so subscribe to the magazine if you want to keep up to date with what's going on with Jupiter's moons.
But it's a great opportunity to see those on the 14th.
And moving on to 16th you'll be able to catch the crescent moon just below the ecliptic in the early evening sky.
On the 17th Ganymede is going to be transiting Jupiter in the early evening and on the night of 17th moving forward into 18th you can catch the Leonid meteor shower.
It's not one of the most prolific meteor showers out there, it's ZHR is only 15. But it will be a great way to get to grips with meteor showers, especially as we have the Geminids coming up later in the year, which is going to be a great opportunity to see those. Go to skyatnightmagazine.com if you want some more guides about how to observe meteor showers.
And finally, finishing off the week on the morning of 17th and 18th, we've got Venus as it's gliding past Porrima in Virgo. So lots of great things to see in the night sky, and hopefully we'll see you here back on the podcast next week. If you want to find out even more spectacular sights that will be gracing the night sky this month, be sure to pick up a copy of BBC Sky at Night Magazine, where we have a 16 page pull out sky guide with a full overview of everything worth looking up for throughout the whole month.
Whether you like to look at the moon, the planets, or the deep sky, whether you use binoculars, telescopes, or neither, our sky guide has got you covered, with detailed star charts to help you track your way across the night sky. From all of us here at BBC Sky at Night magazine, goodbye.
Chris: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Star Diary podcast from the makers of BBC Sky Night Magazine.
For more of our podcasts, visit our website at www.skynightmagazine.com or head to Acast iTunes or Spotify.
Listen to next week's episode, Star Diary 20 to 26 November 2023
