Catch all the 8 of the Solar System’s planets in one night! Get the details in the latest episode of our weekly stargazing guide podcast, Star Diary 22 to 28 January 2024.
Chris: Hello and welcome to Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine. You can subscribe to the print edition by visiting 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 weeks from 22 to 28 January. I'm Ezzy Pearson, and I'm joined this week by Paul Money.
Paul: Hi there, Ezzy. We're going to start in the evening sky again, that'll be nice, won't it?
Ezzy: Yes, moving on to the evening sky. Fantastic. So what do we have to look forward to in this week's evening sky?
Paul: Well, this week the Moon is heading towards full. So, you know, if you're deep sky observers sort of thing,: sorry.
But if you get up in the morning, you know, you can see the morning sky. That's dark at the moment when the Moon has set, but the late evening on 24th. That's the night before the moon's full, in the late evening, look for the Moon because it forms a lovely line with Castor and Pollux in Gemini.
I like these line ups sort of thing because you look at the Moon and you suddenly realize there's two stars pointing up straight from it. And this is what will happen on the late evening on 24th. Around about 10 in the evening, to be actually seeing that.
Then, on 25th, the Moon is full. It'll actually lie only a few degrees away from the Beehive Cluster, Messier 44. But the thing about it is that I think the Moon will completely wash out the actual star cluster.
If you use a telescope with a decent light grasp, you might just pick out a few of the sprinkles. There, of the actual, cluster itself.
The Moon will also lie above Gamma Cancri. So, it's actually just in the constellation of Cancer. And if you watch it over the course of, say, an hour or two, you will actually see the Moon slowly move past the star itself as well.
So, well worth having a look out. Even full Moon, there's things to look out for and of course you've got the various sort of like, streaks across the surface. The ray features on the Full Moon, which are best seen at the full Moon.
It's interesting 'cause we often used to say, I can remember many books would often say very... aw, when I first started in astronomy. Oh well. The full Moon's the worst time to look at the Moon, because you don't get this sort of contrast effect, because you haven't really got the shadows as such.
Nowadays, we say, hey, look out for the streaks. Sort of, the ray patterns from the various craters, because they're really prominent at this particular angle as such. So there are things you can actually look out for as well. Now, moving on to 27 January, we stick with the Moon because it's passing some prominent objects.
And in this particular case, on 27th, looking around about 9 o'clock, and it's almost to the left of the star Regulus.
And we've mentioned this a few times over the last couple of weeks as such when it's happened, but the point about this is that it's a good guide to the fact that Regulus is not a lone star.
It's not a lone star. Sounds like Western, doesn't it? But, it's actually a double star. He's got a fainter 8th magnitude companion.
So it's well worth having a look at these, because often, you know, these stars... they say a lot of the stars in the sky are actually double or multiple systems. Our Sun is a bit of an oddity, being a single star.
You know, when you look at Regulus, there is this faint 8th magnitude companion that goes with it. But whilst we're in this area as well, sort of thing, the Moon is to the left of Regulus, but it's up to the lower right of Algieba.
And Algieba, Gamma Leonis, is a gorgeous double star. Two golden yellow stars next to each other, one slightly fainter than the other.
So, again. Well worth having a look at these, because they're not just single stars that often surprise you by putting a telescope on. You need a bit of magnification with Algieba. Regulus, you can see it in binoculars, it's companion. But Algieba, you definitely need a telescope. And you need to use more magnification to bring it up, but you will split them, quite readily as well. So they're quite a pretty pair.
You've got two doubles there! And you've got the Moon as well to enjoy at the same time. So quite a lot happened in that particular night.
Now, on the morning of 27 to 28th, we're back to Venus and Mercury. Yes, we've still got Mercury, but only just. It really is in the bright twilight.
And the reason why we're saying this is that we like challenges. We've always liked putting challenges out, haven't we, Ezzy? And the thing about this challenge is that Mercury's deep in the bright twilight, but at the same time, Mars is now beginning to creep out of the solar glare, and Mars and Mercury are close to each other on the 27 and 28th.
It'll really be a challenge because the twilight will be bright. And you've got to be careful you don't leave it too long before the Sun rises. So we always say you've got to be very careful with that.
But you'll catch what we would class as the inner planets, Venus, Mercury and Mars, and we tend to think of Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury is the inner planets of the solar system, and you'll get a chance to see Venus, Mercury and Mars.
But as I say, Mercury and Mars will be deep in the twilight, so quite a challenge, but well worth getting if you can see them as such.
So there we are. 27th and 28th, Mercury meets up with Mars as it begins to creep out of the solar glare. But just don't leave it too long, we just don't want you to lose your eyesight.
Now, if you do get both of them, then the following evening... in fact not just both of them, if you get all three, Venus, Mercury and Mars. If you get all of them, that evening, if it's clear, you can catch the rest of the planets of the Solar System. You can have all the planets in 24 hours. So you've got the outer giants, you've got Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus as well.
And, if you want to be pedantic: you've got the horizon, so you've got the Earth as well! So you've got all the major planets.
I know, I remember there was an astronomy, I won't mention a certain magazine's name, but, there was a, they did a, they're doing a typical... We do pictures of the month.
They did a picture of the month and it won, you know, somebody won a prize, pictures of the planets won. And then the point, somebody pointed out, hang on, no, they've got more than that, because they've got the Earth in the view as well. So they won it again the next month!
Oh, that was not fair. That was not fair. But it was a good point. The Earth was in the view.
So you could see another planet as well. So there we are, you've got a chance to actually see all the planets if you can nab Mercury and Mars in that bright twilight. I mean Venus, well that's a given, isn't it? So if you've got clear skies, you'll get Venus. It's so bright.
Ezzy: Venus and Jupiter probably pretty easy. Saturn, also pretty easy. The rest of them, that requires a bit of work. I think it's worth it because how often do you actually get to see all, well I suppose eight planets if you're including Earth, in one go. In one 24 hour window.
Paul: I mean, Mercury's usually the awkward one, isn't it? Because it's the one that's usually playing hide and seek and deep in the twilight.
So it's the timing, and I say, just so happens that Mercury and Mars creep up together and are close, but the caveat is they are very low down. But, you know, I think it's worth trying for.
Ezzy: There's always one that's hiding behind the Sun. We can't all be playing nice together. But it certainly sounds like there's a lot of interesting things to see in this week's night sky.
So thank you for taking us through all of those, Paul.
Paul: It's a pleasure.
Ezzy: And if you want to keep up to date with all of the latest goings on in the night sky, do subscribe to the Star Diary podcast to keep up to date with all of the latest stargazing tips.
But to go over this week's again, we start on 24 January, where the Moon is going to be near the stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini.
Then on 25th, the Moon will be full and it'll be next to the Beehive Cluster. Because it is full it will probably wash out most of the cluster but you might just be able to see a scattering of stars. Plus you can also see the Moon as it slowly moves past Gamma Canceri as well.
On 27th the Moon is going to be near the star Regulus.
Regulus is a double star so it's a good opportunity to not only find that star, but have a closer look at it with a pair of binoculars. See if you can see both parts of that double star system.
And if you've got a taste for double stars, the star Algieba is also going to be nearby. That one you will require a telescope to be able to see though.
Then, on the morning 27 to 28th, Mercury is going to be deep in the bright twilight, but it's also going to be joined by Mars, with Venus also on display in the morning. So you can catch all of those three terrestrial planets at the same time.
And then, if you look again in the evening sky, you should also be able to see all four of the outer planets, the outer giant planets, giving you the opportunity to catch all of the major planets in the sky within one 24 hour period. So, do be sure to take advantage of that as well.
But thank you very much for joining us. And we hope to see you all here next week. From all of us here at Star Diary Podcast, goodbye.
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 Childs 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 at Night Magazine.
For more of our podcasts, visit our website at skyatnightmagazine.com or head to aCast, iTunes or Spotify.
Listen to next week's episode Star Diary 29 January to 4 February 2024.
