The partial lunar eclipse passes across the face of the Moon and Venus is well up in the morning sky in this week’s stargazing guide.
Listen now for all the latest astronomy highlights in Star Diary 23 to 29 October 2023.
Ezzy Pearson: Many of the most beautiful objects in the night sky, like distant spiral galaxies or nebula, are also the faintest and hardest to see. Yet astrophotographers are able to capture their faint light with cameras and reveal the full wonder of the night sky. In BBC Sky at Night Magazine's three part online masterclass series, hosted by our editor Chris Bramley, we'll take a look at three key areas of deep sky imaging.
On 29 September, we'll tell you how you can get started in deep sky imaging. Then, on 26 October, we'll explain how you can deal with some of the impact of light pollution. Then finally, on 30 November, we'll tell you how you can create deep sky mosaics of larger areas. You can either watch along live, or review the on demand recordings after the event.
Visit to skyatnightmagazine.com and click on virtual events to book your tickets now for all three classes and save 20%.
Chris Bramley: Hello and welcome to Star Diary, the podcast for the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine. You can subscribe to the print edition for the magazine by visiting www.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 BST. In this episode, we'll be covering the coming week from 23 to 29 October. I'm Ezzy Pearson, the magazine's features editor, and I'm joined by reviews editor Paul Money.
Hello, Paul.
Paul Money: Hello, Ezzy.
Ezzy: So, what have we got to look forward to this
Paul: week?
Chris: Well, we have to start in the morning sky. I know, we've got to start somewhere, haven't we? But if you like to be up in the morning, if you take the dog for an early morning walk have a go at six o'clock in the morning.
Venus will be well up in the sky. Twilight will just about be beginning but it'll still be reasonably dark. And the reason I mention it is Venus reaches greatest western elongation from the Sun. It's shining at magnitude -4.4. Other than the Moon and the Sun, it is the brightest object in the actual sky
And it lies now 46 degrees away from the Sun. And this is why we can see it for several hours in a dark sky, so far away from the glare of the Sun, we can actually observe it for at length, as one might say, observing Venus.
And you can't mistake it. It's such a brilliant object. And of course, this is why it gets the name of the, not just the evening star, the morning star as well.
And as we mentioned last week it's still worth trying to catch the shadow cast by venus but whilst... before the twilight starts so we've still got a period of time when we can actually do it before the Moon gets up and gets in the way and actually stops it and before Venus gradually drops back down towards the solar glare.
But we've got Venus for a little while yet, I have to say, so we can enjoy it.
Now, similar, on the same day in the evening sky, look for the Moon to the lower right of Saturn.
This is when we start to have that period where we have the Moon getting in the way and getting involved with the planets, and so Saturn is the first one it interacts with. It's to the lower right of Saturn on the evening of 23rd, around about eight o'clock.
The Moon is a day past first quarter, so it'll look a little bit like a half phase, slightly fatter half phase moon, in fact.
The next evening, on 24th, the Moon lies to the left of Saturn, actually almost level and a little bit closer the night before. And again, look around about 8 o'clock to actually catch one of the back best views before it actually gets too low in the sky.
Now, that was 24th, then. 25th, of course, the Moon doesn't stay still. It's constantly moving, isn't it? And it's nice when the planets are reasonably close together, because then you get a succession of events.
So on 25th, the Moon is actually to the lower right of Neptune. Now, yes, I know it's a gibbous moon, so it's quite getting... you know, quite thick. There's a lot of light from that, but you should be able to find Neptune in binoculars and a small telescope.
And I particularly like this region of sky. Neptune has just crept into Pisces, according to the International Astronomical Union's borders, as such. They decided the borders, so they stuck to the right lines of right ascension and declination. rather than the shapes of the actual figures, the mythological figures themselves.
So Neptune's just over the border in Pisces. The Moon will be in Aquarius. And as it happens, if you go from Neptune to the Moon and slightly back up a little bit, you get a trio of stars. I always like these little trio of stars. They're Psi 1, 2, and 3 Aquarii .
So there we are. And they're about a similar magnitude, around about magnitude +4.0 to +4.5, so they're very similar brightness each one.
I just happen to like little groupings like that sort of thing, you know. So they're not a true cluster, but they're quite pleasing to the eye, if you ask me. So that's Psi 1, 2 and they're almost level, actually, with the Moon as it rises about eight o'clock in the evening.
Now, we have to go a couple of days before we get our next major event, but it is a good one. Normally, we're not that bothered with full Moon, are we? I mean, full Moon, I mean, we get these supermoons. But it's full Moon on 28th, and the good news is we get a partial eclipse of the Moon.
And it's quite a reasonable one. The penumbra will cover the entire Moon itself, and then we'll get the umbra, the darkest part of the Earth's shadow, just cutting the southern hemisphere of the Moon, putting on a great display for us.
Ezzy: Yes, we probably should explain for anybody who isn't familiar with the terminology surrounding lunar eclipses.
There's sort of two shadows. So you have the umbra, which is the complete shadow that is where the sunlight is being blocked by Earth from hitting the Moon.
And that does tend to have a slightly red hue, because what happens is some of Earth's atmosphere scatters some of the red light into that region and we see it as a red shadow.
But there's also the penumbra which is a slightly lighter shadow around it, it's not quite as dark, it doesn't have that red coloration which is part of the Earth's shadow that the moon passes through as well.
So in this case, it's just going to be going mainly through the penumbra with slightly clipping the umbra. It's only a total lunar eclipse if the entire disc of the moon goes into that umbral section.
Paul: So the penumbral phase, that very light shading of the Moon, begins at a in the evening. The umbral phase starts at about 8.35pm. Mid eclipse, when the most of the umbra is actually on, which is a quite a partial this time, is at 14 minutes past nine.
And then the end of the umbral phase is just before 10 o'clock at 9.53. And finally the penumbra – which is very light, so you have to take a bit of care to notice it, because it's quite subtle – that finally finishes at 11.26.
But I mean, it's nice to have an eclipse, and let's just hope we do have some clear skies for this, because I've been missing eclipses. I've not seen anything for a while, mainly because of the cloud, etc. So, you know, fingers crossed for this one, October 28.
Now, as it happens, October 28, the Moon happens to be to the upper right of Jupiter. So you've not just got a partially eclipsed Moon, which will look a bit odd with a bite taken out of it, in a sense. You've also got Jupiter to its lower left, as such.
There we are. And during the course of the night, the Moon creeps closer to Jupiter, as well, as an extra bonus.
Now, finally, what we get is the end on 29 October in the early morning, we have the end of British Summer Time. Gosh, that's flown quick, you know, but of course I'm happy because we're back on GMT, real time.But... As we had the Moon the previous night, close to Jupiter, on the evening of 29th, it's actually above, well, to the upper right of Uranus.
Now, it's just past full, so to be fair, there's a lot of light there. But again, binoculars should show, Uranus as well.
And then we've got the Pleiades. Now, the Pleiades will be washed out, and they're to the left of both of them.
But back, finally, to the Moon, This is a good time to see the ray features. It's not very good for seeing crater detail, because the light from the sun is straight down, it's full on, hence full Moon, as though it's hitting the surface full on.
But the ray features like Tycho and Copernicus, etc, actually show up really well a few days either side of full. So this is a great chance to actually study the ray patterns actually on the Moon. These tend to be associated with the streaks of relatively recent craters and it's the splatter of the material out that it tends to be quite reflective and shows up with these wonderful streaks.
So there we are, finished by looking at the... I don't normally do this, I'm a deep sky observer and I'm saying finished by looking at the full Moon.
But there are reasons and there are decent features to see on the Moon. And of course you've got the maria and the Man on the moon, the face of the Moon. Hey, I think we should change that.
It no longer should be man on the Moon, you know. I think we should say person on the moon, don't you?
Ezzy: Well, there's lots of different mythologies around the world that see different deities and people. I know in Chinese mythology, it was a princess with her jade rabbit companion, because that's what the Chinese...
The rovers are named after, they're named Jade Rabbit after that particular myth. So there's lots of different things that people can see in the Moon.
But thank you for taking us through all of that, Paul. If anybody at home would like to make sure that you get even more stargazing highlights, please do remember to subscribe to the podcast.
But to summarise those, on 23 October, Venus will be well up in the morning sky and visible for several hours. So a good chance to get a look at that one.
And on the 23rd, it's the beginning of a chance to see the Moon passing by all of the gas giants, or the giant planets, of our solar system.
It begins on 23rd and 24th when it passes by Saturn.
On 25th, the Moon will pass by Neptune.
Then jumping forward to the 28th it will pass by the upper right of Jupiter and on that same night you will also have the chance to see a partial eclipse of the Moon as it's passing by Jupiter on the 28th.
And then on the 29th the Moon will be going past Uranus. It will also be a great opportunity to see the ray features on the Moon as it is almost full on that date.
And of course, on 29 October, it's a date to put in your diary because that is when the clocks will be changing. It will be the end of BST and we'll be moving forward into GMT. We want to make sure that you don't miss any of these events in the night sky, because you're looking up at the wrong time.
But, we hope to see you here next week, and from all of us here at Sky at Night Magazine and 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 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 at Night Magazine.
For more of our podcasts, visit our website at skynightmagazine.com or head to Acast, iTunes or Spotify.
Listen to next week's podcast, Star Diary 30 October to 5 November 2023.
