Comet 103P Hartley will streak its way across the sky this week, while Venus shines brightly in the morning sky in just some this week’s stargazing highlights. Hear all the best astronomy tips in Star Diary 9 to 15 October 2023.
Transcript
Chris Bramley: 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 Pearson: 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 9 to 15 October. I'm features editor Ezzy Pearson. And I'm joined on the podcast today by reviews editor, Paul Money. Hello!
Paul Money: Hello there, Ezzy. Hopefully we'll get a nice set of dark skies this week with no cloud. Well, we can dream, can't we?
Ezzy: Ooh, do we have some good things coming up this week then?
Paul: Well... I'm going to start off with something quite general, because the Moon's in the morning sky. And the good news of that, it means in actual fact the evening skies are dark.
And so this is really the last week of getting the summer sky. Now Sagittarius is between south and southwest, so south southwest, and that's where the center of the Galaxy lies, and it's still above the horizon.
So if you've got a good horizon, if you've got a good dark site, it's worth going there because you've got the Milky Way, the summer Milky Way, arching right up across the sky towards the north.
And so it goes up, it's ... the zenith is sort of like Cygnus, Cepheus region, sort of thing. So, you know, it's, it's arching right up, so you've got a grand view of it.
Dark skies. Get a chance to view the dark features in the Milky Way while you can, and sort of look for the star clusters and nebulae, because gradually now we will lose it. We will lose the summer sky. I know we're in autumn, but we've still got the vestiges of the summer sky to observe.
We've got that parade of planets, but we'll have to have a minus of Mercury now and Mars, so we've lost two of them.
But, you know, we do have this, and the evening, come on, it's easy to observe. The vast majority of people prefer to observe in the evening when it's nice and convenient. It's also, bear in mind, you can observe in the evening.
So there we are, so grab the summer Milky Way while you can, because it's going to be setting quicker from now on and we will actually lose it.
Now moving on, 9 and 10th, we've got Venus. Quite close to 31 Leonis. 31 Leonis is also the star that I always think is quite funny. It looks like it's sort of like, well... it's below Regulus, so it almost looks as if you should be part of Regulus, but it isn't.
It's not associated with it at all, apart from being in the same constellation. So Venus is close to 31 Leonis, and it's also below Regulus on 9 and 10th. You wanna be looking around about 6:00 AM, Yes. Sorry, it's an early morning thing. And on 10th, they're joined by the crescent moon as a bonus.
And that is... I just love it. You've got a bright planet. You've got a fainter star next to it. Again, you can see Venus moving over the course of the few days past that star and past Regulus as well. And then they're joined by this crescent moon as well on the 10th.
So well worth getting up for, I think, for that. It'd be quite a pretty sight, and you should start seeing the Earthshine now on the Moon as well. Now the Crescent is getting thinner and thinner as it heads towards the solar glare. Now the next morning, October 11th, we're still in the morning sky, but this is a chance to grab, not quite a fleeting glimpse, but the Comet Hartley. Comet 103P Hartley.
And the reason why is it's +7.0 magnitude. So, you know, it's visible in binoculars as a smudge. It's not going to be exciting. But if you've not seen a comet, you know, +7.0 magnitude is quite reasonable. I say, binoculars. Small telescope, we'll show it. The beauty about October 11th, is it's right next to a bright star, Delta Geminorum, otherwise known as Wasat.
I know, I always think to myself, what's that?But the thing is, it's handy. Again, we've got an object where a bright star will guide you. For once, it's not the Moon, isn't it? We normally talk about the moon guiding you to something, but this is a bright star.
Easy. Bright star in Gemini. You've got Castor and Pollux off to the left of Wassat. So, in actual fact, it sort of forms a bit of a, it's not a right angled triangle, but it is a triangle.
And I say, to the left of Wassat, you've actually got Comet Hartley, +7.0 magnitude. Have a go at it. Photographers should get a good picture. In fact, if you do it over the course of a few nights, sort of thing, it'll pass.
So I would start probably October 9th and run through to October 12th and do a sequence. And then, as you've often said, Ezzy, send the pictures in. We love the pictures, don't we? We love getting pictures from our readers.
Ezzy: Mm hmm. I especially like all the wide field ones. Those are always my favorite. , I know that a lot of people spend a lot of time doing the very challenging deep sky ones, and then I'm here liking the wide field ones that people can do in a night, but...
Everybody has their preference and that's okay.
Paul: Exactly. It is a good photo op. And it's fairly wide field, as you say, you don't have to have... I mean, you can put a telescope on it and get a close up view. There might be a tail, I'm not sure.
Comets are so unpredictable, you know, we just don't know what they're going to do. They don't know whether they're going to be a bright tail or not. This is, this is about as bright as Comet Hartley actually gets and it starts to fade from now on. As it moves through Gemini, it's going through, heading towards the horizon as well.
Now, also on 11th, we haven't forgotten Venus, the Moon, and Regulus, because on 11th, the Moon will be a slimmer crescent, and it'll be to the lower left of Venus.
Venus itself will be forming a bit of a triangle with 31 Leonis and Regulus as well, but you'll notice just in the course of a day how much Venus has moved against 31 Leonis. It's quite a significant amount. So you can literally see the motion day after day with Venus. It is a real fast mover.
Now, we're sticking with the Moon because obviously when the Moon in the morning sky you start to get some good views and we've just had it past Venus. Unfortunately, when it gets close to Mercury, it's so close to the solar glare, I doubt anyone will see that at the end of this week.
But in the meantime you can follow the Moon and look at the phase as it shrinks on 12 and 13th. It moves into Virgo, constellation of virgo, and it's actually getting quite low to the horizon.
Obviously it's heading towards the solar glass and it's going to get lower with each successive morning.
But look about 6:20 in the morning. Again, times vary slightly throughout the country.
Look towards the east, you'll see a really, really slim crescent moon, sort of thing, and it looks gorgeous. Look for the Earthshine. I always think this ephemeral Earthshine, subtly glow. There's something about the morning skies. I think it's because, to me, I've always found morning skies crisper.
It's like the atmosphere's settled down. If we've had a nice calm night, the atmosphere's settled down, any moisture has dropped out. It's a really lovely view. So I often found the morning views...
That's the one thing I had... I used to work shifts and I would actually have to get up at quarter past four in the morning. Boo! But I did get my first Aurora sighting with that sort of thing.
First time I ever saw aurora. As I left and drove up the driveway looking back at my parents house, I suddenly thought there's some pinkish glows behind it. Then I realised what I'd got. But I've got some great views as I was heading to work.
They've been memorable. I mean, the evenings are good, but those are the memories I remember. The ones that have been really stark. I mean, I had Venus and Mercury in the morning twilight just before I reached work.
It was late. I stopped and I got my camera out and started photographing it. Of course, describing it to my colleagues wasn't quite the same, but when they saw the picture, they went, wow. So they were impressed but they had to wait two weeks, because in them days we didn't have digital cameras that you can show instantly. You had to develop them.
So the Earthshine, I think, is gorgeous, and especially the morning Earthshine. I do think there's something about that, that it just looks so ephemeral.
You will need a good horizon towards the east, because the Moon is getting low, especially on 13th. So about an hour before sunrise, I estimate. So you can actually see it, but something well worth actually having a look for. And I say, it's something that, always captured my attention. So, it's just a shame I can't get it from my own location at the moment.
Ezzy: Yeah. The world always does look different at six o'clock in the morning and not just because I've had to get up at six o'clock in the morning. There is some different quality about it.
But thank you very much for taking us through all of those highlights throughout the week, Paul.
Paul: My pleasure, Ezzy
Ezzy: So to summarise those again, on 9 October, as the moon is in the morning sky, it's really going to be the last week to take advantage of the summer sky and the Milky Way streaking across the night sky. So do pay attention to that.
On the mornings of 9 and 10th the planet Venus will be near the start 31, Leonis on the 10th. They will both be joined by the crescent Moon. So you can see both the Moon and Venus moving across the night sky
On 11th October, Comet 103P Hartley is making its way across the night sky.
It will be throughout the week, but on 11th will be a great opportunity to see it as it will be directly beneath the star Delta Geminorum, aka Wasat it'll be +7.0 magnitude, so it should be easily visible with a pair of binoculars, but not quite visible to the naked eye. But still a great photo opportunity there as well.
Again on 11th, the Moon will be a slim crescent visible to the left of Venus and to the lower right of Regulus.
And then on 12 and 13th, the Moon will be an incredibly thin crescent just barely off new, but it will be a great opportunity to see the Earthshine in the morning sky.
So lots of great things to be looking for over this week.
And if you want to find out even more things coming up in the night sky, do subscribe to the podcast and we'll be back next week with more stargazing highlights.
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 skyatnightmagazine.com or head to Acast, iTunes or Spotify.
