Jupiter’s Great Red Spot passes across the disc of the planet in this week's stargazing guide podcast, Star Diary 25 February to 3 March.
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 of the magazine 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 GMT. In this episode, we'll be covering the coming week from 26 February to 3 March. I'm Ezzy Pearson, and I'm joined this week by our brand new presenter, Mary McIntyre.
Mary is an outreach astronomer and communicator. Thank you so much for joining us on the show today, Mary. It's lovely to have you.
Mary McIntyre: Thank you. I'm so excited to be joining you.
Ezzy: So, to give our listeners a bit more of a sort of insight into who you are, what actually is an outreach astronomer?
Mary: Well, I do a lot of astronomy talks to societies, astronomy societies, but I also spend a lot of my time talking to non-astronomy groups, just trying to spread the word about astronomy and space to the wider community.
So, I do that for for schools. I do it in Cubs and Scouts. I do it for camera clubs, WI groups, U3A, just any group at all that is willing to let me talk about astronomy for an hour I will go. Because I just find it so good to just get people from outside of the community interested in space.
Ezzy: Mm-hmm. I often say that my job is, I am a professional space enthusiast and it's my job to be enthusiastic about space. So hopefully some of that enthusiasm will carry over to our listeners. So Mary, what do we have in the night sky coming up this week?
Mary: Well, I'm going to start off talking about the planets and first to say that Mars, Saturn and Neptune are too close to the Sun to really be seen at the moment. So we won't really get to see those. But Jupiter is still really well placed.
Jupiter's been blazing in our skies for quite a few weeks now, months actually, it's been really easy to spot as kind of the brightest object that looks like a star over in the south and west.
So all week it's still in a good position, it's about 40 degrees above the southwest horizon after the Sun has set and it gets dark, and it's going to remain visible over in the western sky until it sets at about 11 o'clock.
Now even if you have just a small pair of binoculars, you can look at Jupiter and see occasionally, maybe if you've got big binoculars, you'll see the cloud belts, but you can definitely see the Galilean moons in orbit around Jupiter. And watching the movement of those is just so, so fascinating. If you do have a telescope, you can see some of the cloud belts and sometimes the Great Red Spot.
So the Great Red Spot, which is a huge storm system on Jupiter is transiting the front of Jupiter's disk on 27 February, and it's doing that about 20:22UT. It takes about three hours for the spot to fully move across the surface, so 20:22 is basically the time where it's kind of in the middle, but you'll be able to see it for kind of an hour and a half either side of that.
And it's just such a big storm system, although it is shrinking, it is still massive and it's always really good fun to see that.
Ezzy: I think the first time I ever saw the Great Red Spot, which was only actually a couple of years ago. Anytime I have been looking at a Jupiter, it's always been hiding. But I was really surprised by just how visible it is and how it's right there.
And it was this thing that I've written articles about it. I know all about the science of the Great Red Spot and actually seeing it for the first time was, was quite moving actually. So I definitely recommend if people haven't done that, make an effort and try and see if you can see it this week.
Mary: And I think if you are looking through a telescope as well, be patient with it.
Just spend a bit of time because the seeing conditions can make it hard to see. When you get those moments of clarity, it suddenly will appear. So I always think when you do visual astronomy, it's worth just actually sitting with an object for a long time and don't be tempted to just hop from one thing to another.
And that will allow more of Jupiter's features to actually just pop into view for you the longer you look.
Another great thing to see are Jupiter's moons transiting the surface of Jupiter. Seeing the moons themselves is difficult, but the shadow of the moon stands out much more, and there are actually two opportunities to see the shadow of Io transiting Jupiter's disk.
So on 29 February, the shadow of Io is going to actually transit from 21:43 onwards. Now, Jupiter is going to set at 23:20. So you'll only get to see the beginning of that. But it's still, again, the first time you actually see the shadow of one of the Galilean moons on Jupiter's surface and actually see it move over time, creating an animation of that just like half an hour apart, you really get that sense for everything moving.
And I think that's just so amazing. There's another chance on 2 March as well, actually, just as it's getting dark, Io's shadow is going to be on the disc just for about an hour.
Ezzy: You mentioned there about creating an animation of Jupiter, that's always a very interesting project to be able to do.
If people are interested about how to do that, we have guides over on our website, skyatnightmagazine.com. I'll put a link in the notes below as well if you want to try your hand at that.
Mary: Yeah, you feel like a real astronomer when you actually do an animation like that, because you kind of feel that it's something that's beyond your skill level, but actually it's not.
Once you've got those tips, you can actually do it and you're like, yes, look at me, I've done a Jupiter animation. It's very rewarding.
Ezzy: It's also, there's so little that moves quick enough that you can capture it when you're an astronomer. The stars do move, but it'll take a million years for you to notice.
In a lot of cases, I think that sort of being able to see, you know, that clockwork motion of the Solar System, that the fact that it is, you know, a moving, constantly evolving thing around us is always very nice to capture.
Mary: Yeah, it's brilliant. Well, there's another planet that's actually just to the upper left of Jupiter, and that is Uranus.
So Uranus is only mag +5.8, so it's kind of technically naked eye visible, but very few of us have got good enough eyesight or good enough sky, so really you're going to need binoculars to see it. It's located in Aries at the moment, kind of near the border of Taurus, so it's a patch of sky where there are not very many bright stars.
But even if you just have like a mobile phone and take a photograph of the night sky, you might just see Uranus in it because it just looks like a star. And it's kind of the magnitude limit. Obviously, if you take a photograph you can see fainter stars than your eyes can see. So even with very basic equipment, you can actually get a picture of that.
From like 1 March onwards, it's going to be visible all week, but it's going to be to the upper left of Jupiter setting around midnight. So it sets a little bit after Jupiter does.
It's a challenge to photograph it unless you have a really big telescope and kind of capture the colour. But even with a modest telescope, if you take a few longer exposures and stack them, you can start to see a hint of that colour.
It looks different from the stars around it. So it is always worth having a look for, although it is more of a challenge than Jupiter.
Ezzy: I do think they are both Uranus and Neptune. They are lovely colours. It's a bit harder to capture Neptune's from your back garden, but you know, the, the sort of scientific images that we get from Hubble and the Voyager probes way back when, they're just very beautiful planets, despite being very quietly out on the edge of the Solar System.
Mary: Cold and beautiful. I just, I just, I can't wait till we send more probes there to, to just go and investigate them more because every time we do that, we learn more things and have more questions to be answered. So it's an area of the Solar System that needs a lot more study.
Ezzy: Yeah, it's unfortunate. There's so many places to go and you only get so many missions, but hopefully one day we'll see that.
Mary: Yeah. Well, on 1 March, if you are up for a real challenge, Venus and Mars are going to be fairly close together, about three and three quarter degrees apart. Very, very low at 6:10 in the morning in the twilight.
So they're going to be kind of in the east southeast, and through a pair of binoculars, they will both be in the same field of view. You may see Venus. Mars is going to be incredibly difficult, but I kind of love the challenges of just spotting planets in the twilight like that.
Obviously, be super careful that you don't do this when the sun is very close to rising because it's very dangerous to have binoculars pointing near the Sun, but I think the magazine actually has a guide on how to see that.
There's an ocular view and the sky guide to explain how to look for that.
Ezzy: Absolutely, if you want more details about how to see the planets, or possibly what else is up in the night sky, we have a sky guide which features all of the highlights for the month in Sky at Night Magazine, so do be sure to pick that up.
Mary: The minor planet or asteroid 3 Juno is actually opposition this month, so on 2 March that is at opposition, but it's going to be visible pretty much all night, all week this week. You will need binoculars to see this it's mag +8.6 but again even with just a modest digital SLR and a wide field lens you will be able to see it in your photographs.
Something that I absolutely love to do is to take pictures of that same patch of sky, or do a drawing of that same patch of sky, several days running, and you can actually see the asteroids moving against the background stars. And again, you get that sense of movement that you don't get with very many objects.
This is the 11th largest asteroid. So it's got a diameter of about 247km but it's not insanely bright because it's so far away and is quite small. Just seeing that movement, I've done this where I've taken photographs of Vesta and then created an animation again to show the movement against the background.
And it really is very, very cool to do that.
Ezzy: I think that's also the thing to remember with objects like this is often we say, "Oh, there are opposition". But it's not just an opposition that you want to be looking at them.
If you look at them. throughout that entire period when they're, you know, able to be seen quite clearly or, you know, as clearly as these things can. Sometimes they're very small, but that's when you really get an appreciation of what these things are and what they're doing. Yeah,
Mary: I think it's amazing. I always get annoyed when popular press and like see Saturn at opposition tonight as if that's the only night you can see Saturn this year. And it's just not like that.
You can see it pretty much for a couple of months either side for most asteroids and planets.
Ezzy: If the weather's cloudy on that night, the next night it'll be perfectly fine.
Mary: Exactly.
Ezzy: It'd be very difficult to notice any difference.
Mary: The first time I realized I'd got a photograph of Vesta, I was so excited because I actually have a piece of Vesta meteorite.
Ezzy: Oh really?
Mary: So I've got a photo of the thing that I have a meteorite of and it got me really into the minor planets and the asteroids.
Ezzy: Oh, that's lovely.
Mary: So I'm going to move on to the Moon. I know the Moon is demonised because of how much light pollution it causes, but I love the Moon. I never get bored of observing the Moon, and during this week the Moon is moving from a waning gibbous phase through to last quarter, so that means that it's going to be rising later every night.
So if you do want to look at faint things, do that before the Moon rises, so you kind of get the best of both worlds that way. If you look at the Moon overnight on 27, 28 February, the Moon will be an 88 percent illuminated waning gibbous Moon, and it's going to be lying pretty close to Spica, which is the brightest star in Virgo.
Virgo is a faint and huge star constellation, but Spica is a pretty bright star within that. It is the brightest in the constellation and because it lies on the ecliptic, which is the path that all Solar System bodies take, the Moon is in conjunction with this star quite regularly. It kind of, during the summer months, every year, it's the Moon lies near Spica, but I still love seeing the Moon next to a bright star like that.
So the moon is actually rising at about 21:15 that night and Spica will be seven and a half degrees to the lower left of it. But what's really interesting is if you observe it at 21:15, then get up really early the next day at 5:30, you will see that Spica is now just five degrees from the Moon. So it's changed its position by 2.5 degrees.
And that is because the Moon is moving at a different rate than the stars. So the gap has actually closed between them in the space of time from 9:15 that night before through to 5:30 the next day. So it's again, getting that sense of motion within the solar system.
Ezzy: It also helps you find your way around the night sky, if any of our listeners aren't particularly up to date on or haven't got to the stage where they know which stars are where in the night sky saying, "Oh, the Moon's going to be passing Spica on this night."
You can look up and when you see the star that's next to the moon, then you know where that is and you can start trying to sort of triangulate your position in the night sky.
Mary: Yeah, very helpful with a constellation like Virgo that's faint and sprawling. I think it can really help you get your bearings.
There's actually another really nice lunar conjunction as well on 3 March. Again, you'll need to be up early at about 5:30 in the morning, but we've got a 54% waning Moon that is going to be just one and a half degrees to the right of Antares in Scorpius.
Scorpius is one of those constellations that we only ever see a little bit of, and it's very low in the southern sky. Usually in the summer months, but like before dawn now, we are starting to get glimpses of those summer constellations, and that kind of claw of the scorpion that just peeps over the horizon.
Whenever I see that, it reminds me of balmy summer's evenings photographing the Milky Way. And I just love to see it. And we will get to see more of it later in the year, but we never see much, but the Moon is going to be near to that little claw on 3 March.
Ezzy: Antares is quite a striking red giant star. You know, a lot of people, they know of Betelgeuse over in Orion, but Antares is also very much worth a look as well.
Mary: It is, and you can really see the star colour with those red giants.
So yeah, moving on to a couple of things that are good to look for before the Moon has risen, when the sky is still a bit dark.
One of them is an asterism. An asterism is an informal name for a group of stars. It's not an official constellation, but it's a kind of informal name that we give to something that has the shape of something else.
This one is Eddie's Coaster, it was named by Eddie Carpenter, and it's called Eddie's Coaster because it looks like a rollercoaster track. It's like a mini, double humped, parabolic curve of a rollercoaster track.
Ezzy: So it's rollercoaster as opposed to drinks coaster?
Mary: Yes, absolutely.
Ezzy: It's like two very slightly different things there.
Mary: They are, yeah. I absolutely love roller coasters. So, this one really sings to me, but it's in a good position to find at the moment, even though it's on its end.
If you look for Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia is a W shape, but it's on its side at this time of year. So if you go out at half past eight on 26 February or any night that week, the W is on its side and the top point of the centre of the W is kind of pointing sideways. And if you kind of find that star, that star is Navi. 44 degrees above the northwest horizon.
Once you found that star, if you just move to the right by 3.5 degrees, that's where the asterism lies. And it will be on its side at this time of year, but just, it's really easy to see in binoculars, even though it's rarely labeled on star charts and it's a lovely little asterism.
Ezzy: And for anybody who's not particularly sure of how to measure like degrees on the night sky, if you wanted to measure 3.5 degrees, sort of what kind of things would you be doing?
Mary: You can actually use your hand. If you put your arm at arm's length and spread your hand out, the different distances between your fingers at that distance will actually measure out the night sky.
So because your body is in proportion to itself, everybody will kind of have the same thing. If you put your arm out at full stretch, stretch your hand out, your thumb to your little finger will be approximately 25 degrees. So yeah, the hand is a really good way to measure it. You don't have to carry anything with you. You've always got your hand on the end of your arm. So it's a really useful measuring tool. So if you look up the charts on how to use your hand to measure, you can do it really quickly and simply that way.
On 28 February, while we've still got no Moon yet, if you go out at 9:30 at night, have a look for the Beehive Cluster Messier 44. It is one of my favourite clusters.
It's really big, really easy to find, and even in binoculars or a small telescope. it will really fill your field of view with these just beautiful cluster of stars that kind of looks like bees buzzing around a beehive.
It's technically in Cancer, which is a really faint constellation, but I find the easiest way to find this cluster is to look for Zubin El Genubi, which is the top star of the sickle in Leo, and then just kind of move about 15 degrees to the right.
You really can't miss it. If you find the top star of Leo's and just pan right with your binoculars, you will land on it. It's a really big cluster and it's just so, so beautiful. I've made sketches of it through my telescope and I go back to it over and over again with my binoculars.
Ezzy: Well, it certainly sounds like we've got a lot of really interesting things to see in the night sky.
So thank you, Mary, for taking us through all of those.
Mary: Thank you. Have a great week.
Ezzy: And if our listeners at home would like to get even more updates, we'll be back next week, so be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get all of the latest stargazing highlights.
But to summarise this week again.
Jupiter is going to be well placed throughout the week if you want to try and see its cloud belts and its Great Red Spot, and perhaps even a couple of the moons transiting across it.
Uranus will also be nice and visible throughout the week if you want to try and get a glimpse of that distant planet as well.
On 1 March, Venus and Mars will be together in the low twilight. That will be quite difficult to see, but if you fancy a challenge, look up those two.
On 2 March, Juno is going to be at opposition, that's the minor planet Juno. However, it will be visible throughout the month, so keep an eye on that one as well.
On 27 February, the Moon will be passing the star Spica.
On 3 March, the waning Moon will be next to Antares in Scorpius.
And then on the 26th of February as well, it's a good chance to see the asterism Eddie's Coaster.
And finally, on 28 zFebruary, we have the Beehive Cluster in Cancer. It's a great opportunity to try and see that when there's no Moon in the way.
So, thank you very much again, Mary, and we'll hope to see all of you here back 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 at Night Magazine. For more of our podcasts, visit our website at skyatnightmagazine.com. Or head to Acast, iTunes, or Spotify.
Click here to listen to next week's episode when it comes online, Star Diary 4 to 10 March 2024.
