What's in the night sky in the week of 11 to 17 September, 2023 in our weekly stargazing guide. This week's astronomy highlights: welcome back the winter sky, and take in the Milky Way.
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 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 BST. In this episode, we'll be covering the coming week from to 17 September. I'm Features Editor, Ezzy Pearson, and I'm joined by reviews editor, Paul Money. Hello, Paul.
Paul Money: Hello there, Ezzy. Another interesting week, actually, and we start off with a good one.
Ezzy: Ooh, then let's get started. What have we got coming up this week?
Paul: Well, sadly, it's in the morning sky. But it's worth it. You need to be looking about 4am because we've got a selection of things happening at the same time. What we've got is a very slim crescent Moon, so that'll have Earthshine visible as well. So that's the night shining side. It's secondhand sunlight bounced off the Earth's atmosphere back onto the moon. Photographers will be familiar – it's filling light. So they use like an umbrella to actually – a reflective umbrella – to create extra light sort of thing to illuminate the darker side. Well, this happens with the Moon as well. So we've got the crescent Moon there. But what I think makes it a really pretty sight is that it's in a binocular view with 10x50s with the Beehive Cluster, Messier 44. And because it's a crescent Moon, it isn't overwhelming the sky with light pollution because of the... moonlight pollution. That you should term it moonlight pollution. That's what we should start saying from now on. So it'll be, I think, a very pretty sight, a great sight for astrophotographers. And if you've got a wide field telescope, a rich field telescope gives you a wide field of view. Worth trying to photograph them together as well, because I think they'll be a really pretty sight. Now that's zooming in with a telescope or binoculars. If you take a step back, we've almost got a line up between the moon, the Beehive Cluster, and then if you carry on down, it's not quite a line, but you've got Venus as well. So you've got Venus which'll be the first thing you should notice with the naked eye, and the Moon. And between them, closer to the Moon admittedly, you'll have the Beehive Cluster. And of course, if you want to add to that, you've got Messier 67 as well, which we mentioned last week. Venus was quite close. Well, it's not too far away from M67 at that point as well. So you will be able to sweep up all of them as well. So I think that's quite a bonus or such in Cancer the Crab, the constellation of Cancer. You better see the Slim Crescent Moon, the Beehive Cluster, Venus, and with binoculars, you should be able to pick out the Messier 67 Cluster as well. So that's a good start to the weekend I like that.
Ezzy: I always like it also when you get one of those sort of lines up or something and they happen to be associated with a constellation that's reasonably recognisable. And so when you do see the picture of it, you can see the constellation and it sort of helps orientate everything on the night sky a lot better. Sometimes a lot of astrophotography can sort of, unless you're very familiar with the night sky, it can be quite easy to get lost and not be able to really picture it, whereas that sort of helps you ground you in the sky for want of a better term.
Paul: I love that. That's a new term then for us as well. But yes, absolutely. Now the next morning, if you carry on, the Crescent Moon will be even slimmer and it will be far left, far left of Venus as well. So it doesn't just end there with that one morning. You can next morning, you can see the even slimmer Crescent Moon as well.
Now the Moon is getting thinner and thinner. 13th September, deep in morning twilight, o this is about three quarters of an hour before sunrise – you've got a challenge. Mercury is trying to creep into the morning sky. It'd be very low down, not far off the eastern horizon. So very difficult. But the next morning, so 13th and 14th, so we're talking about 14th now, the incredibly thin Crescent, this is 1% illumination, will lie to the lower left of Mercury. So that'll be quite a challenge in deep twilight, even with the moon, but worth having a go. And I say you've got Mercury, so you've got both inner planets in the morning sky now. Mercury had a very poor evening apparition last month. So low that it was setting at the same... even though it's a long way from the Sun in its orbit, it was actually setting at the same time as the sun. So you didn't really have a chance to see it. Now because the ecliptic steeper. Just like Venus, it pops up into the sky. So nice to see Mercury come back. So that's September the 13th and 14th. My time of lifeI have a diagram sometimes that helps guide me, and I've set it at about 5:44 in the morning. But you're looking at about three quarters an hour because sunrise is roughly up to six, but it does vary, of course, where you are in the UK.
Ezzy: We do, of course, need to remind people, especially when it's the sunrise rather than the sunset, if you are looking at something that is close to the Sun, do keep an eye on when sunrise is happening. Always look up when it's going to happen in your local area because it does change quite a lot depending on where you are, even within the UK or where you are in the world. And make sure that you have a good buffer of time that you're putting your telescope away from the Sun before the sun's going to rise. We don't want anybody damaging their eyes or their equipment.
Paul: Exactly.
Ezzy: So it will be a challenging one. I will give you that. Mercury is always a difficult one, combined with the Moon that's just barely illuminated, but definitely hope people are up to the challenge. We always like a good challenge.
Paul: We do. I mean, there's an extra challenge there as well because on the September 13th, when the Moon is actually near to Regulus, and it too will be emerging out of the bright solar glare. So we've got several objects there. Regulus, by the way, is the heart of Leo the Lion, the main, brightest star of Leo the Lion. So Leo's back. And I tend to think of Leo as a spring constellation, but now we've got Leo coming back. Gosh, doesn't time fly when you're having fun? Certainly it seems to fly sometimes when you're trying to image your photograph and suddenly the sky is getting light and you've got to stop doing your deep-sky imaging. Getting a whole mosaic of the Milky Way across the sky. So this is a great time to do it because you've got no Moon. So get out there if you've got clear skies and have a go at it.
Ezzy: We do absolutely have guides on how to do that. I will put a link down below if anybody is interested in learning how to do that. The Milky Way is an absolutely stunning thing to be able to see and capture. I've managed to do both. Getting away, if you've not ever been to like a properly dark sky site where you can just look up and see the Milky Way above you without even letting your eyes dark adapt properly, it's absolutely amazing. So experience I highly recommend to everybody.
Paul: I've never forgotten the times when I did the Northern Lights flights with Pete. And the view at 35,000 feet, you'd think the small windows won't give you a view, but with the cabin lights turned off, pitch black, the number of stars was just absolutely incredible. And the first time I did a flight was with Chris Lintott. That was my first one. He guided me. And of course, I was sceptical at that time and we both looked out. A) we got a brilliant aurora. So that was great. And B) we were just so overwhelmed how amazing the sky was and how dark. It's a shame we've got so much light pollution, isn't it, that spoils the view, wide field sort of thing and for astrophotography as well. But you know, if you can find these dark sites, you know, there are a number around the country well worth visiting, perhaps on holidays sort of thing, you know. Have a look and if you get a dark site, the view is wonderful.
Now, we haven't got many actual events involving planets now because the Moon's heading towards new. So, of course, we've got, though, the winter sky. I know, I know we're still in summer. I know. But if you're an early morning, 4 a.m., you've got the winter sky coming down, arching down. I mentioned it earlier, but this is the full winter sky. We've got... Orion's back. Sirius is back. ou've got the winter constellations. So this is the beauty about atronomy. When you get sort of like heading towards the... and we're like what? Less than a week away from the September equinox, the autumn equinox. You've got 12 hours day, 12 hours night. So you've got dark night for 12 hours. That's amazing. But it does mean you can you get a chance to see in the evening,he summer sky, middle of the night, the winter, the autumn sky. And then in the morning, the winter sky rising as well. So we've got wonderful objects. We've mentioned the Pleiades and the Hyades. They're the start, as far as I'm concerned, of the winter sky. But you've got the Orion Nebula, you know, you've got Orion, you've got Sirius. I say the amazing bright Sirius when it rises sort of thing. It actually fools people into thinking they're seeing a planet. So Venus will be up as well. Venus will be a bit higher. So you've got these two bright objects sort of thing, Sirius over in the southeast and Venus over in the east. And you've got this ephemeral Milky Way coming down to the horizon sort of thing with star clusters in it, like Messier 35 and 36, 37 and 38. You know, there's a whole range of them. And then you've got the Nebula, the Rosette Nebula in Monoceros. Or I always think it should be Monotonous, because it's quite a bland constellation, isn't it? Monotonous doesn't translate into the unicorn, unfortunately, so it's Monoceros.
Ezzy: I do always think it's rather unfair that one of the ones that has the most sort of like fantastical creature associated with it, the unicorn. And it's kind of a bit...
Paul: It's dim.
Ezzy: It's a bit mhmm...
Paul: But it's just one of those things, isn't it? But it does mean we've got the winter sky back. So if you're really dedicated and you've got the stamina to stay out all night. Says he thinking, the other night I was only out for three hours and I was shattered. I think that's age, you know, but I remember when I was younger and I could stay out all night, you know, in the depths of winter, I could start sort of at five o'clock, have a quite quick snack to eat and then go right through till morning and whatnot. Fortunately, sort of thing, you know, I did have some certain days off my work where I could take advantage of those and then sleep in during the day. Because you need to catch up, don't you? But it is glorious that we've got the winter sky back. I do find the morning skies, there's something about them that are crisper. I think it's because dust, if there's no wind about, if it's a nice, calm night, any dust and moisture tends to settle down out of the atmosphere. And you get some really crystal clear views. So, you know, and don't forget sort of thing, we mentioned the Pleiades sort of thing, that's part of the winter sky as well. Well, of course, we've got Jupiter and Uranus nearby as well. So you've got Jupiter, Uranus, you've got Venus, and then if you leave it a bit later on, you get Mercury as well. So what more do you want to end the week with? Good grief. So that's September 17th, about four a.m. in the morning, and you got the winter constellations are back.
Ezzy: Yes, certainly a lot of things to get on with this week. So thank you for taking us through them all, Paul.
Paul: My pleasure.
Ezzy: And to summarize those once again, starting on 11 September in the morning sky around about four a.m., you can see the slim crescent moon near to the Beehive Cluster M44, which is a great astrophotography opportunity. Alternatively, you could zoom out a bit and get both of those as well as Venus lined up throughout the constellation of Cancer. On 13th, then in the morning twilight, Mercury is just beginning to creep into the morning sky and will be near to a one percent illuminated moon crescent. So be careful if you are out observing those two,but definitely up there if you are trying for a challenge. Then on 16th, it's another great opportunity to view the Milky Way as it arcs across the sky with Saturn and Jupiter sitting underneath it. And at the end of the week, the winter sky is beginning to come back. Orion and Sirius are going to be in the morning sky as well as lots of other great and lovely sights. So take a look at all of the things that are going on in the night sky as we move forward into the autumn and winter. So thank you very much for listening. And hopefully, if you want to find out more about what's going to be coming up as we move forward into autumn, please do subscribe to the podcast. And we will keep you updated on all the best stargating highlights. Thank you for listening. 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 pullout 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.
