What's in the night sky in the week of 29 May to 4 June, 2023 in our weekly stargazing guide. Mars will pass through the heart of the Beehive Cluster in this week’s stargazing guide.
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 www.skyatnightmagazine.com or digital edition by visiting on 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 will be covering the coming week from 29 May to 4 June. I'm Ezzy Pearson, the magazine's features editor. And I'm joined on the podcast today by Paul Money, our reviews editor. Hello, Paul.
Paul Hello Ezzy. Looking forward to another week as quite a few things are happening this week, You know.
Ezzy I really. Well, why don't you crack on and tell us exactly what we've got to look forward to this week?
Paul Well, we normally shout out about the planets in the evening sky, which are Venus and Mars, and we will come to them in a moment. And we ended last week session with looking at Saturn, Neptune and Jupiter just emerging as well. But Jupiter isn't alone emerging into the morning twilight. Now, this is a very... It's not an easy apparition, but Mercury creeps above the horizon for this week. It's not well-placed. It's in very bright twilight to the far left of Jupiter. But it is at Greatest Western Elongation on 29 May. 25 degrees, but it's a very poor one because it's the angle of the ecliptic, you see Ezzy, and if it's shallow, then it doesn't rise very high above the horizon. If it's very steep, it gets a chance to climb higher into the sky before dropping back, usually giving us 4 to 5 weeks. We don't get that this time. You be lucky if you get it for a week, if that. So you do need an absolutely clear east, north eastern horizon. Uncluttered nothing in the way. So go to high ground. But you do need to be looking about half an hour before sunrise. And with the sky getting bright, it will be a challenge. But we like challenges, don't we? And don't forget, Jupiter is to the upper right of Mercury. So find Jupiter first and that give you a guide and go down an angle of about 20 to 30 degrees to the left. And you might pick up this elusive little planet. So, no, I always think it's worth trying. You know, always, always try to see these things. I have a very poor horizon, so unfortunately, my morning sky is absolutely rubbish. Mind you, evening sky isn't that good either. Well, usually if I usually have a little site just a couple of miles away, I can pop to if it really, really want to see these. So. But that's what you have to take into account. So the horizon does need to be pretty uncluttered. Now, I've mentioned the evening sky and Venus and Mars, and yes, they are still there. They've been there months. They've been hanging around, you know, teasing us, that's the trouble. But the thing about this, Venus is trying to get closer to Mars and it won't actually ever see this particular apparition. On May the third 30th. Now we're back to the evening sky. We've got Venus and Mars. And Venus is edging closer to Mars, but won't actually reach it, but on 30th venus is close to Kappa Geminorum. now Kappa Geminorum is 3.5, +3.5. You won't confuse it with Venus, which is -4.3. Now, Venus is steadily moving during the week and it forms a line with Pollux and Castor, the two primary stars of Gemini on 2 June. So it will make a line-up later this week. Now, on 30 May, Mars is also at aphelion. This is the furthest point of Mars from the Sun, and that is on 30th. But it is closing gradually on the Beehive Cluster and on 2 June it actually lies nestled within the cluster. Now that will make a brilliant... a) Visually it look great through a telescope. And b) this is a photographic opportunity, you've got to get out there and get those photographs taken, send them into the Hot Shots gallery sort of thing. I'm sure we'll hopefully put them up. So absolutely fantastic. So this is one of those times where you've got Venus in the eveningsky, but you've got Mars nestled within an open close, the Beehive Cluster. She you can obviously imagine the bees swarming around... the angry bodies swarming around angry Mars.
Ezzy Yeah. Because it's it's not often that we highlight a planet when it's at aphelion, because usually it's like perihelion. That's when it's closest, that's when it's brightest. But aphelion, it's, you know, it's the other side of the Solar System. Why are we paying attention to that? But Mars, you can still. You'll see it. It is still close enough that it's quite bright in the night sky. And it's it is naked eye visible. So, yeah, I think this will definitely be a treat to to take a look at. And yes, definitely, if you do get those photos send them in to us over at www.skyatnightmagazine.com. We always like to see them.
Paul Exactly. Sort of thing. I mean this is this is an opportunity to grab it. It's not often the line up occurs where the actual planet does go through a cluster so often like we had Venus not the other month something actually passed next to but didn't pass through the Pleiades. You know, so yeah, to have our planet go through a cluster is quite some... and a bright cluster as well.
Ezzy I was thinking I don't, I don't think I've seen a pitch. I mean I must have seen a picture of it at some point, but it's not a common one. So yeah, it's not something that we've seen a lot of. So definitely be interested to see more of them.
Paul So I thought we have clear skies. That's always our, that.
Ezzy That is always the way.
Paul Bane of astronomer's life.
Ezzy But hopefully someone somewhere in the world will have clear skies at some point.
Paul Now, sticking with the evening sky, we go from 29 May to 31 at this stage for the Moon, because as usual, the Moon does dominate and often features. It's one of the main things that features in the podcast and on 29th. It's next to a star called Zania, which is Eta Virginis. We also have it left of Porrima on the 30th sort of thing. And then on the 31st it's to the left of Spica. Now Spica is bright sort of thing, and the Moon will dominate it right next to it sort of thing. And I always find this is this is the beauty about, again, the moon's guiding you to this star, but the star is actually there all the time. It is easily naked eye and it's the main star of Virgo the Virgin. Now, the rest of the week it actually travels through Scorpius and then into Sagittarius for next week, 3 June, the almost full moon – and I'm literally talking about only a few hours before Full Moon. Full Moon technically occurs in the early hours of 4 June. But on the evening of the third, about I've got it down to just about 10:30. You can see the virtually full Moon right next to the bright red star Antares. And that's the heart of Scorpio, the scorpion. I just love those sort of just juxtapositions of this bright planet. This bright, well, bright star and the bright moon as well. You look over towards the southeast again, uncluttered horizon. You'd have to wait just a few hours. Technically, the Moon on 4th set before it reaches technical full. But that's one of those circumstances sort of thing. If you're in the mid-Atlantic, you'd see the full Moon at the point of full Moon just before it sets. But unfortunately where we are, it will have just set before it. So I just think it's virtually a full Moon, isn't it on the late night of 3rd. Yeah, it's close.
Ezzy It's close enough that you wouldn't be able to tell the difference unless you're really looking.
Paul Yeah. Unless you've got a big telescope and you're looking at it, you'd really struggle to see the difference. So I would think a few a day or so on the side of full, it's really hard to tell the phase. Whether he's full or whether there's a slight, you know, bit of shadow there.
Ezzy You can usually tell. But there is quite often is that kind of like is that is it slightly off full, or is there a smudge on my glasses kind of thing?
Paul More likely the "on my glasses" actually. But meanwhile, on 4th itself, we still got Venus in the evening sky. I only mention it because it's actually at greatest Eastern elongation. This is 45 degrees elongation away from the Sun. So it's the furthest you can get at this stage, away from the Sun. After this, technically, Venus will start to draw back in towards the Sun. You wouldn't really think it for the next few weeks at all, but it will take place. And its phase is now technically less than half phase, 50%. But it's always a bit smudgy sort of thing. It's very difficult to judge visually the exact point of the 50%. So be interesting to see if you would actually see that, whether you can notice whether it's actually 50% or not using a telescope. I always find it fascinating that the fact that Mercury and Venus, the only planets that can really show a very distinct phase, as in a half phase, where is Mars - you can get it gibbous. But Jupiter and the rest of planets near enough almost always look full. I know technically they aren't, but you need a lot of magnification to really bring that out. So, there we are then, sort of thing. Quite an exciting week. And we near enough started with Venus and Mars. But, you know, we only know... Because they dominate at the moment. So we'll have to look forward to next week.
Ezzy Yes, absolutely. Sounds like there's a fascinating week coming up for us. And if you want to hear more about that, week that we've got coming up. Do be sure to subscribe to the Star Diary podcast to make sure that you never miss another episode. But thank you for going through that week with us, Paul. So in summary, we start the week with Venus and Mars. On 30th, Venus will be approaching Kappa Geminorum before, making a line with Castor and Pollux in Gemini on 2 June. Meanwhile, Mars is going to be reaching aphelion on 30 May, where it will be near the Beehive Cluster M44. However, on 2 June it will be slap bang in the middle of the Beehive cluster, so a great photo opportunity there on 2 June. On 29 to 31 May, the Moon will be moving along the bottom of Virgo past the stars Eta Virginis, Porrima and Spica. Then on 3 June, an almost full moon will be appearing near Antares in Scorpius. And finally, on 4 June, Venus will reach its greatest elongation in the evening sky. So lots of things to look forward to in the night sky. And we hope to all see you here next week. If you want to find out even more spectacular sites that will be gracing the night sky throughout the 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 out for. Whether you like to look at the moon, the planets, or the deep sky, whether you use binoculars, telescopes on either our sky guide has got you covered with the detailed star charts to help you track your way across the night sky. From all of us here at BBC Sky and Night Magazine. Goodbye.
Chris Bramley Thank you for listening to this episode of Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night magazine. For more of our podcasts, visit our website at www.skyatnightmagazine.com or head to aCast, iTunes or Spotify.
