Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2021 i BBC Sky at Night

Charlotte Daniels Astrophotographer “When I started out in astronomy I picked up so many tips from people selling kit; buying second-hand is a great way to help make informed purchases.” Charlotte advises on buying second-hand, page 64 Ben Evans Spaceflight writer “The year 2021 promises new rockets, new missions of discovery and new opportunities in space. As we return to the Moon, I’m getting excited by a bright future”. Ben looks forward to 2021’s space missions, page 29 Katrin Raynor-Evans Astronomy writer “I loved writing this piece for the complete novice; I wanted to share my enthusiasm for my favourite observing season!” Katrin introduces the best winter constellation targets to view, page 70…

Galactic relic discovered in Milky Way Remains found from a galaxy that merged with ours billions of years ago A ‘fossil galaxy’ has been identified hiding in the heart of the Milky Way thanks to a campaign that’s observing over half a million stars. The galactic relic, which astronomers dubbed Heracles, was once a separate galaxy but collided and merged with our own Galaxy around 10 billion years ago. Heracles was discovered using the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), which has been tracking stars across the Milky Way. As the instrument looks at infrared light it’s able to pick out stars in the dusty galactic core that are usually obscured from view. “Of the tens of thousands of stars we looked at, a few hundred had strikingly different…

Weighing the Kuiper Belt The measurement was made with an unusual instrument – the Cassini spacecraft observing Saturn Far away in the gloomy, distant suburbs of the outer Solar System, beyond the orbit of Neptune, lies a whole swarm of small, icy bodies. These trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) mostly orbit at a distance of between about 30 and 50 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun – where 1 AU is the distance between the Sun and Earth. They make up the Kuiper Belt, a diffuse disc some 20 times wider than the asteroid belt and around 100 times more massive. As more and more TNOs have been discovered, something very strange has been noticed; one group of TNOs cluster together and all make their closest approach to the Sun in the…

Pick of the Year Maggie and Chris look back on 2020 with a selection of highlights from the past year of The Sky at Night. Some famous faces from the world of space and astronomy will pick their own favourite memories from 2020, and the team will also be selecting the top highlights suggested by viewers and readers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine. Will your personal pick make the list? BBC Four, 10 January, 10pm (first repeat BBC Four, 14 January, 7:30pm) Check www.bbc.co.uk/skyatnight for more up-to-date information…

Classifying stars by consensus Lewis Haley recounts the thrill of being part of a Zooniverse citizen science astronomy project that draws on input from a global network of participants SuperWASP is an experiment in a long line of research projects with names so fantastical one might be forgiven for believing the choice of acronym precedes the name. The Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) scoured the whole sky (excluding the galactic plane) every night for 10 years, to find exoplanets orbiting distant stars. It turns out, taking photos of the whole sky every night captures the whole sky, every night – surprising, I know. I was introduced to the mass of SuperWASP data while studying astrophysics with the Open University. Using this data as a guide, my team and I…

Capella (Alpha (α) Aurigae) is Auriga’s brightest star and the sixth brightest in the night sky. Its declination of 46° means it’s circumpolar from the UK, dipping towards the northern horizon late in the evening in summer, but riding high during late autumn and early winter. This is the opposite situation to the bright star Vega (Alpha (α) Lyrae), an equally bright star of summer. If you extend a line from Capella through Polaris for the same distance again, it almost takes you to Vega. This means both bright stars act like a giant seasonal sky clock. In many ways Vega and Capella are rivals, the former, at mag. +0.03, being a bit brighter than Capella at mag. +0.08. In the northern half of the night sky, only Arcturus (Alpha…

1 NGC 2452 We start low in the constellation of Puppis; NGC 2452 is a planetary nebula 2.4° south of mag. +3.3 Asmidiske (Xi (ξ) Puppis). The nebula is listed at mag. +12.2 and although it can be seen through smaller scopes, requires at least 250mm of aperture to start to see properly as a faint, mostly featureless oval. A 300mm scope shows brighter patches to the north and south of the main nebula. NGC 2452 appears quite large, with an apparent size of 30x20 arcseconds. □ SEEN IT 2 M93 M93 is a mag. +6.2 open cluster, 1.5° northwest of Asmidiske. This low declination Messier is a glorious object; 30 members packed into a 10-arcminute region through a 150mm instrument. Larger instruments reveal an object expanded to an apparent…

WHAT TO SEE WITH BINOCULARS The Pleiades, M45 – located in Taurus This open cluster is the jewel in winter’s crown; binoculars will bring many more of its icy blue stars into view. Orion Nebula, M42 – located in Orion A winter favourite, even a small pair of 10x50 binoculars will bring out this stellar nursery’s grey-green nebulosity. Alcor – located in Ursa Major Grab your binoculars to see this binary star shining close to its brighter companion, Mizar. Andromeda Galaxy, M31 – located in Andromeda You can see the Milky Way’s largest galactic neighbour with the naked eye, but binoculars will bring out its bright core. The Double Cluster – located in Perseus Located between Cassiopeia and Perseus, this sparkling Double Cluster will be brought to life through binoculars.…

Bring out detail in images of nebulae Transform your images of these faint targets from dark RAW captures using free software DSLR astrophotos should be shot in RAW format because this delivers the best editing capability; the images aren’t altered by the camera before being opened in processing software. The program we’re using on our RAW files this month is RawTherapee, a free editing software designed to handle such unaltered data. It’s similar to Adobe Lightroom, in that you can make adjustments to one image and then apply those settings to others. It also has some interesting routines to enhance deep-sky astrophotos, including the ability to manage light and dark contrasts, reduce noise (unwanted artefacts) and bring out detail. Most adjustments in RawTherapee are made by moving sliders; if you…

Bresser StarTracker Astronomical Photo Mount Kit A portable mount and accessories package for wide-field astrophotography With most astronomy mount manufacturers now offering a portable star tracker option, Bresser’s new StarTracker Astronomical Photo Mount Kitjoins a busy field. The kit includes a StarTracker Astronomical Photo Mount PM-100, a TP-100 DX tripod, an equatorial wedge, a ball head and a polarscope. If you don’t need the full kit – for example, if you already own a good tripod, – the PM-100 mount can be bought separately, but we would definitely recommend the polarscope for alignment purposes. With a weight capacity of 2kg in equatorial mode and a total weight, including tripod and accessories, of just 3.6kg, this mount is aimed at the wide-field photography market and would not be stable enough to…

Visit www.skyatnightmagazine.com/bonus-content/FWR8NA9/ to access this month’s selection of exclusive Bonus Content JANUARY HIGHLIGHTS Interview: NASA astronaut Terry Virts Colonel Virts discusses life in zero-G, what the stars look like on a spacewalk and the prospect of humans on Mars. The Sky at Night: Life Beyond Venus The team take closer look at this year’s discovery of phosphine on Venus and discover the next steps in the search for signs of life. Download observing guides and charts Access planet observing forms, binocular and deep-sky tours and our guide to Southern Hemisphere stargazing. The Virtual Planetarium Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel guide us through the best sights to see in the night sky this month.…

BBC News science correspondent Pallab Ghosh will appear on The Sky at Night’s January episode to discuss his space highlight of 2020 As a science correspondent for BBC News I get to cover lots of cool stories, but this year there’s been only one story in town as far as the newsroom has been concerned. Don’t get me wrong, the COVID-19 pandemic is arguably the biggest news story of our generation and as a journalist I’m glad to have had the opportunity to contribute to the BBC’s coverage, but it’s not as fun or uplifting as the topics that are my normal fare. Then, in early September, I received a call from Steve Crabtree, The Sky at Night’s executive producer. He told me that the programme had “an incredible story”…

CITIZEN SCIENCE Track a TNO Get involved in this project to discover hidden Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), icy and exotic outer Solar System worlds. Volunteer eyes are needed to study animated images from the Catalina Sky Survey and determine which objects are real TNOs. bit.ly/2Uxvkck ONLINE TALKS Glasgow lectures The Astronomical Society of Glasgow has a series of Zoom and YouTube lectures planned for the coming months, starting with ‘Black Holes: 100 Years of Mysteries’ on 21 January with Dr Fabio Biancalana and ‘Apollo 50’ with Robert Law on 18 February. See the Society’s website for login details: www.theasg.org.uk Sunderland astro chat Using Zoom, Sunderland Astronomical Society (SAS) is offering advice and chat on telescopes, cameras, observing techniques and anything else astrorelated. Their meetings this month are on 3 and 10…

There are many great books to help a new telescope owner find their way around the sky. Turn Left At Orion by Guy Consolmagno is a classic that has helped beginners over the years. Helpfully, it’s full of easy-to-use star charts that will show you exactly where to find many deep-sky objects. It’s illustrated with realistic sketches instead of photographs to show you what you will actually see through your eyepiece. There are also several paperback-sized guides to the sky for the year ahead, such as Collins’ Stargazing, which features monthly charts and information about astronomical events, and of course our own special issue publication, The Astronomer’s Yearbook 2021.…

The planets in January The phase and relative sizes of the planets this month. Each planet is shown with south at the top, to show its orientation through a telescope Mercury Best time to see: 24 January, 30 minutes after sunset Altitude: 9° (low) Location: Capricornus Direction: Southwest Too close to the Sun in the evening sky, Mercury is difficult to see at January’s start. After the 7th, it’s visible 30 minutes after sunset close to Jupiter and Saturn. Greatest eastern elongation occurs on the 24th, as mag. -0.5 Mercury sets 100 minutes after the Sun. By the 31st, although remaining above the horizon for 90 minutes after sunset, it will be mag. +1.1. Venus Best time to see: 1 January, 30 minutes before sunrise Altitude: 6° (low) Location: Ophiuchus…

1. The Hyades The Hyades cluster is next to Aldebaran (Alpha (α) Tauri), the ruddy ‘Eye of the Bull’, which is a foreground star. This huge cluster is only 153 lightyears away, making it the nearest open cluster to us, and you should easily see 30 or more stars. The Hyades were the daughters of Atlas, whose tears of grief for their slain brother, Hyas, are the April rain showers that are associated with their heliacal setting. □ SEEN IT 2. The Meissa Cluster Orion’s head looks distinctly fuzzy to the naked eye and, when you look at it through binoculars, you immediately see why: it is a small cluster of stars dominated by the brilliant white Meissa (Lambda (λ) Orionis), also called Heka, ‘the white spot’. The other two…

When Apollo 14 launched on 31 January 1971, it carried the weight of the entire Apollo programme. The Apollo 13 disaster had recaptured the public’s dwindling interest, but for all the wrong reasons. Policymakers already questioning Apollo’s high cost, having cancelled Apollo 18 and 19 in September 1970, now wondered at its safety. If the remaining missions were to fly, then Apollo 14 had to be a success. It was a heavy responsibility, and one that rested on the most inexperienced crew of the whole Apollo programme. The Commander, Alan Shepard, was one of NASA’s most famous astronauts, having been the first American to reach space back in 1961. However, he’d spent the best part of the intervening decade grounded due to an ear problem that caused vertigo. Joining him…

Thanks to the internet and social media, shopping for second-hand items isn’t limited to one or two providers. It’s worth checking in with your local astronomy groups as members regularly sell kit to each other, but other places to look for pre-owned astronomy equipment include: VENDORS AND WEBSITES ► Rother Valley Optics: rothervalleyoptics.co.uk ► ENS Optics: ensoptical.co.uk ► Harrison Telescopes: harrisontelescopes.co.uk ► Astro Classifieds: astrobuyandsell.com FACEBOOK GROUPS ► Astro Buy Sell and Swap UK Only ►Astro Buying & Selling ► Secondhand Astronomy Equipment UK…

Set up your own meteor detection system Connect a Raspberry Pi to a camera and help the Global Meteor Network with its research We all know about the big meteor showers such as the Geminids and Perseids, but Earth is also bombarded by much smaller meteors every night. Knowing more about these tiny pieces of space dust helps us to analyse meteor showers, sporadic meteors and fireballs, as well as increasing our knowledge of the risk to Earth from larger debris. For example, consider ‘orbital resonance’, which occurs when orbiting bodies exert periodic gravitational influence on each other: research has shown that fireballs from one branch of the Southern Taurid meteor shower debris stream are in 7:2 resonance with Jupiter. This supports a theory that asteroid impacts on Earth are…

As the Sun reawakens from the low point in its 11-year pattern of activity, a group of scientists has predicted what the new solar cycle will be like What is the solar cycle? It’s the cycle of sunspots that is driven by the Sun’s evolving magnetic field. They appear at the beginning of a solar cycle, starting at high latitudes with very few of them. As the solar cycle progresses, they become much more frequent and move to lower latitudes, peaking at a solar maximum; then there’s a declining phase. The solar cycle has a period of about 11 years and we’ve got records of the last 24 cycles. You’re a member of the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel – what is that? Every solar cycle there is an international…

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 23 NOVEMBER 2020 Bright beams of light pour from IC 5063, a galaxy 156 million lightyears away in the southern constellation of Indus, in this new image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Shooting out more than 36,000 lightyears into space, the rays emanate from the galaxy’s core, where an active supermassive black hole resides, greedily feasting on the infalling material that surrounds it. In the process, it superheats nearby gases, producing the powerful rays of bright light that we see here. The accompanying dark rays, however, are more of a mystery. One exciting theory is that they reveal the presence of a circle of dust around the black hole at the galaxy’s heart – a circle that’s warping and full of holes like Swiss cheese – where…

Venus holding its water Venus has lost much less of its water to space than previously thought, according to a recently published thesis. Moa Persson used ESA’s Venus Express to measure how much water was being swept away by the solar wind and found that not only were the levels unexpectedly low, they varied with the solar cycle. Blind astronomy A project to help blind people ‘see’ the Universe has received an award from the Falling Walls Foundation. The Tactile Universe, led by vision-impaired astronomer Nicolas Bonne at the University of Portsmouth, uses 3D-printed models of galaxies to allow the blind community to understand their shape. Meteorite reveals inner Mars Crystals of young material only a few hundred million years old have been found inside a Martian meteorite. It’s thought…

I’ve been a hobby astronomer for quite a few years and I’ve always enjoyed taking pictures of the Moon, usually collecting full Moon images each month to make a collage at the end of the year. I was inspired by Pete Lawrence in October 2020’s issue (‘Imaging lunar libration’, page 76) to capture and compare October’s two full moons and look at the differences in positions caused by lunar libration (the Moon’s small rocking and rolling motion). What began as the comparison photo here developed into an overlay photo, then with help from my daughter I also made a video to show the movement! Kate Hillis, South Yorkshire Delighted that the article has proved so engrossing, Kate! It shows the Moon’s ‘wobble’ is surprisingly noticeable when you track it. –…

If you’ve already got a handle on equipment basics and brushed up your observation skills, why not resolve to make 2021 the year you dig deeper into the science of astronomy? On hand to help is the BAA (British Astronomical Association). The amateur astronomy organisation’s website features numerous expert articles and tutorials, plus online talks. Recent webinars include Adam Block’s ‘The Interpretation of Astronomical Images’ and Brad Gibson’s ‘How the Universe Will End’. To watch them head to BAA’s YouTube channel. Digital membership starts at £30.50 and benefits include the BAA Journal, a member chat forum, and the expertrun Observing Sections, providing guidance on a plethora of topics from aurora to exoplanets. www.britastro.org…

EARLY JANUARY: Boeing Starliner uncrewed test flight 18 FEBRUARY: NASA’s Perseverance rover lands on Mars FEBRUARY: Emirates Mars Mission enters Mars orbit 11-24 FEBRUARY: CNSA’s Tianwen-1 mission enters Mars orbit MARCH: NASA’s OSIRlS-REx departure window from Bennu opens APRIL: Tianwen-1 lands on Mars APRIL: SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to International Space Station (ISS) APRIL-MAY: ISS module Pirs detaches from ISS; Nauka launches APRIL-JUNE: Boeing Starliner crewed test flight JULY: Vulcan Centaur maiden flight with Peregine lander 31 JULY: End of NASA’s Juno mission 8 AUGUST: ESA’s Solar Orbiter flyby of Venus 11 AUGUST: ESA/JAXA’s BepiColombo flyby of Venus 14 SEPTEMBER: Prichal launch to ISS 14 SEPTEMBER: First Dream Chaser mission to ISS OCTOBER: Crew Dragon mission on behalf of Axiom Space 1 OCTOBER: First flyby of Mercury by the BepiColumbo…

Best time to see: 1 January, 19:00 UT Altitude: 48° Location: Pisces Direction: South Features: Albedo markings, polar caps, weather Recommended equipment: 150mm or larger At the start of January Mars is well placed, reaching its highest position due south around 19:00 UT. From the centre of the UK this positions it 48° up. Through a telescope the mag. -0.2 planet shows a 10.4 arcsecond disc on 1 January, still large enough to show detail through an amateur telescope. At present the north polar hood (NPH) should be quite evident. This is an extensive cloud covering over the planet’s north polar cap (NPC). The now rather depleted southern cap should also be visible as a small bright patch close to the planet’s southern limb. During January Mars will be showing…

Asteroid 14 Irene reaches opposition in January as it tracks across the northern part of the constellation of Cancer, passing just to the south of mag. +4.0 lota (ι) Cancri. At 00:00 UT on 1 January, Irene is located 1.5° northwest of mag. +5.4 Nu (ν) Cancri. From here it tracks northwest, passing 1.5° south of Rho1 (ρ1) Cancri and Rho2 (ρ2) Cancri between 7-12 January. These stars are of mag. +6.0 and +5.2 respectively. (As an aside, Rho1, or 55 Cancri, is a fascinating star located 41 light years from Earth and known to have at least five exoplanets in orbit around it.) Irene passes just over a degree south of lota Cancri on 16/17 January, ending the month 3.5° west and a fraction north of this star. Its…

The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most iconic deep-sky objects there is. It’s formed by a finger of dark nebulosity projecting in front of bright emission nebula IC 434. The finger resembles the silhouette of a horse’s head, similar to the side-on profile of a classic knight chess piece. The darker nebulosity which forms the nebula is known as B33, the 33rd entry in the Barnard Catalogue of dark nebulae. Your challenge this month is to try and see the Horsehead Nebula visually. The Horsehead Nebula’s image is found everywhere – in books, online and on wall posters. However, despite deep-sky images showing its background curtain as bright, visually the nebula is extremely dim. A 12-inch reflector is probably the minimum you need to see it from typical UK…

Launch date: 31 January 1971 Launch location: Launch Complex 39A Landing location: Fra Mauro Time on surface: 1 day, 9 hours, 30 minutes Duration: 9 days, 1 minute Return date: 9 February 1971 Main goals: investigate the Fra Mauro region; orbital science and high-resolution photography of future candidate landing sites; Lunar field geology investigations. Achievements: furthest distance travelled in an EVA (almost 1km) in the Apollo programme so far; first science programme from lunar orbit; first golf drive on the Moon Lunar module name: Antares Command module name: Kitty Hawk…

The dramatic constellations of winter Katrin Raynor-Evans takes a stargazing journey around the season’s favourite targets As the Northern Hemisphere makes a transition from autumn to winter and leaves behind the season of mists and mellow fruits, darkness continues to lengthen and the familiar sights that winter skies have to offer are welcomed with open arms, like greeting old friends. The changing of the seasons brings a changing in the constellations – slowly nudged from east to west as we continue our journey around the Sun. If you’re a complete beginner to constellations, you may be wondering what they are. Quite simply they are grouped patterns of stars in our night sky. For thousands of years our ancestors looked to the sky, and observed and named them after animals, objects…

How to image lunar craters Discover why it’s never been easier to photograph the Moon’s crater-ridden surface The Moon is a pockmarked lump of rock – battle scarred from a multitude of past impacts. Some of these were so large that they deformed the lunar crust, depressing and cracking it so the resulting depressions infilled with lava. These huge basins form the lunar seas or maria – and they can be extensive in area. Shooting the Moon As well as the large basins, there are many craters of all shapes and sizes that make great imaging targets. The larger ones can be imaged with basic kit like a smartphone; all you need to do is to point the phone’s camera down the eyepiece of a telescope. Known as afocal imaging,…

William Optics Zenithstar 61 II APO with UniGuide guidescope A compact and light telescope setup for wide-field viewing and astrophotography We could sum up the William Optics Zenithstar 61 II APO refractor as tiny and serious or seriously tiny; it’s a small, portable instrument with a 61mm air-spaced, colour-corrected doublet lens, which definitely packs a punch, especially when used for astrophotography. Externally, it’s an attractive telescope that feels well made; attention has been paid to creating a visually attractive product. The main tube is white with a black clamping ring and focuser barrel, while a choice of colours – grey, gold or red – is used on the dust cap, dew shield, eyepiece clamp and mounting bar. If you decide to add on the optional UniGuide guidescope, this can be…