Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i BBC Sky at Night

As the evenings draw in and astronomers everywhere feel a sense of anticipation at real darkness returning to the skies, this issue we’re taking a look at stargazing from towns and cities – where many of us live. Will Gater is your guide to getting the best observing time from these more brightly lit locations, sharing expert tips for observers with the naked eye, telescopes and binoculars, as well as advice on imaging targets. Discover the best sights to seek out on page 36. If you are an urban astronomer, there’s plenty of advice there which will also be handy for our Grand Tour of highlights in autumn’s night skies. Starting on page 60, Stuart Atkinson takes us from one seasonal sight to another in an observing expedition that’s ideal…

Melissa Brobby Amateur astronomer “When Hubble went out of action this summer it was a nerve-wracking moment, so it was great to be able to look at the work NASA put in to bring it back online.” Melissa finds out how Hubble was repaired, page 66 Will Gater Astronomy journalist “While light pollution is a clear threat to our night skies, I wanted to show that there are still ways to get into astronomy and things to see from brightly-lit towns and cities.” Will offers tips for observing under city-lit skies, page 36 Penny Wozniakiewicz Planetary scientist “It was great to write about the upcoming analysis of samples from asteroid Ryugu and to show that sample return is just the beginning of the story!” Penny finds out how scientists analyse…

OCTOBER 2021 16-PAGE CENTRE PULLOUT A RARE DOUBLE View the shadows of Callisto and Ganymede crossing Jupiter at the same time! DRACONIDS ON DISPLAY A lower-rate meteor shower takes centre stage DISAPPEARING ACT See the star Eta Leonis play hide and seek with the Moon About the writers Astronomy expert Pete Lawrence is a skilled astro imager and a presenter on The Sky at Night monthly on BBC Four Steve Tonkin is a binocular observer. Find his tour of the best sights for both eyes on page 54 Also on view this month... ♦ Mercury at greatest western elongation ♦ Venus reaches greatest eastern elongation ♦ A thin Moon-spotting opportunity Red light friendly To preserve your night vision, this Sky Guide can be read using a red light under dark…

Universal Time (UT) and British Summer Time (BST) Universal Time (UT) is the standard time used by astronomers around the world. British Summer Time (BST) is one hour ahead of UT RA (Right ascension) and dec. (declination) These coordinates are the night sky’s equivalent of longitude and latitude, describing where an object is on the celestial ‘globe’ Family friendly Objects marked with this icon are perfect for showing to children Naked eye Allow 20 minutes for your eyes to become dark-adapted Photo opp Use a CCD, planetary camera or standard DSLR Binoculars 10x50 recommended Small/medium scope Reflector/SCT under 6 inches, refractor under 4 inches Large scope Reflector/SCT over 6 inches, refractor over 4 inches GETTING STARTED IN ASTRONOMY If you’re new to astronomy, you’ll find two essential reads on our…

When to use this chart 1 October at 01:00 BST 15 October at 00:00 BST 31 October at 22:00 UT On other dates, stars will be in slightly different positions because of Earth’s orbital motion. Stars that cross the sky will set in the west four minutes earlier each night. How to use this chart 1. Hold the chart so the direction you’re facing is at the bottom. 2. The lower half of the chart shows the sky ahead of you. 3. The centre of the chart is the point directly over your head. Sunrise/sunset in October* Date 1 Oct 202111 Oct 202121 Oct 202131 Oct 2021 Sunrise 07:12 BST07:30 BST07:48 BST07:07 UT Sunset 18:46 BST18:23 BST18:00 BST16:39 UT Moonrise in October* Moonrise times 1 Oct 2021, 00:09 BST5 Oct…

1 M33 M33 is a magnificent, albeit faint spiral galaxy in Triangulum. Although listed at mag. +5.7 it’s hard to see. M33 is face-on to us and with an apparent size of 62 x 39 arcminutes, its surface brightness is low. Locate it by extending the line from M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, through Mirach (Beta (β) Andromedae) for the same distance again. A small scope under dark skies will show the central core as a misty fuzzball. A 250mm scope shows a mottled patchwork of dim light surrounding the core. ◻ SEEN IT 2 Collinder 21 Our next target has a charm all its own. To locate it, start at Rasalmothallah (Alpha (α) Trianguli). Head 2.4˚ south and 0.7˚ west, where you’ll find a mag. +8.1 star with a curve…

Lunar: NASA’s Apollo and the Soviet Luna programmes returned 382kg and 326g respectively, providing a means to study and date the lunar surface, and date other planetary surfaces based on their crater abundances. Cometary: NASA’s Stardust mission returned samples from comet 81P/Wild in January 2004. The few hundred micrograms collected provided evidence of extensive material transported between the inner and outer Solar System. Asteroidal: JAXA’s Hayabusa mission returned the first asteroid samples from 25143 Itokawa in June 2010. Comprised of less than a milligram of material, they linked chondrite meteorites with S-type asteroids and found water and organics.…

APY Masterclass How to enrich a nebula’s colours Use editing software to bring out hydrogen-alpha colours in Orion My ‘Questions’ image was shortlisted in the ‘Skyscapes’ category at the Astronomy Photography of the Year competition in 2020. I created it after deciding to take an image linking our planet to the sky, but without featuring the usual Milky Way core. I started by shooting a mountain panorama during the Blue Hour – when the last remaining sunlight casts a blue glow into the dusk – to get maximum detail, and then set up my gear and waited for darkness and the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. I used a hydrogen-alpha modified Canon EOS 6D camera with a 40mm Sigma Art lens at f/2, mounted on a Star Adventurer mount and took…

What advice would you give beginners? Take time to learn your way around the sky. People often want to buy a telescope right away. Don’t. Instead of spending money, spend time with star charts to identify the brightest stars and constellations. Use binoculars to hunt down famous objects such as the Andromeda Galaxy. What’s in this new updated edition? Almost every page and paragraph received updates, including wholesale rewrites and new images. We updated our equipment recommendations in chapters on buying binoculars, telescopes and accessories. Also new are three chapters with tours of selected regions of the Moon, and our picks for samplers of deep-sky targets for both binoculars and small scopes. What’s changed since the first edition? The hobby has been revolutionised by digital technology. Even since the third…

Television Find out what The Sky at Night team have been exploring in recent and past episodes on page 18 Online Visit our website for competitions, astrophoto galleries, observing guides and more Social media Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for space news, astro images and website updates Podcasts Listen to our Radio Astronomy podcasts where the magazine team and guests discuss astro news Tablet/phone Get each month’s issue on your Apple or Android device, now with bonus image galleries eNewsletter The best targets to observe each week, delivered to your inbox. Visit bit.ly/skynewsletter Find out more at: www.skyatnightmagazine.com…

Perseverance isn’t the first lander to struggle with getting Martian soil where it needs to be – the stuff has been driving scientists mad for decades. I remember filming with the Phoenix team, as their joy at getting the craft safely down in the Martian arctic turned – slightly – to frustration: its soil sample had simply stuck to the lander’s scoop rather than trickling into the instrument it was intended for. More recently, the InSight lander’s ‘mole’ – a heat probe designed to dig deep into the ground – failed to bite into the surface, leaving it stranded, a victim of the tendency for the soil to clump together. All of these problems could be solved in seconds by an astronaut capable of wielding a brush (or, I guess,…

Emails – Letters – Tweets – Facebook – Instagram – Kit questions This month’s top prize: two Philip’s titles The ‘Message of the Month’ writer will receive a bundle of two top titles courtesy of astronomy publisher Philip’s: Nigel Henbest’s Stargazing 2022 and Robin Scagell’s Guide to the Northern Constellations Winner’s details will be passed on to Octopus Publishing to fulfil the prize MESSAGE OF THE MONTH Addressing Earth I need to know the answer to a very important question; it’s one that my children asked me the other day. The question was: what is the planet Earth’s Universal address? For example, if someone from a distant planet wanted to send me a letter or a parcel in the post, what address would they need to put? I hope you…

Imad Ahmed Director of the New Crescent, which celebrates the relationship between Islam and astronomy Yuri Beletsky Astro imager and astronomer at Chile’s Las Campanas Observatory Melissa Brobby Journalist and Social Media Officer the Institute of Physics Jon Culshaw Comedian, impersonator and regular guest on The Sky at Night Emily Drabek-Maunder Senior Manager of Public Astronomy at Royal Museums Greenwich László Francsics Overall winner, Astronomy Photographer of the Year, 2019 Sheila Kanani Education, Outreach and Diversity officer for the Royal Astronomical Society Steve Marsh Art Editor of BBC Sky at Night Magazine Sue Prichard Senior Curator of Arts at the Royal Museums Greenwich Alan Sparrow Director of Fleet Street’s Finest and Chair of the UK Picture Editors’ Guild…

2 Saturday The beautiful Andromeda Galaxy, M31, is located at its highest position, due south agains ark skies around 01:00 BST (00:00 UT) at the moment. View it through binoculars and see whether you can pick out its satellite galaxies M32 and M110. 3 Sunday This morning, mag. +3.5 Eta (d) Leonis will be occulted by a 13%-lit waning crescent Moon. Those in the far north will see the star pass close to the Moon’s northern limb. Observe from 04:35-05:20 BST (03:35-04:20 UT). 4 Monday Today offers a rare chance to catch Ganymede and Callisto casting shadows on Jupiter at the same time. Callisto’s shadow begins its transit from 18:00 BST (17:00 UT). Ganymede’s shadow transit starts at 19:50 BST (18:50 UT). Turn to page 46 to find out more.…

DON’T MISS JUPITER MOON EVENTS BEST TIME TO SEE: Multiple events, dates and times as specified. On Monday 4 October, there’s a rare opportunity to see the shadows of Ganymede and Callisto in transit simultaneously. The event begins in daylight at 18:00 BST (17:00 UT) as Callisto’s shadow starts its passage. Ganymede itself appears on disc at this time, but exits from view at 19:19 BST (18:19 UT) under darkening skies. Ganymede’s shadow begins its transit at 19:50 BST (18:50 UT) under dark-sky conditions. Callisto’s shadow is conveniently positioned on Jupiter’s central meridian at this time. Both shadows pose for an image either side of the central meridian at 20:53 BST (19:53 UT). By the time Callisto’s shadow exits the disc at 22:25 BST (21:25 UT), Ganymede’s has largely caught…

Fracastorius Type: Crater Size: 124km Longitude/Latitude: 33.1o E, 21.4o S Age: Older than 3.9 billion years Best time to see: Five days after new Moon (10 & 11 October) or four days after full Moon (24 & 25 October) Minimum equipment: 10x binoculars Fracastorius is a beautiful lava-flooded crater on the southern edge of 350km Mare Nectaris. Appearing ancient and battered, it manages to maintain a resplendent dignity in much of its outline, with all but the northern section still clearly visible. The northern section could be described as ‘almost there’, hinted at by roughness in the area together with lighter surface markings. The eastern rim rises to a height around 1.8km. It is narrowest to the north, with a curious unnamed feature near where it loses altitude towards the…

Stargazers always feel a sense of relief and almost liberation when autumn returns. During summer the night sky doesn’t really get dark enough to see all but the brightest stars and deep-sky objects, so after covering up our telescopes we spend the summer months in a kind of enforced astronomical hibernation, watching the lantern-bright International Space Station arc silently across the sky and picking out a bright planet or two on endless twilight nights while crossing our fingers for the northern sky to be painted with a display of noctilucent clouds. But as summer recedes there actually is an ‘after dark’ again, and a lovely selection of stars, globular clusters, galaxies and other beautiful celestial sights slowly comes back into view. Here we’re going to look at some of the…

The Crescent Nebula Andy Weller, Sandy, Bedfordshire, 16–17 July 2021 Andy says: “I’ve only been doing astrophotography for a year, starting during lockdown – as many people did. This target always appealed to me because of its jarring resemblance to a human brain just hovering in space. Its interesting layers of gasses give it an almost ghostly look and feel.” Equipment: ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera, Celestron C11 XLT Schmidt-Cassegrain, Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount Exposure: 73x 4’, gain 120 Software: PixInsight, Affinity Photo, Topaz DeNoise Andy’s top tips: “The Crescent Nebula is full of fine detail, so try to retain as much as possible while not allowing noise (unwanted artefacts) to dominate. I spent a good third of my time on noise reduction. Because of light pollution from LED streetlights, I…

The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide Terence Dickinson, Alan Dyer Firefly Books £35 ● HB Get excited – the fourth edition of The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide is here. First published in 1991, the latest edition boasts 48 additional pages and five new bang-up-to-date chapters. Beautifully put together by authors Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer, the new edition firmly brings the book into the modern age of astronomy. Spanning 416 pages and split into four parts, it covers how to get started, choosing and using a telescope, the telescopic Universe and capturing the cosmos. Within each part are chapters to wow and inspire and prove that you too can view the Milky Way, lunar eclipses, planets and constellations with just the naked eye. There are some truly stunning images packed in to take…

1 Scopetech Mount Zero Price £379 • Supplier First Light Optics www.firstlightoptics.com This single-arm fork mount can hold up to 7kg. The system, which uses worm gears and ball bearings, means that once you’ve set the friction you won’t need to tighten or loosen it again. 2 Altair 2-inch dual-band 7nm CMOS nebula filter Price £235 • Supplier Altair Astro Tel 01263 731505 • www.altairastro.com Bring out the details of nebulae with this dual band filter. It removes the need to swap between individual filters by transmitting light from both the Ha (hydrogen-alpha) and OIII (oxygen) wavelengths in your target, while suppressing unwanted wavelengths. 3 Plush astronaut penguin Price £15 • Supplier Science Museum http://shop.sciencemuseum.org.uk Penguins might not be able to fly, but this feathered spacefarer can still shoot for…

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On 11 October 1992 episode of The Sky at Night, Patrick Moore was joined by David Allen, acting director of the Anglo-Australian Telescope (ATT) at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. Allen had been using the telescope to study the atmosphere of Venus, complementing the observations of the Magellan spacecraft, which was in orbit around the planet at the time. That October, the ATT was conducting a new set of observations, using its spectrograph to map out the planet at several infrared wavelengths, revealing details about the planet’s structure and thermal profile. The spectrograph used a slit to single out a specific wavelength, however, meaning it could only image one point in the sky at a time and had to laboriously scan across the surface. While most of the infrared…

Email your queries to scopedoctor@skyatnightmagazine.com I recently purchased a Celestron StarSense Explorer LT80AZ. I’ve aligned it and set it up with my mobile phone, but even though I can see terrestrial objects I can’t see celestial ones. Where am I going wrong?MAGGIE MURRAY You mention that you can see terrestrial objects but not celestial ones, so the telescope and eyepieces themselves are working. This suggests that we need to revisit the fundamentals of night-time observing. Your telescope comes with a star diagonal, two eyepieces and a Barlow lens so select the eyepiece marked 25mm and insert it in the diagonal. For now, dispense with the smartphone app, simply point the telescope at the sky on a clear night when it has got truly dark. Ensure that the dust cap is…

Jupiter is currently bright and well positioned, an easy naked-eye planet. It reaches its highest position due south at 10pm BST on 1 October, at 9pm BST on 15 October and 7pm UT on 31 October. This is a great planet to observe with a telescope. Point out its flattened globe, due to its rapid rotation, and the two dark stripes that run parallel to the equator. The four largest moons stand out well too and are easy for young eyes to see. Try for some of the moon shadow events listed in our calendar – especially the rare double shadow transit on 4 October. www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/stargazing…

Scientists around the world breathed a sigh of relief on 15 July. After a nervous few weeks, NASA had returned the Hubble Space Telescope’s science instruments to operational status, and science data collection was able to resume for the first time since the space telescope stopped working in mid-June. The nerves were understandable: since deployment in April 1990, Hubble has been one of the most productive scientific instruments ever built. It has made over 1.3 million observations, contributing data for more than 18,000 published scientific papers on a broad range of topics from black holes to planet formation. Astronomy textbooks include contributions from the orbiting space observatory, and Hubble’s discoveries and memorable images have ignited the public’s fascination with space over its 31 years in orbit. But is Hubble now…

When to use this chart 1 Oct at 00:00 AEST (14:00 UT) 15 Oct at 23:00 AEDT (12:00 UT) 30 Oct at 22:00 AEDT (11:00 UT) The chart accurately matches the sky on the dates and times shown for Sydney, Australia. The sky is different at other times as the stars crossing it set four minutes earlier each night. OCTOBER HIGHLIGHTS The Moon has conjunctions with three planets in the western evening sky this month. On 9 October at the end of twilight, the three-day old crescent Moon is 7° below Venus. The following night these same objects form a triangle with the bright star Antares (Alpha (_) Scorpii). On 12 October, the Moon sits on Sagittarius’s Teapot asterism. Two days later, the now gibbous Moon is 4° to the…