Innehållsförteckning för March 2020 från BBC Sky at Night

With the Moon already high in the sky as twilight falls, this month is a great time to see a new side to it and to marvel at the rich landscapes of pitted lava plains and rugged mountain peaks that telescopes reveal at every phase other than full. This month Pete Lawrence is your guide to doing more with your lunar observations, from using the Moon’s own version of latitude and longitude to the spectacle of occultations, when background objects slip behind its disc. Read the article on page 37. The second half of the month sees the Moon’s new phase, when lunar light recedes from the night sky, the perfect time for our feature all about dark nebulae. Caches of antimatter these are not, rather these intriguing lanes of…

NASA shut down its Spitzer Space Telescope for the last time on 30 January. The infrared space telescope launched in 2003 and, for over 16 years, revealed a side of the cosmos hidden from our human eyes. It has pierced through clouds of dust which shroud or view within the Milky Way and looked out to study the most distant galaxies in the Universe. “Spitzer taught us how important infrared light is to understanding our Universe, both in our cosmic neighbourhood and as far away as the most distant galaxies. The advances we make across many areas in astrophysics in the future will be because of Spitzer’s extraordinary legacy,” says Paul Hertz, director of astrophysics at NASA.…

Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, could have a geologically complex core, making it more likely to be hospitable to life. A new study measured the levels of carbon dioxide in the moon’s subsurface ocean, which suggest it has interacted with the ocean floor. Astronomers used observations from NASA’s Cassini orbiter, which observed jets of ocean water erupting through the surface back in 2015. “By understanding the composition of the plume, we can learn about what the ocean is like, how it got to be this way and whether it provides environments where life as we know it could survive,” says Christopher Glein from the Southwest Research Institute, who led the research. The observations suggest that there could be complex geological features, such as hydrothermal vents, which affect the water. “The dynamic interface…

Sill photography These images of the Flame and Horsehead Nebulae may be of some interest, not because of the images of these popular targets themselves (by normal standards, they are rather poor) but because of how they were acquired. They were taken using my 80mm f/5 refractor with a focal reducer, on a table-top EQ1 mount sitting on a bedroom windowsill, looking through a double-glazed window. The camera was a Phil Dyer integrating video camera, and the image is from a stack of 39 x 10-second exposures, giving a total exposure of 6.5 minutes. It was then processed using GIMP 2.10. It would seem that this technique breaks all the generally accepted rules for imaging and observing, but rules are there to be broken. You don’t need expensive or elaborate…

The Sky-Watcher SkyMax 127 AZ-GTI would make an excellent telescope for planetary and lunar observing and imaging. However, it would be less suitable for imaging deep-sky objects as it has an altazimuth mount rather than an equatorial one. I’ve just bought a Sky-Watcher SkyMax 127 AZ-GTI and want to photograph planets, comets, nebulae and the odd galaxy. What planetary cameras can you recommend for around £150?TOM MARTIN For planetary imaging you have the choice of a one-shot colour camera or a mono camera plus a set of colour filters. The latter can capture all the colours in a single shot, which means you don’t get any problems caused by the planetary subject rotating on its axis in between images taken with different filters. You can also keep below your budget…

The Moon is a fascinating object to observe. Big, bright and easy to find, it’s sometimes taken for granted in favour of what are perceived as more challenging astronomical targets. Yet, on our doorstep is a rich world just waiting to be explored. In this guide we’re going to take a look at some of the aspects which are important for getting the best out of your lunar observing sessions. We’ll introduce the basics of getting around the Moon, look at some of the features visible and extend out to see how it interacts with the surrounding sky. So dust off your telescopes, we’re going to the Moon!…

Clair-obscur effects Clair-obscur effects are when light and shadow areas on the Moon’s surface appear as something familiar. They’re often time-critical and only appear when the terminator is at a specific co-longitude when the Moon is above the horizon. Popular examples are the Lunar X and V, when it looks as if there are two giant letters visible on the lunar terminator. Others are more intricate and difficult to glimpse, such as Cassini’s Moon Maiden, Gruithuisen’s Lunar City and the Face in Albategnius. Banded craters Craters that appear to have dark or light radial lines within their walls are known as ‘banded craters’. There are many of them visible across the Moon’s disc. Typically small in size, they’re great for observing with a telescope and of interest to organisations such…

For those of you seeking something a little different in 2020, this year could be the perfect time to turn your attention to the objects hiding in the shadows: dark nebulae. The night sky abounds with these shadowy wisps and their tendrils of dim nebulosity. They make tremendously rewarding imaging subjects. If you have dark skies and a little patience some can even be tracked down at the eyepiece too. Dark nebulae are where most of the stars in the night sky begin their life, since it is in the cold recesses of these vast clouds that they are born. Indeed, the dazzling star-forming regions that pepper the night sky would all have been gloomy dark nebulae at one point. The disc of our Galaxy is full of these filigree…

During late November 2019, science and finance ministers from all over Europe converged on Seville, Spain with one topic in mind – the European Space Agency (ESA). Every three years, the agency hosts one of these ministerial level meeting where government officials from all 22 member nations come together to discuss what direction they believe the agency should be taking and, most importantly, hand over their money. In this meeting, named Space19+, ESA had some ambitious plans to lay before its member states, and an equally ambitious funding request to make them happen. ESA wanted around €14.5bn over the next three years, its largest increase in 25 years. With several nations exceeding this request – including the UK, which increased its contribution by 15 per cent, bringing its pledge to…

On 18 March 1965 at 08.34 UT, people in Europe and Russia stared at their TVs in astonishment as 30-year-old cosmonaut Alexei Leonov climbed out of his Voskhod-2 spacecraft orbiting above Earth and became the first person in history to perform a spacewalk. As far as the world was concerned Leonov’s 12 minutes and nine seconds floating outside the capsule – setting up and waving to a film camera that recorded the moment for posterity, tethered all the while by a 5m umbilicus – meant the Soviets were once again ahead of the US in the Space Race. But it nearly wasn’t so, and it was only decades later that the death-defying drama of this historic mission came to light. The first problems arose during pre-launch testing when Kosmos 57,…

► Marking out tools (ruler, compasses and pencil), coping saw or jigsaw, drill and bits, small clamps for gluing, junior hacksaw, hole saw (approximately 30mm diameter), tin snips and pliers. ► Small sheet of thick (15mm) plywood or MDF (approximately A3 size) and a small amount of thin aluminium sheet. ► Two M6 x 40 countersunk screws with nuts and penny washers, two round nails, a dish sponge, one 1/4-20 screw for holding the camera, wood glue and epoxy resin glue. ► For the finish you’ll need some sandpaper, and spray paint or varnish and lacquer to make it moisture resistant.…

As we begin the review of the Celestron Advanced VX 700 Maksutov-Cassegrain, here’s a quick refresher on some terminology. The term ‘catadioptric’ describes using lenses and mirrors to shape incoming light in a telescope. The popular Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (SCT) is a catadioptric, as is the Celestron model we’re reviewing here. ‘Cassegrain’ refers to the combination of a concave primary mirror and a convex secondary, while ‘Maksutov’ refers to the shape of the instrument’s front corrector plate. Both Schmidt-Cassegrain and Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes use primary mirrors, which are sections of a sphere. Such mirrors suffer from spherical aberration, producing poor off-axis focus (coma). This is countered in SCTs by using flat corrector plates with a slight aspheric curve; ‘aspheric’ means the curvature is not a portion of a sphere. Maksutov-Cassegrains make use…

Michael Lachmann Producer and author “It’s not easy flying close to the Sun. Discovering how the Solar Orbiter engineers have solved those problems using technology from unexpected sources has been a treat.” Michael looks at the Solar Orbiter mission, page 30 Elizabeth Pearson News editor “The nations of Europe have been making giant leaps in terms of space operations – looking out at the cosmos and down on Earth – and ESA is set to continue for years.” Elizabeth finds out about ESA’s plans in the next decade, page 67 Nisha Beerjeraz-Hoyle Astronomy writer “It was an immense pleasure to recount Alexei Leonov’s first spacewalk – a truly remarkable moment in space history and a wonderfully vivid tale.” Nisha chronicles the first spacewalk, page 72…

As astronomers have built more sophisticated survey instruments with which to hunt for supernovae and other transient objects, their discovery has become almost commonplace. So it’s refreshing to find out that we can still be surprised. SN2006gy was such an unusual event that it’s still making waves, 13 years later, and there may be much more to find. Projects such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope are expected to alert us to tens of thousands of transients a night, and the hope is that among them will be whole new categories that go bang. Radio astronomers have had a happy decade trying to understand fast radio bursts; the rest of us might now have our own mysteries to chase. Chris Lintott co-presents The Sky at Night…

SpaceX’s abort test SpaceX successfully tested the abort system of its Crew Dragon capsule on 19 January. The procedure was trialled during the most intense part of the launch – known as MaxV – and SpaceX purposefully set fire to the launch rocket to ensure the system would protect passengers even in the most extreme scenario. The spacecraft is now cleared for a crewed test flight later this year. Ancient stardust uncovered The oldest piece of stardust ever found has been discovered inside a meteorite. Astronomers at Chicago’s Field Museum estimate the dust is seven billion years old. It predates the Sun by 2.5 billion years and originated in the pre-solar nebula that created the Solar System. Nova set for 2083 A star in the constellation of Sagitta is expected…

India to return to the Moon The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed it will be returning to the Moon with the mission Chandrayaan-3. The agency will make a second attempt to land on the lunar surface after its Vikram lander failed to touch down in September 2019. The new mission will fly no sooner than 2021. First cookie in space Astronauts Luca Parmitano and Christina Koch filled the ISS with the smell of freshly made cookies after baking the first biscuits in space. This ‘Great ISS Bake Off’ was part of an experiment into how food cooks in space. The crew didn’t taste them, instead returning them to Earth for tests to see if they are fit for human consumption. Galaxy crash A collision between the Milky Way and…

Designing a space mission is a balancing act, there are lots of different constraints to find an optimum solution for a spacecraft’s trajectory. To keep interplanetary journey times short, you initially want to propel a spacecraft away from Earth as fast as possible. But whatever the launch vehicle, the faster this initial throw the smaller and lighter the space probe has to be, which limits the amount of scientific instruments and fuel it can carry. And in order for your mission to be captured into orbit around Saturn, for example, you have the problem of how to slow the probe down again when it arrives, because the outer planets circle the Sun far slower than Earth does. ESA's Cassini–Huygens probe used a big rocket burn to brake into Saturn’s orbit,…

12 March 1989 In the March 1989 episode of The Sky at Night, Patrick Moore and astronomer Paul Murdin looked towards the remains of SN 1987A. The supernova explosion was first spotted on 23 February 1987 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Two years later, astronomers at Chile’s Cerro Tololo Observatory noticed that the brightness of the expanding cloud of debris left behind was rapidly fluctuating over a night. The excited observers began to wonder if they were seeing the signs of a new pulsar peeking out from the thick dust. A pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star, which are themselves the dense remains of a stellar core left behind after it has collapsed and caused a supernova. Pulsars emit a beam of intense radiation, which sweeps across the sky…

An Astronomer’s Prayer Dear Lord may you bless our equipment today, And please we beseech, blow the clouds all away, The stars in the sky, the planets above, The folks who look up and the hobby we love. Make each shining star glow bright in the sky, And show us the galaxies, a treat to the eye, Each evening please give us some heavenly hope, That come 8 o’clock, we can set up our scope, We love when you show us meteors flying over, But please in our lifetime, make Betelgeuse go Nova. Amen! David Millar, via email Amen indeed, David! A delightful verse; it captures the mood perfectly.…

A finderscope is a simple but invaluable accessory that attaches to your telescope. The smaller optical tube provides a wide field of view to help you locate celestial objects before observing them through your main telescope, but importantly, it must be aligned accurately to your scope before it can be used. Start aligning in the daytime by finding a very distant object using your telescope, centring that object in your eyepiece as accurately as you can. Then, without moving the telescope, observe through the finderscope and centre its crosshair on the same object by adjusting the three alignment bolts that hold the finderscope in its cradle. Steve Richards is a keen astro imager and an astronomy equipment expert…

Star Attractions 2020 National Museum, Cardiff, 21 March, 10am–4pm A free day of astro activities, shows and displays for all the family, with loads of experts on hand, scopes of all types and sizes, meteorites to handle, an astronomy-themed stamp collection, 3D shows, planetarium and space talks. bit.ly/Star-attractions Reservoir astronomy Abberton Reservoir Visitor Centre, Colchester, 14 March, 6.30pm An evening of stargazing courtesy of Essex Wildlife Trust and North Essex Astronomical Society, with astronomy talks and large scopes provided. Bacon rolls too. Requested donation is £6 per adult, £4 per child. To book call 01206 738172 Spring galaxy spotting Richmond Memorial Hall, Tomintoul, 15 March, 8pm With the Milky Way out of the way, now’s the time to head to the Cairngorms Dark Sky Park to explore our galactic neighbours.…

Introducing selenographic latitude and longitude, and lunar prime meridian Lunar features are located using selenographic latitude and longitude, which are similar to latitude and longitude on Earth (‘selenographic’ means ‘applying to the Moon’ in the same way that ‘geographic’ means ‘applying to Earth’. Latitude is measured in degrees north and south of the Moon’s equator. Longitude is measured east and west of the lunar prime meridian, a line joining the Moon’s north and south poles historically described as passing through crater Mösting A, but now defined as the mean, central north-south line seen from Earth. It doesn’t always appear centrally due to the effects of libration. East becomes west – why the cardinal points on the Moon are different to the rest of the sky As you look at the…

When the Moon is in its fuller phases, it can appear large and dominant. However, in reality it’s quite a small object in the sky, around just half-a-degree across. Compare it to the width of your little finger at arm’s length, which will cover it easily. As it moves around the sky, the Moon covers background stars in events called lunar occultations. Timing these events used to be very important for working out the position of the Moon and the profile shape of its edge. As it’s small, a lunar occultation of a bright star or planet isn’t that common. Occultations of dim stars do happen reasonably frequently though. As the Moon moves east across the sky, occultations caused by a waxing Moon have the background object disappearing behind the…

At the start of March, Orion the Hunter can be seen south-southwest as darkness falls and low in the west-southwest at the month’s end. He’s easy to recognise thanks to the three similar stars in a line which form his Belt. Find Betelgeuse; it’s the orange star in the upper-left (northeast) corner of the main pattern. Explain to youngsters that it’s a red-supergiant star that’s around 1,000 times larger than our Sun. Appearing dimmer than normal, Betelgeuse is entering the last stages of star life. It’s expected to explode as a supernova in the next 100,000 years. www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/stargazing…

Voskhod-2 A. Communications antennae B. TV camera C. Back-up retro engines D. Control antennae E. Spacewalk camera F. Inflatable airlock G. Service and descent module H. Equipment module I. Communications antennae J. Retro rocket Leonov’s spacewalk 1. Cosmonauts pressurise the inflatable airlock located on the side of the Voskhod-2 2. Leonov enters the airlock while Belyayev remains in the service module 3. Once depressurised, Leonov exits the airlock to begin his EVA. Belyayev watches on a TV monitor 4. Leonov spends 10 minutes outside, then returns to the airlock, where the chamber is repressurised after closing the hatch 5. Leonov returns to the service module and the airlock is jettisoned…

Ring of fire Premjith Narayanan, Bahrain, 26 December 2019 Premjith says: “In December, Bahrain witnessed the deepest solar eclipse in more than 100 years. This time the Moon was at its apogee and visually smaller than usual, causing this annular eclipse or ‘ring of fire’. In Bahrain it was partial. It was cloudy on the horizon and so the rise of the eclipse (6.22am AST, Arab Standard Time) could not be seen clearly. Five minutes later it crept out slowly, gleaming red. As more light from the Sun was revealed, the colours started changing vividly from dark pink to red and orange. At 6.36am AST the Moon reached maximum coverage over the Sun’s disc at 90.6 per cent, and had this nice, thin ‘C’ shape. It was a once in…

Anew player in the world of image-stabilised binoculars is bound to be of interest, so we were eager to find out how Opticron’s latest model, the Imagic IS 12x30, performed. We were far from disappointed. Like all image-stabilised models, the Imagic IS 12x30 binoculars have a one-piece body with adjustable eyepiece turrets. The binoculars come with a tough, lined and padded vinyl case, a comfortable neoprene neck strap and a choice of individual eyepiece caps or a tethered rainguard. Both options fit well, although there is no cap for the objective lens end. The set is completed with a good quality microfibre cloth in a wallet, a comprehensive instruction booklet and an intriguing ‘anti-flip’ loop. Body strength The body is covered with a textured nitrile rubber armour that gives a…

Is there something innately different about the minds of scientists who make giant leaps? I think you need a certain degree of mathematical aptitude because, for some reason we don’t understand, the fundamental laws that orchestrate the Universe are mathematical. But, if you have such a mathematical aptitude, and years of training, the answer is yes. What one discovery makes you think “I wish I’d thought of that”? Antimatter. Imagine being Paul Dirac in 1928 and plucking from thin air – which is what he did – an equation describing an electron travelling close to the speed of light, and being gobsmacked to see that the machinery of the equation was duplicated. It also described a positively-charged electron, the first hint of a previously unsuspected universe of antimatter. And where…

What do you think happened at the birth of our Solar System? Our proposal is that dust from dying stars travels in the interstellar medium, gets incorporated in a so-called molecular cloud which collapses and forms new stars like our Sun. Around the new star is a dust disc out of which terrestrial planets like Earth will form. This means that there is stardust from red giant stars produced before our Solar System was created, that is still around today. We see that this dust was not completely mixed in our Solar System – there is still a gradient. Earth in fact has more of this red giant dust than Mars or the asteroids further from the Sun. It’s amazing that we can resolve this nowadays – for a long…

When to use this chart 1 Mar at 24:00 AEDT (13:00 UT) 15 Mar at 23:00 AEDT (12:00 UT) 31 Mar 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. MARCH HIGHLIGHTS The eastern morning sky sees Jupiter under the Teapot of Sagittarius. As March opens, Mars is 10° above this gas giant (near the ‘lid’ star) with Saturn 9° below. Mars will have close encounters with both planets. On the 21st, the Red Planet will be 0.7° to the right of Jupiter. At month’s end, Mars is 0.9° right of Saturn with both a similar brightness, although Mars will be…

Sometimes, even simple things can be complicated. Physicists have known this for centuries, driven mad by the complexities that lie in even simple problems of celestial mechanics. Isaac Newton knew that if you have a system involving two objects – a single planet orbiting a star, for example – then with a little understanding of how gravity works you can calculate how both will move. Add a third object to the system, like a moon, and that predictability disappears. Things start off alright, but even a tiny change in the starting positions of any one of the three objects soon produces wildly different predictions for what the state of things will be in the future. As we can never know the initial positions of the three objects to infinite precision,…

The Sky at Night is taking a break this month and will return in April. In the meantime, there is a wealth of space, astronomy and other science programming available on the BBC iPlayer (bbc.co.uk/ iplayer), including 8 Days: To the Moon and Back, which chronicles the Apollo 11 mission; The Extra-Terrestrial Funeral Service, which features a UK company that scatters ashes in space; and Brian Cox’s latest series The Planets, exploring the Solar System’s history. Plus, visit bbc.co.uk/sounds for a range of science podcasts, including an episode of In Our Time in which Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Ptolemy and the history of ancient astronomy.…

Mick Cassidy The phases before and after a new Moon are best, a very bright Moon can make it difficult to image. Julie Straayer Observe before it gets too full, either before or after full Moon, to get more contrast from shadows formed by the Sun’s low angle. I mostly use my smartphone when imaging the Moon. I like to use my Maksutovs, which give lovely contrasting views that are very sharp. Abi Mark Garvey Before I had a Moon filter I used the blue cellophane wrapper off a Quality Street sweet! Matthew James Bailey Just grab some binoculars! Most households have a pair somewhere. Michael Bate Observe through a neutral density filter and focus on the terminator for stunning views. Check the phase in advance so you know what’ll…

Yorkshire Astronomy is an organisation based in the beautiful Calder Valley, with the aim of making practical astronomy more accessible to the communities of Yorkshire and beyond, through family friendly community events, astro-glamping and astronomy and astrophotography workshops. Astronomy in the Valley is a regular event we host at Hebden Bridge Town Hall for communities in the Calder Valley and we welcome families, seasoned astronomers and first timers. We also run astronomy and astrophotography workshops. These evenings begin with an introduction to DSLRs, their functions and the different lenses needed for dark-sky photography. Our participants then take a night walk on the Yorkshire Moors under our dark skies, using what they’ve learnt to capture features such as the Milky Way, the Orion Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy. In late February…

Some big names are heading to Leicester for this packed one-day festival celebrating the UK’s contributions to space exploration. Stellar headliners are astronauts Helen Sharman and Tim Peake, who will give a talk and Q&A about their experiences of living and working in space. Looking at the past and the future of human spaceflight is Anu Ojha, adviser on ESA’s Human Spaceflight and Exploration programme, while – looking further out into our Solar System – Leigh Fletcher talks about coming missions, from Juno and JUICE to a planned voyage to Uranus and Neptune. Suzie Imber will be taking a closer look at enigmatic Mercury, while Gillian Wright will discuss the exciting new world of astronomy about to be opened up by the James Webb Space Telescope. Another highlight is a…

The Solar Orbiter spacecraft was designed by Airbus Space Systems and built at their facility in Stevenage. Four of the instruments have UK involvement and two of them are led by British institutions. The magnetometer was designed and built by a team at Imperial College London to study how the Sun’s magnetic field evolves as it spreads through the Solar System. “The Sun’s magnetic field drives all of its dynamics," says Prof Tim Horbury, the principal investigator. "It accelerates particles throughout the Solar System. And as the magnetic field flows away From the Sun it controls where the particles go. It is the highway by which particles travel from the Sun to Earth.” The Solar wind plasma analyser will be used to identify which parts of the solar wind are…

The Moon is large and close enough to present a surface which can be explored with the naked eye, binoculars or through a telescope. To the naked eye and binoculars, the Moon’s orientation with north up offers west on the left and east on the right. Through a scope, its orientation will vary depending what arrangement you have at the eyepiece and on the type of telescope. The Moon’s surface shows lots of fine detail, especially when the terminator is nearby. The ability to resolve detail depends on the size of your telescope, seeing conditions and using an appropriate magnification. You can use a simple formula to work out a telescope’s resolving power in arcseconds: R = 120 ÷ d, where d is the diameter of your telescope in mm.…

A CONJUNCTION OF JUPITER & MARS Observe the morning meeting of these planets, which form a trio with Saturn VENUS AT SUNSET See the bright planet dominating the evening sky EARTHSHINE EXPLAINED The phenomenon that reveals the Moon’s dark side 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… ✦ Asteroid 27 Euterpe reaches opposition ✦ The Moon’s crater Jacobi in the southern highlands ✦ Can you spot a meeting of Mars and Pluto? Red light friendly To preserve your night vision, this Sky Guide can be read using a red…

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…

2020 Solar Orbiter: a Sun orbiter, examining the inner heliosphere – the bubble created by the solar wind. It will be the first mission to explore the Sun’s poles. 2020 Rosalind Franklin: a Mars rover with a 2m-long drill to look below the planet’s surface, where biomarkers could survive the Sun’s radiation. 2022 Euclid: will study cosmic structure from the second Lagrangian point (L2), looking at galaxies and clusters to a distance of 10 billion years. 2022 Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE): a spacecraft that will examine the gas giant and its three largest icy moons; Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. 2023 Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE): a joint mission with China to explore the connection between Earth and the Sun. 2024 Hera: bound for asteroid Didymos, the spacecraft…

The Moon will pass very close to the Beehive cluster, M44, in Cancer on 6 March (see page 46). A bright Moon close to dim cluster stars presents a good opportunity to hone your observing skills. Binoculars or a scope with a low power should reveal both objects, but the glare of the Moon will be an issue. Moonlight is nothing more than a dimmer version of sunlight. It’s light sent out by the Sun and reflected by the Moon. As the Moon has a low albedo of around 0.12, not much of the incident light gets reflected back. Albedo is a measure of how reflective a body is. In its simplest form, it indicates the percentage of incoming light which is reflected back. An albedo of 0.12 means that…

Whether you’re a seasoned astrophotographer or a beginner, we’d love to see your images. Email them to contactus@skyatnightmagazine. com. Ts&Cs: www.immediate.co.uk/ terms-and-conditions We’ve teamed up with Modern Astronomy to offer the winner of next month’s Gallery a Finder-Guider Adaptor, which connects T-thread guide cameras from ZWO, Orion and others to 9 x 50 standard finders from Sky-Watcher. The accessory comes with full instructions and support. www.modernastronomy.com • 020 8763 9953…

The Magicians Marcus Chown Faber & Faber £14.99 ● HB In his 14th book, Marcus Chown dramatises key discoveries in physics, explaining the science underpinning major revelations while incorporating fun, personal anecdotes about the key individuals involved. From the link between electricity and magnetism to imaging the shadow of a black hole’s event horizon, Chown explores the timeline of many fascinating phenomena in the Universe, from their theoretical prediction to their eventual confirmation through experiments. One such was towards the end of the 18th century, when William Herschel doubled the size of the Solar System via his accidental discovery of Uranus using his garden telescope in the UK city of Bath. However, astronomers struggled to determine the orbit of the planet as it was never located where expected. In The…

1 Omegon Mount MiniTrack LX3 Price £165 • Supplier Modern Astronomy Tel 020 8763 9953 • www. modernastronomy.com Sick of juggling batteries to keep your mount powered? This portable lightweight tracker operates by clockwork – just pull the cord and you can track for up to 60 minutes. It supports up to 3kg of equipment. 2 CCD Guide 2020 Price €29 • Supplier Astro Systeme Austria www. ccdguide.com This CCD imaging guide comes with an extensive database of images and software to help you plan your imaging. The 2020 update includes more reference photos and improved tools to make planning your projects easier than ever. 3 Lacerta MGEN-3 stand-alone autoguider Price £609 • Supplier 365astronomy Tel 020 3384 5187 • www. 365astronomy.com Upgraded with self-learning adaptive guiding…