The Night Sky

Welcome To The May Edition Of The Night Sky

As the summer time approaches, we say goodbye to the winter constellations (and the rain!) which have dominated the night skies over the past few months. Orion, Gemini and Auriga will drift off below the western horizon to make way for other spectacular, summer objects. One of the brightest things in the night sky this month will be the star Arcturus. Once you have located this it will help to guide you towards many other objects. This beautiful star will be easy to spot, facing directly north. It will guide you towards the asterisms (star patterns) of 'The Plough', which is part of the Great Bear and 'The Kite', which is part of the constellation of ‘Bootes’. Looking further east, after dark, we can see the beautiful summer asterism of 'The Summer Triangle' returning. It is always a great marker in the skies to help show us where the constellations of Lyra, Cygnus and Aquila can be found. You can easily consult a free app such as Stellarium or SkySafari to find a detailed sky map and search for hundreds of other objects.

The Moon phases and observing tips

Full Moon Phase - 5th May

Last Quarter Moon - 12th May

New Moon - 19th May

First Quarter Moon phase - 27th May. Something of an observing challenge for any 'Selenophiles' this month now.... On the 17th of the month, during daylight hours, we may be able to see a close encounter between a very thin crescent Moon and the planet Jupiter. Now, this will depend on a number of things. A clear sky will be necessary of course, and the view will vary depending on how far south you are. If we were in Scotland the lunar occultation of the planet Jupiter would be visible. The farther south we are located, the planet will be seen to pass very close to the Moon. It is important to remember that the sun will be high in the sky, so ensure that you NEVER look in that direction. Binoculars or a small telescope will give an even better view of the 5% Moon and Jupiter.

The Planets this month

Mercury is not well placed for observing in the morning sky. Venus, however, will be looking stunning this month. On the 22nd and 23rd, towards the west, this sparkling planet will be fairly close to a crescent Moon. Later in the month, if observing with a small telescope you may be able to see Venus in its 50% lit phase. Jupiter and Saturn are not so easily observed as they are morning planets at the moment.

Image of the monthThe Great Globular Cluster (Messier 13)

ByClaire Wardlaw

Claire Wardlaw, originally from Edinburgh, lives in the Charente with her husband. Since their move nearly 6 years ago, Claire has become passionate about astronomy

The most active period - or peak - of this shower will be on the night/morning of the 6th/7th when a maximum hourly rate of around 60 meteors is anticipated

As the summer brings many beautiful objects to our night skies, 'The Great Globular Cluster' slowly comes into view within the Hercules Constellation. The image which you can see here on the left of this stunning deep sky object was probably taken by the Hubble Space telescope as it is so detailed. It can be possible, on a clear night and in very dark skies, to find it within the 'Keystone' constellation of Hercules. The Keystone is in the central area of Hercules and is formed by four bright stars. The cluster will look like a very small faint fuzzy blob of light. With binoculars it will be more impressive as a fuzzy star, and with a telescope we can see with more clarity the cluster of perhaps 250 thousand stars. It sits at a distance of 25,000 lightyears from the Earth. This is now a great time of the year to try to observe and image Messier 13. Using one of the free applications mentioned above will help with the precise location of this stunning object. I am looking forward to imaging this again very soon.

Meteor shower for May - The Eta Aquarids

From the last week in April through to the 24th of this month this meteor shower 'could' be observed here in the northern hemisphere. It is known however as a southern shower and so the 'radiant' is below our horizon until late in the night/early morning. If you are able to wait until then, you could observe some very fast and bright meteors which are associated with Comet Halley. The most active period - or peak - of this shower will be on the night/morning of the 6th/7th when a maximum hourly rate of around 60 meteors is anticipated. Make sure you are comfortable, warm and in good company to enjoy some time with a few 'shooting stars'. To make the most of your views allow your eyes to adapt to the night sky for around 30 minutes first.

Virtual Space Journey No.2 - To our nearest Star 8.3 light-minutes away! If you have twenty minutes or so to spare, we will take a 'virtual' trip to our nearest star, the Sun. Travelling at the speed of light, we wouldn't be away for too long on this space journey. Before we begin to observe anything during this visit to this

Space News In History

On May the 28th, 1959: Two monkeys, Able and Baker, became the first living beings to survive a trip to outer space. The monkeys were launched from the Eastern Space Missile Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on top of a Jupiter rocket to an altitude of 360 miles. They both returned safely to Earth, although I'm not sure they would have wanted to have made the trip in the first place!

ball of gas we must keep our eyes protected at all times. As we approach we will see the outer surface or photosphere which has a temperature of 5,500 degrees celsius. Closer, as we now are, we can also observe the chromosphere which is made up mostly of Hydrogen. It is likely that massive eruptions will be visible to us from the chromosphere. These eruptions or 'prominences' can be over 2000 miles deep and will soon seem to surround us. As we travel around the Sun we can see a few of the darker 'sunspot' areas which are also visible through special telescopes from Earth. They change position as the Sun rotates each month.

When we turn a light on, any light, we instantly see it. The light travelled to our eyes at 300,000km per second! This is known as the speed of light. As you can see above, M13, the 'Great Globular Cluster' is 25,000 light YEARS away from our eyes! We are truly looking back in time.

Clear skies and Happy Star Gazing!

Hello one and all and welcome to this month’s nonsense. Before we get into it, can I please ask you to take note of the bottom paragraph. I know some of you are using old copies of etcetera, but I moved away over 2 years ago now. If news is travelling that slowly, then can I suggest you try satellite internet via Starlink. It really is very good. And better still, you can rent the equipment for 15€ per month. One side-effect of the transition of BBC One to HD only is the number of people who still use a scart cable to connect their HD satellite receiver to their TV. No, just no! There is absolutely no need to do this. Use an HDMI cable instead, scart cannot carry HD signals and so if you have your Sky+ HD box connected to your snazzy high-def TV with a scart cable, you’re still going to have a crappy picture. HDMI is the way to go.

Freesat is not the same as Freeview. Do not buy a Freeview box for UK TV reception. I’m trying to let this go, but it keeps happening.

Use an HDMI cable instead, scart cannot carry HD signals

It does however remain difficult to get the latest Freesat recording boxes sent to France. Sometimes Amazon UK will send the 1TB (hard-drive size) if they have stock, but this is becoming increasingly rare. I feel your pain, I have the same issues as you do. Please remember the service is Freesat (and Freesat+ for recording boxes), not Humax. They no longer make Freesat boxes.

It really is worth trying a ‘factory reset’ on your box if you see the dreaded ‘no signal’ message. I visited a client last month who had 3 Freesat boxes that he believed were not receiving a signal from the dish. Understandably, he thought it was probably a problem at the dish. However, each one had reacted badly to a software update and simply frozen. Just like your computer might do every now and again. After restoring each to their factory settings (though don’t do this with your computer!), normal service was resumed. It’s not always the case, but trying this can save you having to wait a few days for a professional to be able to get to you.

Please remember that I no longer cover the same areas as I used to. See my advert for details. I cover a 90 mins radius of 79240. Google Maps will help you with this.