Night sky

astronomy The Night Sky

Claire Wardlaw, originally from Edinburgh, lives in the Charente with her husband. Since their move over 4 years ago, Claire has become passionate about astronomy.

By Claire Wardlaw

This image was taken by Camille, of Kmille-COLOMB astrophotography. Visit his website at: www.kmille-astrophoto.com

Facebook page is Kmille-COLOMB "astrophotographie & photographie"

WOW, I just have to begin this month with a little about an outstanding spectacle which has been experienced by many in the Northern hemisphere throughout much of July and early August. A bright and beautiful comet named C 2020 F3 NEOWISE rose each morning from early in the month. I very happily lost much sleep during these mornings to view and image from around 3 am onward. What a stunning sight (definitely visible to the naked eye here in rural France!) towards the northeast and even more beautiful through my binoculars and telescope. Its colourful long tail developed in length as the month progressed and it rose earlier each day until it was visible in the northwest from around 11pm through to sunrise the following morning. It now continues its journey out of range for us on Earth and will not return for over 6800 years! It was my first ever view of a comet, my first time imaging a comet, and it really was very emotional. The image above was taken by my friend Camille Colomb.

Meteors this month

The Alpha Aurigids meteor shower produces a very low number of shooting stars per hour (perhaps ten) which are very bright and are quite easy to catch in a camera if you wanted to give that a try. The peak will be around 1st September and will seem to emanate from the constellation of Auriga which can be found low in the north eastern sky. The Southern Taurids will not produce the same high number of meteors as last month's spectacular Perseids display, but it can produce really bright fireballs. This is also a good time of year to look out for what are known as 'Sporadics'. These are randomly produced meteors and can appear anywhere in the sky.

Moon and Planets this month

On 6th September at around midnight, an 18-day old waning gibbous Moon will seem to pass very close to the planet Mars in the east. A 'Last Quarter' Moon will pass between the star Aldebaran and the beautiful cluster of Pleiades on the 9th and 10th, again looking towards the east from around 1am. The Full Moon is at around 6.30am on 2nd and the New Moon is on the 17th. The weeks either side of this date will be the best time to enjoy our really dark skies here. Jupiter and Saturn are truly stunning and fairly close to each other throughout the night this month while Mars continues to brighten and can be found in the constellation of Pisces. Venus can be seen rising brightly in the morning skies before the sunrises. Look to the east.

Constellation of the month: Pisces

Because of this constellation's position in the night sky, the Moon and planets can be observed passing through Pisces or 'The Fishes'. This month, the brightening planet of Mars can serve as a pointer towards Pisces, our featured constellation of the month. Of the 88 currently recognized constellations, Pisces is ranked - by size - as the 14th largest. It sits in a quieter area of the sky, away from the busy Milky Way. Because of its size and faint stars it can be difficult to find. However, another faint but distinctive pattern can help locate Pisces. This pattern, which forms the body of the more southerly of the two fish, is known as The Circlet and is a ring form - or asterism - made up of seven stars. In Greek mythology the two fish of Pisces were said to be Aphrodite and her son Eros. Joined by a cord, they turned into fish when they jumped into the river Euphrates to escape the terrible fiery breath of the monster Typhon!

Binocular Tour for September

This month you could use your binoculars to search for a notable deep sky object between the constellations of Cassiopeia and Perseus, find Moon features, and try to follow the journey of Jupiter's largest moons. The very striking and easy to spot constellation of Cassiopeia, forming a large W or M depending on its position in the sky, can point you towards a stunning deepsky feature, 'The Double Cluster'. Search for the end two stars in the W, on the wider V side, then bring your binoculars down a little until you see this area of bright stars which vary in colour and brightness. The brightest stars of these are brighter than our sun. Its position is marked on the image to help you find it. Of course the Moon is always a very good object to explore with your binoculars, in particular searching the areas which you can find along the 'Terminator'. This is the area of transition between the lit face of the moon and the area which disappears into the shadows as they are hidden from the sun. The objects which you can observe along the Terminator will be different each night as the phase of the Moon changes. Jupiter is well placed for observation this month and you can compare the changing positions of the four largest of the moons as you observe over the course of a few nights. The 'Galilean' moons you can see with binoculars are Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. The moons orbit the planet at different rates and will at times be hidden behind it.