Night Sky Almanac 2023: A stargazer’s guide

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It is an 11 km wide rimless pit - in contrast to impact craters which have raised rims - and its close association with the rille of the same name associates it with internal lunar events. The stars that may be seen depend on where you are on Earth, but even if you travel widely, this book will show you what you can see. Oct 10, Nov 9 and Dec 9: Crescent moon meets Venus Some of the most eye-catching sky sights are when the moon glows near the brightest planet, Venus. This is an important invisible line in the sky, because objects are highest in the sky, and thus easiest to see, when they cross the meridian in the south. Only ever use proper eclipse glasses, or a proper solar filter over the full objective of a telescope.

Night Sky Almanac 2023: A stargazer’s guide – HarperCollins Night Sky Almanac 2023: A stargazer’s guide – HarperCollins

Cygnus lies along the line of the Milky Way, the disk of our own Galaxy, and provides a wealth of stars and clusters to observe. Apart from the constellations, certain groups of stars, which may form a small part of a larger constellation, are readily recognizable and have been given individual names. The second co-ordinate, declination, is simply the angular distance, in degrees, north or south of the celestial equator. Although alpha Tauri, Aldebaran, appears to lie amongst the stars of the Hyades cluster it is, in fact, less than half their distance lying 68 light years away from us.

Because the planets are always moving against the background stars, they are treated in some detail in the monthly pages and information is given when they are close to other planets, the Moon, or any of five bright stars that lie near the ecliptic. It shook his young concept of the universe and launched his interest in astronomy and stargazing, a fascination he still holds today. These groups are known as asterisms, and the most famous (and well-known) is the ‘Plough’ or ‘Big Dipper’, the common name for the seven brightest stars in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear.

Night Sky Almanac 2023: A stargazer’s guide – HarperCollins Night Sky Almanac 2023: A stargazer’s guide – HarperCollins

Orion is now beginning to sink into the southwest, and the two brightest stars in the sky, Sirius and Canopus (α Carinae), are readily visible to observers at low northern latitudes and, of course, to those who are south of the equator. The team of Damian Peach, Pete lawrence, Dave Tyler, Bruce Kingsley, Nick Smith, Nick Howes, Trevor Little, David Mason, Mark and Lee Irvine with technical support from Ninian Boyle captured the video sequences from which 288 individual mozaic panes were produced. For observers farther south (at say, 50°S) there are the constellations of Phoenix, followed by the roughly cross-shaped constellation of Grus and the rather faint Indus. The three bright stars Deneb (in Cygnus), Vega (in Lyra) and Altair (in Aquila) make up the "Summer Triangle".A more sensible scheme was introduced by the German astronomer Johannes Bayer in the early seventeenth century.

2023 Night Sky Almanac | Astronomy Technology Today

One feature, Rupes Recta (the Straight Wall) is readily visible only when it casts a shadow with light from the east, appearing as a light line when illuminated from the opposite direction. The irons tend to be the most distinctive in appearance, but the stones and stony-irons resemble many Earth rocks. The conditions of most favourable visibility depend on whether the planet is one of the two known as inferior planets (Mercury and Venus) or one of the three superior planets (Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) that are covered in detail.The various angles are shown in the diagram, together with the separations of the various stars in the asterism, known as the Plough or Big Dipper, and also for stars around the constellation of Orion. After a disastrous fire devastated Rome in 191 CE, early in 192 Commodus declared himself the new Romulus, and ritually re-founded Rome, renaming the city Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana.

2023: Night sky events not to miss - EarthSky Best of 2023: Night sky events not to miss - EarthSky

Such far northern observers will also find that Castor (α Geminorum) is actually circumpolar, although at times it is extremely low on the horizon. The many craters are best seen when they are close to the terminator (the boundary between the illuminated and the non-illuminated areas of the surface), when the Sun rises or sets over any particular region of the Moon and the crater walls or central peaks cast strong shadows. very dark and clear skies) you should be able to see what looks like a little piece of tissue paper stuck on the sky or a faint cloud. He's earned the title of Master Observer and has authored the celestial observing guides Exploring the Starry Realm and Carpe Lunam.

It lies some angular distance from the Sun but, as the evening ecliptic this month is at a very shallow angle, it cannot be seen in the Sun's glare. Day and night are then of almost equal length, although refraction in the atmosphere ‘raises’ the Sun above the horizon at its rising and setting, so daylight at the equinox itself is slightly longer than darkness.