Welcome to the April SkyGuide:
Dr Ian Musgrave is telling us when, where and what to look for in the evening and morning skies in April.
He also gives us his ‘Tangent' about Fungi and Lichen on the ISS.
This month Ian continues his 'Astrophotography Challenge’ where he presents us with an achievable and challenging task to undertake with simple cameras. Our target for April is Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks ... and he gives us some excellent tips to capture this celestial Dragon.
Are you up for it?

Astrophiz

Astrophiz189- April SkyGuide

Astrophiz 193: Dr Ian Musgrave’s June SkyGuide
Dr Ian Musgrave brings us his June SkyGuide …  telling us when, where and what to look for in the evening and morning skies this month.

And June is also a wonderful month for celestial observers, especially the early risers amongst us :)

As usual Ian gives us his ‘Tangent’ … and this month it’s all about how animals respond to celestial appearances and then he gives us his ‘Astrophotography Challenge’ where he presents us with an achievable and challenging task to undertake with our cameras.

This month our challenge is to capture Saturn as it is occulted by the moon.

Astrophiz193: June SkyGuide and Astrophotography Challenge

Astrophiz 195: Dr Ian Musgrave’s July SkyGuide
Dr Ian Musgrave brings us your July SkyGuide …  telling us when, where and what to look for in the evening and morning skies this month.

And July is again also a wonderful month for celestial observers, especially the early risers amongst us :)

As usual Ian gives us 'Ian's Tangent' … and this month it’s all about the ‘Comet Ferret’, Charles Messier, and his famous catalog of 13 comets and 110 iconic ‘Messier Objects’ now known to be galaxies, nebulae and globular clusters. See if you can spot the ‘False Comet’ in the tail of Scorpius.

Then Ian gives us his ‘Astrophotography Challenge’ where he presents us with an achievable and challenging task to undertake with our cameras.

This month our challenge is to capture the occultation of the Mulayndynang/Pleiades cluster by the moon on Tuesday July 30

PLUS: July's Observing Highlights:

Astrophiz 195 - July SkyGuide

Astrophiz 197: Dt Ian Musgrave’s August SkyGuide

Moon Phases for August

New Moon - 4 August - best for seeing the faint fuzzies and clusters

Apogee Moon furthest from Earth - 9 August

1st Quarter Moon - 13 August

Full Moon - 20 August

Perigee Moon closest to Earth - 21 August

Last Quarter Moon - 26 August

Evening Sky

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan is binocular-visible in Leo.
Mercury is a fine sighting early in the evenings in August near the Western horizon.
Mercury, Regulus and Venus are visible till an hour after sunset 
On the 6th, Mercury, Regulus and Venus form a triangle with the thin crescent moon.
Venus is climbing higher and becoming more prominent as the ‘Evening Star'
Saturn is rising about 8:30 in the evening and is best telescopically a few hours later when it is higher.
Saturns Rings are almost edge on at the moment.

Morning Sky

Mars has been heading towards Jupiter and the horizon, and in the first week of August lands in the constellation Taurus, forming a second red ‘eye’ with Aldabaran in the bull's head.
Between the 12th and 17th Mars and Jupiter are less than a finger width apart, and on the 15th, less than half a finger width apart.
Looking East and North East in the morning, the Pliades Cluster, Hyades Cluster, Mars, Jupiter and Aldabaran are making interesting patters throughout the month.

Capturing a recurrent Nova Explosion

About an hour and a half after sunset when the sky is completely dark, you look North and a little bit West, you’ll spot the bright star Arcturus, then if you look down and a little to the right, you’ll see a circle of stars called Corona Borealis.

The Astrophotography Challenge

Take a photo of Corona Borealis every clear night during August-September to capture the pre-Nova view and then continue till after TCR-B has gone Nova.

Ian’s Tangent : How do we define a planet?

We have a definition of a solar system planet:
Forms a sphere under its own gravity.
It must orbit our sun.
It must have cleared its own orbit

Now because we cannot yet determine if an exoplanet is a sphere, we now have a proposed definition of an exoplanet,

It must orbit a sun, or suns.
Its mass must be smaller than can have fusion occurring 
Its mass must be enough to clear its orbit. 

Yesterday the ESA released an image of a ‘Cold Jupiter’ named Epsilon Indi Ab.

The planet is several times the mass of Jupiter and orbits the K-type star Epsilon Indi A (Eps Ind A), which is around the age of our Sun, but slightly cooler. The team observed Epsilon Indi Ab using the coronagraph on Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument). Of the 5000+ exoplanets known to date, only a few tens of exoplanets have been directly imaged previously by space- and ground-based observatories.

"This discovery is exciting because the planet is quite similar to Jupiter — it is a little warmer and is more massive, but is more similar to Jupiter than any other planet that has been imaged so far,” quoted lead author Elisabeth Matthews of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany.

August SkyGuide

Astronomy SkyGuide September: Dr Ian Musgrave tells us when, where and what to look for in the evening and morning skies this month.

As usual Ian also gives us his ‘Tangent’ and his ‘Astrophotography Challenge’

Astronomy SkyGuide September - Dr Ian Musgrave

March Moon Phases:

Moon at Perigee March 2 
First Quarter: March 7 
Full Moon: March 14
Moon at Apogee March18
<<Earth at Equinox March 20>> 
Last Quarter March 22 
New Moon: March 29 
Moon at Perigee again on March 30


Evening Skies: 

Mercury is very low in the evening twilight in the West. (binocs recommended but only after sunset) and Mercury will return to morning skies in April and will be quite nice then.
Venus in the early evening twilight is very low in the West (and as a fine crescent in telescopes) … and will disappear from us by the end of the first week of March, and then will re-appear in the East as the ‘Morning Star’ in April.
Jupiter is in the north west all night and best viewed around midnight. 
Nice new storms can be picked out in telescopes in the equatorial belt.
Mars can still be seen in the West
Uranus at mag 5.8 is still visible
Saturn returns to evening skies in late March

Highlights:

1 March: Saturn and Mercury near to thin crescent Moon (2° apart for Mercury) very low in evening twilight, will require binoculars.
2 March: Crescent Moon near crescent Venus very low in evening twilight (5°)
6 March: Waxing Moon near Jupiter in evening twilight (6°) 
9 March: Waxing Moon near Mars in evening sky (5°), Moon close to Pollux
14 March: Occultation of bright star Beta Virginis around midnight
20 March: Earth at Equinox
21 March: Occultation of bright star Antares just after midnight behind moon


Astrophotography Challenge: 
The T Coronae Borealis Nova.
The challenge is to capture a Nova before and after it blows!
This Nova is ‘overdue’ so all eyes are on it!

Ian’s Tip: use 1sec stacks

T Coronae Borealis last brightened in 1946, and astronomers initially predicted it would brighten again by September 2024.
It's a variable star in Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, a backward-C-shaped constellation east of Boötes.

T Coronae Borealis, dubbed the “Blaze Star” and known to astronomers simply as “T CrB,” is a binary system nestled in the Northern Crown constellation some 3,000 light-years from Earth. The system is comprised of a dense white dwarf – an Earth-sized remnant of a dead star with a mass comparable to that of our Sun – and an ancient red giant slowly being stripped of hydrogen by the relentless gravitational pull of its hungry neighbour.


Ian’s Tangent: Sky literacy, or lack thereof, as exemplified by ‘drone sightings’ in the US and amplified by the Governor of Maryland.
We also discuss easy pathways to develop better sky literacy.

Astrophiz209~MarchSkyGuide

Astrophiz "Exceptional Interviews with exceptional scientists."
Brendan sometimes even gets how and why science works, and each month he conducts in-depth interviews with leading astro and space researchers. In each episode we feature Astrophysicists, Space Scientists, Particle Physicists, Data scientists, Antenna engineers, Instrument scientists, optical & radio astronomers, Satcomm engineers, project leaders and aurora hunters. For Astrophotographers, also each month we also hear from Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave who tells us when, where and what to look for in the sky over the coming weeks and explains astronomical phenomena in ‘Ian’s Tangent’.
This ongoing series has taken us through the history, theory and practice of radio astronomy from Faraday to Gravitational waves. Each episode includes the latest news roundup in this golden age of astrophysics. Enjoy! (& donate if you wish to help keep this podcast ad-free)

New tracks tagged #astrophotography challenge