BBC Sky at Night - January 2025 UK

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January 2025 BBC Sky at Night Magazine 3
28
CONTENTS
Features
C = on the cover
Regulars
Reviews
86 QSI 760 full-format mono
CMOS imaging camera
28 Space in 2025 6 Eye on the sky 90 William Optics Pleiades
68 astrograph C
COVER IMAGE: SPACE X. THIS PAGE:SNS, ALAN DYER/STOCKTREK IMAGES/GETTY, SPACE X, PETE LAWRENCE X 2, MARK
C $OOWKHVSDFHƆLJKWVDQGDVWUR 11 Bulletin
GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY, @THESHED_PHOTOSTUDIO, NASA’S SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION STUDIO,
sights to catch in the year ahead 16 Cutting edge C 95 Gear

18 Inside The Sky at Night 96 Books
34 Jump into the deep end
ELEN11/ISTOCK/GETTY, NASA, CHRISTOPH BURGSTEDT/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, CRAIG DIXON
21 Interactive 16-PAGE
New year, new skills: how to take The Sky Guide CENTRE
PULLOUT
\RXUƅUVWGHHSVN\LPDJH 25 Field of view
44 Highlights
26 Subscribe to BBC Sky
40 Is there water on Mars? 46 The big three C
at Night Magazine
C Discover the watery story 48 The planets
72 Explainer
behind the dry Red Planet 50 January’s all-sky chart
74 Skills for stargazers
52 Moonwatch
60 Life seeker 98 Q&A: a habitability
53 Comets and asteroids
The new mission to uncover expert
GHƅQLWLYHSURRIRIDOLHQOLIH 53 Star of the month
54 Binocular tour
Astrophotography
66 When will we get back 55 The Sky Guide challenge
76 Capture
C to the Moon? 56 Deep-sky tour
78 Processing
Find out why it’s taken so long 58 January at a glance
to follow in Apollo’s footsteps 80 Gallery
4 BBC Sky at Night Magazine January 2025

New to astronomy? FREE BONUS
To get started, check out our guides and glossary at
www.skyatnightmagazine.com/astronomy-for-beginners
40
CONTENT
Find it at www.skyatnightmagazine.
com/bonus-content
JANUARY
HIGHLIGHTS
How space rocks brought life to Earth
Rayssa Martins discusses her research on the meteorites
WKDWGHOLYHUHGWKHYLWDOLQJUHGLHQWVIRUOLIHWRƆRXULVK
34 86
60 66
Download a free 2025 Best cosmic images
Moon phases poster from our readers
Whether you love a full Our extended gallery
Moon or bemoan its glare, showcases some of the
our 2025 digital poster best astro photos
This month’s contributors reveals the lunar phases
for the year ahead.
captured by you over
the past few months.
Jamie Carter Charlotte Daniels Ben Evans
Astronomy journalist Astrophotographer Spaceflight author
The Virtual Planetarium
“It’s going “Mastering “Back in
to be an planetary the ’60s, the
exciting year, imaging Space Race
from Mars doesn’t put a man
and Venus at their mean missing out on the Moon within a
brightest to China’s on deep-sky targets. decade. Half a century
Tianwen-2 mission to a There are plenty of on, getting back there is
near-Earth asteroid and ways to adapt our taking a lot longer. But
NASA’s Artemis 2, the Solar System setups to what will our next steps
ƅUVWFUHZHGPLVVLRQWR capture those fainter on the lunar surface
the Moon for 53 years.” objects!” Jump in the actually look like?” Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel guide us through
Read more on page 28 deep end on page 34 Find out on page 66 the best sights to see in the night sky this month.

EYE ON THE SKY
COSMIC MISFITS
Astronomers identify first brown dwarf
candidates outside the Milky Way
JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE, 23 OCTOBER 2024
rown dwarves are ‘failed’ stars – stars that never quite

ESA/WEBB/NASA & CSA/P. ZEIDLER, E. SABBI/A. NOTA/M. ZAMANI (ESA/WEBB)
reached the mass required for the hydrogen in their

cores to start fusing into helium. Their existence was
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our understanding of how the earliest stars formed.
FREE BONUS CONTENT

Explore a gallery of these and more
stunning space images
www.skyatnightmagazine.com/bonus-content

U Lone wolf
ESO/VPHAS+ TEAM, NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI, NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI, INTERNATIONAL GEMINI OBSERVATORY/NOIRLAB/NSF/AURA. IMAGE
PROCESSING: J. MILLER & M. RODRIGUEZ (INTERNATIONAL GEMINI OBSERVATORY/NSF NOIRLAB) T.A. RECTOR (UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA
VLT SURVEY TELESCOPE (VST), 31 OCTOBER 2024

ANCHORAGE/NSF NOIRLAB) M. ZAMANI (NSF NOIRLAB). ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: PI: JISU KANG (SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY)
'HƅQLWHO\DOHVVHUVSRWWHGFRVPLFFDQLQH FRQVWHOODWLRQRI6FRUSLXV7KLVPLOOLRQ the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge),

this one! The Dark Wolf Nebula, also known pixel image was captured as part of the which has studied over 500 million Milky
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JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE, 25 NOVEMBER 2024
Seen here is the Sombrero Galaxy, a spiral FDSWXUHGE\WKH-:67ŝV0LG,QIUDUHG DVPRRWKLQQHUGLVFDQGIRUWKHƅUVWWLPH
galaxy lying 30 million lightyears from ,QVWUXPHQW 0,5, 8QOLNHSUHYLRXVLPDJHV the intricate clumps of gas and dust in the
Earth in the constellation of Virgo, as of this galaxy, this infrared version reveals 6RPEUHURŝVRXWHUULQJ

U Just getting started V Among friends
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE/JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE, GEMINI NORTH TELESCOPE, 21 OCTOBER 2024
31 OCTOBER 2024 The hazy circular glow at the centre of this image is NGC 1270,
This pair of spiral galaxies, IC 2163 (left) and NGC 2207 (right), sidled DQHOOLSWLFDOJDOD[\WKDWOLHVDWWKHKHDUWRIWKH3HUVHXV&OXVWHU
close to one another several million years ago, but have yet to But NGC 1270 is just one of countless thousands of galaxies that
collide – though it’s believed the duo’s combined gravitational comprise the enormous cluster – over a dozen of which are visible
ƅHOGVPD\EHFDXVLQJWKHLUVSLUDODUPVWRVWUHWFK LQWKLVSLFWXUHDORQH

This was
Sylvia’s
promise
to you...
A generation ago, a woman named Sylvia made
a promise. As a doctor’s secretary, she’d watched
stroke destroy the lives of so many people. She was
determined to make sure we could all live in a world
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She kept her promise, and a gift to the Stroke

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Sylvia changed the story for us all. Now it’s our turn
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Stroke still shatters lives and tears families apart.

And surviving a stroke is just the start of a long and
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Finding strength through support

The Stroke Association is registered as a charity in England and Wales (No 211015) and in Scotland (SC037789).
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The latest astronomy and space news, written by Ezzy Pearson
BULLETIN
Chance of finding intelligent aliens gets slimmer
New equation suggests our Universe had low odds of forming life
The formula suggests
tallying up dark matter
could be what tells us if Comment
life is likely in our Universe
by Chris Lintott
and any others
We’d like to be able
to explain why our
Universe has the
recipe it does,
why it has this
combination of
matter and dark
energy stirred just
right to create the
cosmos we live in.
It’s tempting to
reach for anthropic
arguments – the
idea that the
Universe is the
way it is because
ILLUSTRATION
otherwise we
wouldn’t be here
to see it.
This explains why
For 60 years, astronomers have used the Drake accelerating the Universe’s expansion, and is we don’t see a value
equation to investigate the likelihood of intelligent thought to make up ~70 per cent of our Universe. of dark energy that
life evolving elsewhere in the Universe. Now, “Understanding dark energy and the impact on is, for example, a
researchers have devised a novel method to examine our Universe is one of the biggest challenges in million times larger
the question by looking at one of the fundamental cosmology and fundamental physics,” says than we do. Such
properties of our Universe: the fraction of dark energy Daniele Sorini from Durham University, who led a Universe would
it contains. the study. “The parameters that govern our expand far too
Created by Dr Frank Drake in the 1960s, the Drake Universe, including the density of dark energy, rapidly for stars or
equation attempts to calculate the number of could explain our own existence.” planets to form.
intelligent, technologically advanced species in the Too much or too little dark energy would change But what this work
observable Universe. It uses various factors to work the Universe’s ability to form structure, and so alter shows is that we
out the number of habitable planets in the Universe the number of stars being produced. The study could happily exist
and the likelihood of those planets creating found that in the best-case scenario, dark energy in a universe with a
advanced civilisations; but as many of these allowed 27 per cent of gas to form stars. wide range of
quantities are currently unmeasurable, it’s more a Our Universe converts around 23 per cent, values for dark
GLVFXVVLRQSRLQWWKDQDZRUNDEOHVFLHQWLƅFWRRO meaning we don’t live in a universe that has the energy – and so we
INGANIELSEN/ISTOCK/GETTY
The new study instead looked at how likely it was highest odds of forming intelligent life, suggesting still need a proper
for stars and planets – considered vital precursors for there could be some other special ingredients that explanation for
life – to form in a universe with a certain amount of DOORZHGOLIHWRƆRXULVKDWOHDVWRQFH what we observe.
dark energy, examining how star formation changed For a look at recent research into how life might Chris Lintott
if the fraction of dark energy changed. Dark energy is form without a planet, turn to page 98. co-presents
the mysterious substance that is theorised to be www.ras.ac.uk The Sky at Night

BULLETIN
S The Chinese lander scooped up almost 2kg of lunar material and returned it to Earth for analysis last June
The Moon’s far side was volcanically active

Moonrocks from China’s Chang’e 6 mission are revealing the Moon’s hidden side
The mysterious far side of the Moon PDUH WKDWZHUHFUHDWHGE\ƆRRGVRIODYD to contain basalt, a volcanic mineral
has given up one of its biggest secrets, the far side has only a handful of much the lunar seas are made from. Analysing
as the latest analysis of samples brought smaller ones. Instead, it is pockmarked by these grains found most of them were
back by China’s Chang’e 6 mission has impact craters. created 2.8 billion years ago (though one
FRQƅUPHGWKDWWKHUHJLRQGHƅQLWHO\KDG Impact craters build up over the lifetime appears to be 4.2 billion years old). The
CNSA/CLEP, NASA/JPL/USGS, NOIRLAB/NSF/AURA/J. DA SILVA/M. ZAMANI
a volcanic past. of a planetary body, but can also be Apollo and Luna samples, meanwhile,
The Chang’e 6 mission landed on the erased by volcanic activity, so geologists show that volcanic activity around the
Moon’s far side on 1 June 2024, swiftly can examine their size and number to Moon’s near-side equator was only active
collected 1.9kg (4.2lb) of lunar material estimate when the surface last saw fresh up to around 3.1 billion years ago.
and returned to Earth with it. Although lava. Using observations from orbital Even more surprisingly, the Chang’e 6
planetary geologists have a wealth of spacecraft such as NASA’s Lunar samples have much lower levels of
moonrocks from the near side returned by Reconnaissance Orbiter, scientists were radioactive elements compared to the
the Apollo, Luna and previous Chang’e 5 able to determine that the lunar far side near-side samples. On Earth, the decay
PLVVLRQWKLVZDVWKHƅUVWH[DPSOHIURP has indeed experienced past volcanism of these elements helps to keep the core
the far side. – and on a similar timescale to that warm and our planet’s volcanism going.
Researchers hope the sample will help LGHQWLƅHGRQWKHQHDUVLGH How the far side kept volcanic activity
solve the long-standing mystery of why The only way to check for certain, going without these elements is a
the two sides of our Moon look so however, is by examining a sample from mystery. It seems the far side still has
different. While the familiar near side is the far side itself. When Chang’e 6’s lunar some secrets to reveal.
covered with large, dark lunar seas (called samples arrived on Earth they were found www.cnsa.gov.cn/english

Miranda had a liquid
water ocean
The finding challenges Voyager 2’s data
that suggested the Uranus moon was inert
Miranda, one of 28 icy moons ago, Miranda had a 100km- Uranus’s tiny
around Uranus, may have had deep (62-mile) ocean beneath moon Miranda may
a subsurface ocean, challenging its ice shell. Miranda has a have once had an
RXUSUHYLRXVLGHDV7KHƅQG radius of just 235km (146 ocean beneath its ice
came just as NASA revealed miles), meaning this ocean
that data from Voyager 2, our would take up most of the both exciting and bizarre.” Voyager 2 passed Uranus
only close-up view of distant interior. Even now, the moon At the same time, NASA has during an extreme space
Uranus, may not have been could still have the remnant of revealed that it might be time weather event that would have
interpreted correctly. a thin ocean layer. to rethink some of Voyager 2’s squashed the magnetosphere,
9R\DJHUƆHZE\8UDQXV ş7RƅQGHYLGHQFHRI measurements of Uranus. reducing the number of ions
in 1986, imaging several of its an ocean inside a small object 'XULQJWKHFUDIWŝVƆ\E\LW the spacecraft saw.
moons. Its photos of Miranda like Miranda is incredibly found the magnetosphere “If Voyager 2 had arrived just
showed a patchwork of surprising,” says Tom Nordheim – the magnetic bubble around a few days earlier, it would
grooved terrain and craters. from Johns Hopkins Applied the planet – curiously devoid of have observed a completely
A new study examined what Physics Laboratory, who took water ions. This seemed to different magnetosphere at
geological processes could part in the study. “There may suggest the moons were all Uranus,” says Jamie Jasinski
produce this appearance. It be several ocean worlds around frozen solid and therefore not from NASA’s Jet Propulsion
found the most likely scenario one of the most distant planets releasing any water. However, a Laboratory, who led the report.
is that 100–500 million years in our Solar System, which is recent report revealed that www.nasa.gov
Fast-feeding black hole breaks theory

The matter-guzzling frenzy appears to be a single, extreme bout of accretion
The fastest-feeding black hole be pulling in matter at an
in the Universe is apparently incredible rate, 40 times greater
gorging on matter 40 times than that theoretical limit. One
faster than what was thought suggestion is that the powerful
theoretically possible, according RXWƆRZVPD\KDYHRFFXUUHGLQD
to a recent set of observations. single episode of rapid accretion
The black hole, named and that they are acting as a
LID-568, dates from when the release valve, helping the system
Universe was just 1.5 billion years to remain stable.
old and could potentially explain “This black hole is having a
ILLUSTRATION
the mystery of why there appear feast,” says Julia Scharwächter

to be so many black holes in the from International Gemini
early Universe that were able to Observatory/NSF NOIRLab, who
quickly grow to be behemoths. S An artist’s impression of the red, early-Universe dwarf took part in the study. “This
LID-568 is remarkably bright at galaxy that hosts the ravenous record-breaking black hole extreme case shows that a
X-ray wavelengths, but its infrared VXUURXQGHGE\SRZHUIXORXWƆRZVRI fast-feeding mechanism above the
counterpart was so faint it could only material. Theory states that there is a Eddington limit is one of the possible
be detected by the James Webb Space limit to how fast a black hole can feast explanations for why we see these very
Telescope (JWST). JWST’s observations on matter, set by something called the heavy black holes so early in the
revealed that the black hole was Eddington limit, but LID-568 appears to Universe.” www.noirlab.edu

BULLETIN
Source of Earth’s
carbon found
Study says life-giving
element was in the cloud that
Researchers found
birthed the Solar System carbon-containing pyrene
in abundance in the
Carbon is one of the most important Taurus molecular cloud
elements for the formation of life on
(DUWK1RZDQHZVWXG\PD\KDYHƅQDOO\ As these space rocks are the remnants strong evidence that this material from
discovered how the element got to our of our Solar System’s formation, these WKHHDUO\PROHFXODUFORXGƅQGVLWVZD\
SODQHWDIWHUƅQGLQJDUHVHUYRLURI ƅQGLQJVVXJJHVWWKDWS\UHQHZDV into the ice, dust and rocky bodies that
carbon-containing molecules in an delivered after the planets had formed. make up our Solar System.”
interstellar cloud similar to the one in To see if it might have been present While most carbon atoms in the cloud
which the Solar System was born. before they were created as well, a team are locked away as carbon monoxide,
The cloud contains pyrene, a type of of researchers looked at the Taurus around one in every hundred or so of the
chemical known as polycyclic aromatic molecular cloud (TMC-1), an interstellar remaining molecules are pyrene.
hydrocarbons (PAH) which contain rings of cloud of gas and dust in the constellations “Imagine the thousands of different
carbon atoms fused together. PAHs make Taurus and Auriga, which is in the process molecules that are out there, nearly all
up 10–25 per cent of all carbon that exists of forming stars and planetary systems of of them with many different carbon
in space and have long been touted as its own. They discovered it contained a atoms in them, and one in a few
MDM/DARTMOUTH/R. FESEN; INFRARED: (WISE) NASA/JPL/CALTECH/; IMAGE PROCESSING: UNIV. OF MANITOBA/GILLES FERRAND AND JAYANNE ENGLISH
FIVE COLLEGE RADIO ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY (FCRAO), GOPAL NARAYANAN/MARK HEYER, YUCELYILMAZ/ISTOCK/GETTY, W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY/
ADAM MAKARENKO, XRAY: (CHANDRA) NASA/CXC/U. MANITOBA/C. TREYTURIK/(XMMNEWTON) ESA/C. TREYTURIK; OPTICAL: (PANSTARRS) NOIRLAB/
the potential source of carbon on Earth. large amount of pyrene. hundred is in pyrene,” says McGuire.
Pyrene has been found in many comets, “What we’re looking at is the start and “That is an absolutely massive
asteroids and meteorites, most recently in the end, and they’re showing the same abundance. An almost unbelievable
2023 in samples of asteroid Ryugu thing,” says Brett McGuire from MIT, who sink of carbon.”
collected by the Hayabusa2 mission. took part in the study. “That’s pretty news.mit.edu
Environmental concerns over Starlink

SpaceX’s communication network vastly outnumbers all other satellites
A group of 120 concerned researchers the Federal Communications
ILLUSTRATION
have written to the US federal Commission allow them to launch

government to raise concerns over another 20,000. The letter from
plans by SpaceX to launch thousands researchers, released in November
more Starlink satellites. 2024, asked the FCC to conduct an
6LQFHWKHVSDFHƆLJKWFRPSDQ\ environmental review to assess the
has launched over 7,000 satellites to impact of the satellites.
create a global communication network. “The environmental harms of
Once their useful lifespan has run its launching and burning up so many
course, these are due to be de-orbited satellites aren’t clear,” the letter states.
into our atmosphere, where they will The letter urges caution “We shouldn’t rush forward with
burn up. While this has been a standard about the impact of launching satellites at this scale without
way of disposing of space hardware for megaconstellations PDNLQJVXUHWKHEHQHƅWVMXVWLI\WKH
many years, there are currently twice as potential consequences of these new
many Starlink satellites as all other about how the bright satellites impact megaconstellations being launched,
satellites put together. astronomical observations. and then re-entering our atmosphere
The environmental concerns add to SpaceX is currently licensed to launch to burn up and create debris.”
those raised by astronomers worried 12,000 satellites, but has requested that www.pirg.org

X 3DLVWKH
firework-like leftovers
of a star that exploded
\HDUVDJR
There’s now a 3D map

of the nebula’s strange
ILLUSTRATION
VSLNH\ƅODPHQWV
Dandelion supernova
Astronomers shed new light on an ancient star explosion
In AD 1181, a bright new star burst into outwards like the seeds of a dandelion. Hubble Fellow at the Center for
life in the constellation of Cassiopeia, Using observations from the Keck Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian.
burning brightly for six months. We now telescope in Hawaii, scientists have now “This means that the material has not
know it was a supernova, the remnant of created a 3D map of the exploding been slowed down nor sped up since
ZKLFKZDVQŝWLGHQWLƅHGXQWLOZKHQ supernova that tracks both the the explosion. From the measured
LWZDVOLQNHGWRQHEXOD3D trajectory and the speed of the spikes. velocities, looking back in time, you
Astronomers a decade later ş:HƅQGWKHPDWHULDOLQWKHƅODPHQWV can pinpoint the explosion to almost
discovered that the nebula contains is expanding ballistically,” says co-lead H[DFWO\WKH\HDUŠ
ƅODPHQWVRIJDVDQGGXVWVWUHWFKLQJ author Tim Cunningham, a NASA www.keckobservatory.org

Our experts examine the hottest new research
CUTTING EDGE
ILLUSTRATION
bulk has escaped, some of the hydrogen might still
be retained as a thin envelope of hydrogen around
the planet. Or it could have a thicker atmosphere of
heavier gas molecules mixed in with some hydrogen.
To understand exactly what’s going on, what’s
needed is someone spectroscopically analysing the
atmosphere to try to directly detect the gas
molecules that make it up.
Though clouds can really hamper such
observations of worlds like this one, because they
block views of the lower atmosphere, observations
by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2023 indicated
that molecular features can be detected for this
planet. The much better capabilities of the James
Webb Space Telescope (JWST) ought to be able to
reveal GJ 9827 d’s atmospheric composition.
7KHVWXG\FRQƅUPHG
DVLJQLƅFDQWWKLFNVWHDP\
Heavy weather
water-vapour atmosphere During her PhD in the department of physics at the
circles the small, hot planet University of Montreal, Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb
attempted exactly that. She used the near-infrared
spectrometers on JWST to observe GJ 9827 d for
Steam world is under pressure WZRWUDQVLWVDFURVVLWVVXQWKHVWDUOLJKWƅOWHULQJ

through its atmosphere.
Piaulet-Ghorayeb and her team saw the
Study finds a planet rich in water, FOHDUVSHFWUDOƅQJHUSULQWRIZDWHU
despite being too hot to form rain molecules in the planet’s atmosphere.
“The planet
In fact, Piaulet-Ghorayeb calculates
is hot enough that
T
he GJ 9827 system about 100 lightyears that water vapour makes up at least
away in the constellation of Pisces this water wouldn’t 30 per cent of the atmosphere.
contains three known super-Earth condense into liquid GJ 9827 d is a volatile-rich ‘steam
planets orbiting a nearby K dwarf world’. The planet is hot enough
droplets in the
star. With a mass almost twice that that this water wouldn’t condense
of Earth, GJ 9827 d is the largest of the triplets atmosphere or on into liquid droplets in the atmosphere
and also has the widest orbit. The innermost two the surface” or on the surface. Instead, at higher
companion worlds are very dense and so are thought pressures the water would be in a
MARK STEVENSON/STOCKTREK IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES, MICHELLE LOCHNER/MEERKAT
to be predominantly rocky planets, but GJ 9827 d supercritical state, where it mixes well with
has a lower density, meaning it probably contains hydrogen gas. And despite the high temperature
DVLJQLƅFDQWDPRXQWRIŜYRODWLOHVŝOLNHZDWHUDQG of the planet, this thick atmosphere made of heavier
possibly a thick atmosphere. molecules would be stable. This is consistent with
GJ 9827 d orbits relatively closely to its sun the non-detections of escaping hydrogen or helium.
and has a calculated temperature of some Piaulet-Ghorayeb and her colleagues say that
350°C (662°F). This implies that its atmosphere further planned JWST observations of the planet
– contrary to most similar-sized planets – can’t be ought to be able to detect other constituents of the
dominated by hydrogen, as its high temperature Prof Lewis Dartnell GJ 9827 d atmosphere, such as carbon monoxide or
would mean that such light gases would quickly is an astrobiologist carbon dioxide, and possible sulphur dioxide. And this
escape. Previous observations of the planet have at the University will help researchers understand how this planet
only lent support to this expectation by failing to of Westminster formed with such a volatile-rich atmosphere.
detect any hint of hydrogen or helium streaming
away from the planet. Lewis Dartnell was reading… JWST/NIRISS reveals the Water-rich “Steam
The problem is that just knowing the density World” Atmosphere of GJ 9827 d by Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb et al.
alone of a planet like this doesn’t allow astronomers Read it online at: arxiv.org/abs/2410.03527
to work out what its atmosphere is like. Though the

CUTTING EDGE
What’s exciting is what happens next. Protege

shows a random set of images to the astronomer
How AI can aid who is using it, who ranks them on a scale of 1 to 5
based on how interesting they are. Using this
astronomers
input, Protege guesses what score images with a
particular set of features are likely to get and uses
this to decide what to show the astronomer for the
next round of review. These too are scored and the
Humans and machines are teaming Prof Chris Lintott process repeats until the astronomer is shown only
up to tackle huge datasets is an astrophysicist WKLQJVWKH\ƅQGLQWHUHVWLQJ
and co-presenter Of course, what is considered ‘interesting’ will vary
on The Sky at Night from astronomer to astronomer, but in the MeerKAT
W
ith massive new surveys like the
upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory, H[DPSOH3URWHJHGRHVƅQGWKLQJVLWVWUDLQHUVPLVVHG
which is due to begin full science – galaxies surrounded by background emission, for
operations in August 2025, H[DPSOHŚEXWLWDOVRLGHQWLƅHVDIDVFLQDWLQJDQG
astronomers are worrying
“Protege unexpected set of X-shaped sources. Some
about how to cope with the upcoming deluge finds things its of these seem to be systems where radio
of data. Personally, I’m particularly excited trainers missed, jets extend on both sides of the galaxy,
about how, among the terabytes of images but it also identifies but others, with long and sometimes faint
LWZLOOSURGXFHHYHU\QLJKWZHŝUHJRLQJWRƅQG ‘wings’ leading away from the central
a fascinating and
the really unusual and unexpected. source, are much more confusing.
A new research paper might provide the unexpected set Even this example study, with ‘just’ 6,000
answer, describing a tool that makes creative of X-shaped sources, has produced a set of galaxies we’d
XVHRIPRGHUQDUWLƅFLDOLQWHOOLJHQFHWRJXLGH sources” love to know more about. When Protege and its
astronomers to interesting objects. As a test of their robot friends are set loose on those large datasets
method, Michelle Lochner and Lawrence Rudnick WKDWDUHFRPLQJZKRNQRZVZKDWZHŝOOƅQG"
set out to explore data from the South African radio
telescope MeerKAT, which spent 6–10 hours staring
at each of more than 100 galaxy clusters, together
containing more than 6,000 radio galaxies.
How do we decide which galaxies to focus on?
That’s where a piece of software that the team call
‘Protege’ comes in. At its heart is a machine-learning
routine called BYOL. BYOL takes a set of images and
reduces them to a set of features. We could imagine
doing the same trick with a stack of images of
animals. There, it might be useful to have one feature
that represents a rectangular shape, for the animal’s
body. And maybe something that looks like a leg.
Other features might represent stripes or spots, or
the shapes made by trees in the background. Choose
enough features and you could represent any image
as a combination of these individual elements.
Cyber-sorting the stars

The magic of routines like BYOL is that you don’t
QHHGWRGHƅQHWKHIHDWXUHV\RXUVHOIDVWKH\ŝUH
discovered by the network during a process of S In just a few training steps, Protege combed through thousands of galaxies,
training. Some of the features it chooses might have uncovering unusual circular and filamentary structures its humans had missed
meanings that make sense to humans, but others
may be very abstract. The crucial thing is that similar
Chris Lintott was reading… Astronomaly Protege: Discovery Through
galaxies should be represented by similar sets of Human–Machine Collaboration by Michelle Lochner and Lawrence Rudnick
IHDWXUHVDQGVRWKLQNLQJOLNHWKLVOHWV\RXƅQGVLPLODU Read it online at: arxiv.org/abs/2411.04188
galaxies – they’re the ones with similar features.

The Sky at Night TV show, past, present and future
INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT

short stand-alone animated
ƅOPWKDWZRXOGDOVREHXVHG
in segments on the ‘Ancestral
Skies’ episode of The Sky at
Night. The theme was to be
our connection to the night
sky. A broad subject when
considering ancient cultures,
all living creatures, light
pollution and our place in the
natural world. Where to begin?
I must admit my natural
tendency was to lean towards
the esoteric, but luckily
(perhaps for the audience)
more level heads supported the
YLVLRQRIDƅOPZLWKIHHWRQWKH
JURXQGEXWZLWKH\HVƅUPO\
ƅ[HGWRZDUGVWKHVWDUV7KHUH
were, as ever, constraints on
time, budget and the sheer
amount of information we
could convey. But, as I’ve often
found, good things can come
from strict parameters.
7KHƅUVWSRUWRIFDOOZDV
an inspiring conversation
with Clive Ruggles, emeritus
When you’re trying to tell the S Smyth loves professor of archaeoastronomy at the University
using art to break of Leicester. This really was a treat. He not only
story of the Universe, it helps to down difficult conveyed a wealth and breadth of knowledge on
have some visuals. Oliver Smyth, concepts. You
this complex subject, but also used fantastic visual
can watch the
animation director on The Sky at animation for the PHWDSKRUV,NQHZLQVWDQWO\KDGWREHLQRXUƅOP2QH
‘Ancestral Skies’ example is how the pattern of stars seen meeting
Night, explains how graphics bring episode at bit.ly/ the horizon could be memorised like musical motifs
astroanimation
complex cosmic mysteries to life by ancient Polynesian navigators.
Making movie magic
I
’m currently thanking my lucky stars.
At age 15, there was an apparent stark gulf This is where the power of animation to convey
between the arts and the sciences. Perhaps complex concepts in a way that’s memorable and
you can relate: are you team Bunsen burner accessible really comes in. As the old saying goes,
OLIVER SMYTH/BBC X 6, NASA/JPLCALTECH, NICOLA FOX
or paint brush? Telescope or potter’s wheel? a picture is worth a thousand words. I believe this
Working recently with The Sky at Night TV show is especially true in the realm of science. Who can
and the Royal Society, I’ve been able to have my cake bring Newton to mind without thinking of an apple
and then eat yet more cake… with extra sprinkles. falling from a tree or a prism of rainbow light? In our
After many years in the arts – animating, directing, innately storytelling brains, these are the ways in,
colouring in, playing with stop-motion puppets and allowing us to access the nuts and bolts of often
telling stories with plasticine and crayons – I found complex information.
myself consulting with world-leading scientists, ,QWUXWK,ŝYHQRZPDGHTXLWHDIHZƅOPVDQG
cosmologists and most recently astroarchaeologists. documentary segments in the general area of
The objects that created this wonderful alignment science. Be it illustrating global population data,
were the stars themselves. I was asked to make a explaining the effects of the new R21 malaria vaccine,

INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT
or our previous Sky at Night ƅOPFive Mysteries of the H[WUHPHUHDOLVPFDQOHDGWRDPLQHƅHOGRISRWHQWLDO

Universe, with Carlos Frenk from Durham University. LQDFFXUDFLHV2QWKLVSURMHFWZHPDGHDYHU\
It’s my personal belief that seeing very human, considered but somewhat stylised model of
hand-crafted images is particularly suited to this task Stonehenge. This technique means we can convey
– especially now at the dawn of the AI revolution. general theories about solstitial alignment without
With such highfalutin theories in mind, we made people writing in to complain “you misrepresented
DFRQVFLRXVHIIRUWWRNHHSHYHU\WKLQJLQWKLVƅOP the fourth notch of the east quadrant arching stone”.
feeling hand-drawn and textural. It’s becoming Oliver Smyth is And so with great support from The Sky at Night
a multi-award-
surprisingly easy for animators and visual effect folk programme team, Beth Jinkinson at BBC Ideas,
winning director
to make near-photorealistic planets, stars, science animation producer Ceri Barnes and talented fellow
and animator with
instruments, and so on. But the closer to reality you 18 years of industry animator Heather Gretton, we created a short ditty
go, the further away from impactful visual metaphor experience that seems to have put smiles on faces. So that’s
\RXFDQƅQG\RXUVHOI1RWWRPHQWLRQWKHIDFWWKDW good. Time for more cake, I think.
Looking back:
The Sky at Night Explore the cosmos
with BBC Sounds
20 November 1980 While we wait for
The Sky at Night
A week before the 20 November 1980 Saturn’s moons, Titan, which was to return to our
episode of The Sky at Night, NASA’s WKRXJKWWRSRVVHVVDVLJQLƅFDQW screens, there are
9R\DJHUƆHZSDVW6DWXUQLQVSLULQJ DWPRVSKHUH2Q1RYHPEHU9R\DJHU plenty of space-themed audio series
Patrick Moore to look at what the passed just 6,492km (4,034 miles) from and podcasts to listen to on BBC Sounds.
spacecraft had learned. 7LWDQFRQƅUPLQJLWKDGDQLWURJHQ 6HDUFKIRUWKHŜ6SDFHŝFROOHFWLRQWRƅQGD
Voyager 1 left atmosphere with whole host of radio documentary series
Earth in 1977, 10 per cent methane about all things space – from cosmology
beginning its long and traces of other WRWKHIXWXUHRIKXPDQVSDFHƆLJKW2U
ƆLJKWLQWRWKHRXWHU hydrocarbons. The learn what Desert Island Discs were
Solar System. After surface pressure chosen by NASA’s head of science, Nicola
DƆ\E\RI-XSLWHU was only 60 per cent Fox. Plus there are dozens of astronomy-
in 1979, it made its greater than Earth’s themed episodes of BBC radio favourites
way to the ringed at sea level, but the such as In Our Time, 7KH/LIH6FLHQWLƅF
planet, beginning temperature was a and BBC Inside Science.
its observations on very un-Earthlike
22 August 1980, –180ºC (–293ºF).
109 million km (68 S One of Voyager 1’s spectacular shots But getting close
million miles) away. from Saturn’s dark side, November 1980 to Titan meant that
As it drew closer, it took detailed images Voyager 1 passed 125,500km (78,000
of the rings, revealing their delicate miles) above the cloud tops of Saturn’s
structure in unprecedented detail, as southern pole, slingshotting it out of the
well as three new Saturn moons Solar System’s plane, preventing it from
(bringing the total at the time to 15; passing any other planets. It continued
today, there are 146 known moons). outwards, however, eventually passing
Voyager 1’s trajectory was chosen to into interstellar space in 2012, where it S Find out what NASA science chief Nicola
give a closer look at the largest of continues to observe to this day. Fox picked as her castaway tracks

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Out of the shadows MESSAGE

Tweet
OF THE M.Wilson_Astrophotography
Thank you for suggesting that
MONTH @mwilsonastro • 28 October
Moon viewers look for the Eyes The aurora over Orion.
of Clavius, and for giving the date #orion #orionconstellation #aurora
and approximate time to look #northernlights #milkyway #universe
(Sky Guide, November issue). Straight Wall @skyatnightmag
I didn’t know about this lunar
clair-obscur effect before, but
thanks to you I decided to take
a look late in the afternoon on
9 November 2024, and there it
was. In my image (right), north is
up, and I also caught the shadow
of the Straight Wall (Rupes Recta)
as a bonus. Thank you again for
bringing knowledge and pleasure
to those who look at the skies.
Paul Lahti, Massachusetts, USA
Delighted to hear you caught the

Eyes of Clavius, Paul! Clair-obscur Eyes of Clavius
effects on the Moon don’t hang
around for long, as they depend on
just the right amount of sunlight Paul got this
streaming over the lunar horizon. great shot of
the staring eyes
Well done for getting the timing
made by two
just right. – Ed. craters in Clavius
Capital idea Phil is thrilled with

While working on a light-hearted how his smart scope
personal project, I found myself imagining is performing
what it might look like if the Milky Way
were mapped along the River Thames. update last month which enhanced the
I wondered, too, which stars might align images taken. Here (above) is an image of
with the locations of various Tube the Dumbbell Nebula taken by me using
stations. It’s a whimsical idea, but it raises the enhanced mode. This image has had
interesting possibilities for connecting no processing as such and is presented as
astronomy with London’s geography! it was, straight from the scope. I thought
I thought my fellow readers might fellow readers might be interested.
enjoy seeing this. Phil Schneider, via email
David Utting, via email
Hidden depths
Level up Unless I missed something, I have never
S Return ticket to Pegasus, please! Tube I am the proud owner of a Unistellar seen a picture or illustration of a 3D image
stations become stars on David’s map eVscope 2. There was an interesting of a black hole. If a black hole consumes X

INTERACTIVE
BBC Sky at Night Magazine is published by Our Media Ltd
under licence from BBC Studios, which helps fund new
BBC programmes. X material, which is 3D, then surely it
EDITORIAL
doesn’t convert it into 2D. Black holes Instagram
Editor Chris Bramley must have a thickness?
scollinsastro • 17 November
Content Editor Iain Todd Bill Foote, Weymouth
Features Editor Ezzy Pearson November full Moon.
Art Editor Steve Marsh 100 frames per red/green/blue
Senior Production Editor Jess Wilder According to general relativity, black ƅOWHUWKURXJKWKH(VSULWWHOHVFRSH
Reviews Editor Charlotte Daniels @bbcskyatnightmag
holes are spherical and smooth 3D objects.
CONTRIBUTORS When it comes to illustrating them,
Stuart Atkinson, Shaoni Bhattacharya, Jamie Carter,
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Anita Chandran, Lewis Dartnell, Glenn Dawes, Russell
Deeks, Dave Eagle, Ben Evans, Pippa Goldschmidt, to represent like, say, a picture of planet
Jane Green, Chris Grimmer, Alastair Gunn, Tim Jardine, Earth, because light cannot escape
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Govert Schilling, Oliver Smyth, Steve Tonkin, Penny
a black hole, so our eyes would only see
Wozniakiewicz a textureless void. One way that illustrators
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I read with amusement the phrase
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SOCIETY IN FOCUS Fordingbridge Astronomers
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The astronomer’s forum
Space: the final frontier for health

Human space travel is limited by one thing, says Jonathan Powell – the human body
S How astronauts on the ISS stay healthy (left to right): the Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization System (CEVIS);
the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED); and the T2 Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT)
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The perfect addition to your stargazing, BBC Sky at Night
Magazine is your practical guide to astronomy, helping you
to discover the night skies, understand the Universe around
us and learn exciting techniques for using your telescope.
Enjoy our Premium App experience

now available from
With brand-new spacecraft,
unstoppable SpaceX, lunar
eclipses and rare planetary
phenomena, 2025 promises
to be a big year for space
From a visit to an asteroid and a milestone in human spaceflight

to two lunar eclipses and an unusually bright Mars, Jamie Carter
looks ahead to 2025’s space missions and observing highlights

MAIN ILLUSTRATION: BLACKJACK3D/GETTY, 2025 NUMBERS: NASA/ESA/ATG MEDIALAB,
GETTY, NASA AND THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (STSCI/AURA), SIERRA SPACE
Asteroid sampling
China’s ambitious mission will visit both an
asteroid and a comet, returning samples to Earth
China’s space agency, CNSA, will continue to progress in
2025 when it launches the follow-up to its debut Mars mission,
Tianwen-1, which landed a rover on the Red Planet in 2021.
Tianwen-2, scheduled to launch on a Long March 3B rocket
in May, will be completely different, visiting a near-Earth
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fragment of the Moon loosened by an asteroid striking its far
side millions of years ago. The solar-powered Tianwen-2 will
spend 2.5 years making close-up studies of the asteroid and
Tianwen-2 will make a
ILLUSTRATION
also take a sample to return to Earth in a capsule that will

touch-and-go grab for
parachute into China. Tianwen-2 will then travel to a comet a piece of near-Earth
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A second private
lunar landing
The IM-2 lander will be the latest craft to set
its sights on the lunar south pole
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Artemis II crew Victor Glover,
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Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch
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NASA shoots
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for the Moon

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– provided there are no more delays
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ILLUSTRATION
A ‘space shuttle’
visits the ISS
The Dream Chaser spacecraft hopes to provide
another way to access low Earth orbit
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Unstoppable SpaceX may next

try grabbing both the Starship
and the booster in mid-air
SpaceX goes for

a double catch
The company’s Starship has developed at incredible speed
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adapted and tested version of Starship that can land on the lunar surface. X

Saturn ‘loses’ its rings
The planet’s tilt will make them invisible
from Earth for most of this year
Saturn’s rings will disappear in 2025.
The sixth planet’s rings have been it emerges in April and
closing for a few years and in March they May, and then comes to its
will become invisible from Earth until annual bright opposition on
November. The phenomenon occurs 21 September. Long before
because Saturn orbits the Sun every that, on 4 January, Saturn will
29 Earth years and rotates on an axis be occulted by a crescent Moon
tilted by 27°. Over the course of a Saturn in the southwest after sunset for
year, it tilts away from and toward the European observers; from London,
Sun and experiences seasons, much as the planet will disappear at 17:21 UT
Earth does. Consequently, every 14-and- to re-emerge at 18:32 UT. Just two
half years, Saturn’s tilt aligns the rings weeks later, on 18 January, Saturn and
with the line of sight from Earth, so we Venus will get to within just 2° of each
temporarily see them edge-on. Saturn other above the southwest horizon in Saturn’s rings have been
will be lost in the Sun’s glare in March, the post-sunset sky, an event visible gradually vanishing as the
so it’s not something to observe until across the world. planet turns edge-on to us
A special year for Mars

The Red Planet will be extra bright at opposition
Seasoned observers will have noticed it on 12 January when it’s nearest to
that Mars has been getting noticeably Earth, when it should be at its brightest
brighter and redder since October, at magnitude –1.4. The next opposition
the inevitable run-up to the planet’s of Mars will occur in February 2027. The
once-every-26-months opposition on brightness of Mars during 2025 also
16 January. The best time to observe makes its conjunctions worth observing.
the Red Planet since its last alignment On 13/14 January, US astronomers will be
with Earth and the Sun in December treated to the near-full Moon occulting
2022, a planet’s opposition sees its the planet, while UK viewers will witness a
entire disc lit up, but it also means it close pass on 13 January and 9 February.
rises in the east at sunset and sets in On 3 May, Mars moves across the stars of S Mars has a lovely brush with the
the west at sunrise. Be sure to observe the Beehive Cluster (M44) in Cancer. Beehive open cluster of stars on 3 May
Lunar highlights
MICHAEL KARRER/CCDGUIDE.COMX 2, PETE LAWRENCE, SUNDRY PHOTOGRAPHY/
The full Moon comes in for a close-up in 2025

GETTY, JAMIE COOPER/GETTY, ALAN DYER/STOCKTREK IMAGES/GETTY
In 2025, the Moon will get closer to will be easy to image. On 10 January,
Earth than at any time since February 12 September, 10 October and 4
2019, when a so-called ‘supermoon’ December, bright near-full Moons will
(technically referred to as a perigee syzygy blast across the ’Seven Sisters’ stars,
Moon) on 5 November sees our natural making them challenging both to see
satellite just 356,833km (221,726 miles) and image.
distant. A lesser supermoon will rise on However, from the UK, early risers on
the months either side of that date, on 23 June may snag a view of a 7%-lit
7 October and 4 December. crescent Moon in the east, sitting
However, a 2025 highlight for plumb against the Pleiades. Other lunar
There are three supermoons
astrophotographers will be the Moon highlights in 2025 include two post-sunset
this year, the 5 November one
being the closest since 2019 repeatedly passing through the sparkling conjunctions with Jupiter in the west on
Pleiades open cluster of stars. Sadly, none 28 May and in the east on 7 December.

Venus rises
and falls
Catch Venus next to the crescent Moon
The ‘Evening Star’, as Venus is called, will live up to
its name on 16 February when it reaches its greatest
brilliance after sunset at a remarkable magnitude
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of 2025 to see the phases of Venus change from
being half-lit on 11 January (its dichotomy) to an
increasingly slim crescent. After that bright showing,
Venus will rapidly sink into the Sun’s glare, passing
between Earth and the Sun (its inferior conjunction)
on 22 March. It will emerge as a brilliant ‘Morning
Star’ before sunrise during April and quickly peak in
brightness on 24 April. During its evening apparition, Like our Moon,
it will be closely passed by a crescent Moon after Venus exhibits phases.
In early 2025 it will be
sunset on 3 January, 1 February and 1 March. See
stunningly bright as
the same sight before sunrise on 22 June, with it wanes to a crescent
Jupiter joining the fray on 21 and 22 July, and 20 for a series of meetings
August. On 19 September, a 6%-lit crescent Moon with a crescent Moon
will pass very close to Venus and Regulus.
A quartet of eclipses S See the Moon redden as it

moves completely into Earth’s
shadow – a total lunar eclipse – on
13/14 March and 7/8 September
Two total lunar eclipses will turn the Moon a deep red
After two total solar eclipses in seven sight. In the UK, a small partial will be technically visible from the UK during
years, in 2017 and 2024, North Americans seen mid-morning, with London seeing the moonset in the early hours of 14
may have thought their celestial luck 31%, Cardiff 35% and Edinburgh 41%. March and at moonrise on 7 September.
had ended. Not quite. The coming year Aurora hunters in Iceland will see a 70% Observers in North America will get a
will see a partial solar eclipse on 29 partial eclipse. 2025’s second partial solar fabulous view of the 13/14 March event
March. It’s mainly visible in Europe and eclipse, on 21 September, will be observed in true darkness, but miss out entirely on
the Arctic, but eastern Canada and the only from New Zealand and Antarctica. September’s ‘blood moon’.
extreme northeastern US will arguably Eclipse-wise, 2025 will be dominated
Jamie Carter is a
get the best views. A big eclipsed sunrise E\WZRWRWDOOXQDUHFOLSVHVWKHƅUVW
science and travel
will be observable if skies are clear from since 2022. On 13/14 March and 7/8 journalist, and edits
Boston (42% of the Sun’s surface covered) September, the full Moon moves through WhenIsTheNext
and eastern Maine (83%) in the US and Earth’s umbral shadow in space to create Eclipse.com
Québec City (72%) and Newfoundland an eerie-looking, reddish lunar surface
(86%) in Canada, which will be a dramatic for a few hours. Both events will be

If you’ve ticked the planets
off your list, here are the kit
and tips you need to tackle
beautiful nebulae and galaxies
PETE LAWRENCE

Jump into the
How to progress
from planetary to
end
deep-sky photography
Love imaging the planets, but ready
to try something new? Charlotte
Daniels explains how to take the
plunge and stretch your skills further
P
erhaps the most common that astrophotography is about more than
question beginners ask just the telescope – it’s also about the
when they’re starting out in camera and the mount.
astrophotography is: “What If you’re in the camp who pursued the
telescope should I buy?”. SODQHWVƅUVW\RXPD\QRZOLNHWRWU\
The answer you’ll almost always hear your hand at some deep-sky targets.
from astrophotographers is: “What sort of After all, planetary astrophotography
astrophotography would you like to do?”. has unique challenges, including battling
That’s because there isn’t a perfect unpredictable atmospheric conditions and
RQHVL]HƅWVDOOWHOHVFRSHWKDWDQVZHUV the limited number of targets. The planets
WKHƅUVWTXHVWLRQ6RPHPRGHOVDUHVLPSO\ don’t always present themselves well; the
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deep-sky astrophotography, the two main SODQHWV WKRVHIXUWKHURXWIURPWKH6XQ
forms of astronomy imaging. WKDQ(DUWKLV DUHZKHQWKH\ŝUHKLJKLQ
Planetary imaging – as the name the sky and free from the pollution that
suggests – involves photographing the hangs near our horizon. And then there’s
6RODU6\VWHPŝVSODQHWVEXWZHDOVR the wait for planets to be at opposition,
often include imaging our Moon in this when they’re at their largest and brightest,
bracket, as the equipment and capture which doesn’t always happen every year;
requirements are very similar. Meanwhile, Mars, for example, reaches opposition
deep-sky photography encompasses once every 26 months or so.
objects such as star clusters, galaxies, 6RLI\RXŝUHUHDG\WRJLYHLPDJLQJ
nebulae and planetary nebulae. objects in the deep sky a go instead,
The decision you make on the second we’ll guide you through the different
question will determine the equipment equipment requirements of both imaging
you invest in. If you decide on planetary types, what your planetary equipment
imaging, you’ll likely end up with a very might be capable of, and choosing a
different setup to if you went after deep- FRXSOHRI'62VWRWXUQ\RXUWHOHVFRSH
VN\REMHFWV '62V HVSHFLDOO\FRQVLGHULQJ WRIRUDƅUVWLPDJLQJUXQ X

W While a typical planetary
imaging setup calls for hefty
focal length and speedy frame
rates, like from this 2,350mm
Celestron Advanced VX 9.25
Schmidt–Cassegrain and
47-frames-per-second ZWO
ASI 585MC camera…
S …faint deep-sky targets

need light-grabbing aperture
and a large sensor, like this
William Optics GT81 and
Canon R6 mirrorless camera
X To begin with, let’s cover the basic requirements increases a 1,000mm telescope to 2,000mm, but
of planetary imaging setups versus deep-sky setups. also doubles its focal ratio. This makes planets
What makes them so different? Appreciating the appear larger, but also dimmer.
LORAND FENYES/STOCKTREK IMAGES/GETTY, PLANETARY CAMERA: FIRSTLIGHTOPTICS.COM, @THESHED/PHOTOSTUDIO X 4, FRANZ
differences between planets and deep-sky objects In addition to the telescope, the camera is
KLAUSER/MANFRED WASSHUBER/CCDGUIDE.COM X 2, HORST ZIEGLER/CCDGUIDE.COM, MICHAEL DEGER/CCDGUIDE.COM
helps explain why the equipment requirements vary: perhaps what differentiates a planetary setup
planets are bright, local sources, whereas deep-sky most from its deep-sky counterpart. Designated
objects are faint and often unable to be seen with planetary cameras have small sensors to ensure
the naked eye. SODQHWVƅOODVPXFKRIWKHIUDPHDVSRVVLEOH7KHVH
tend to take video rather than still images, to
Planetary setups combat atmospheric or seeing conditions. A single
For a planet-grabbing telescope, focal length is key. static exposure will (unless the seeing is excellent)
We want a long focal length to bring the target as return a blurred photo, while 3–5 minutes’ worth of
close as possible, meaning we’re generally looking for video will capture thousands of frames, which can
something that delivers 1,200–2,000mm focal length. then be sifted with planetary stacking software to
A telescope offering this in a compact design, such select the best ones to stack for a brighter, still,
as a Maksutov– or Schmidt–Cassegrain (SCT), is a ƅQDOLPDJH7DNLQJEXUVWVRIVXEPLQXWHYLGHRV
SRSXODUFKRLFH1HZWRQLDQUHƆHFWRUVDUHVRPHWLPHV is a popular approach.
chosen, but their focal length is slightly shorter. In terms of the mount, many planetary imagers
Meanwhile, Ritchey–Chrétien (RC) telescopes tend to opt for an altazimuth type as they’re easy to set up
be avoided by planetary imagers due to large central – these are also the mounts that are offered as part
obstructions, despite their long focal lengths. of a complete planetary setup by manufacturers,
A long-focal-length telescope often means a high with a telescope included. Not only can we forgo
focal ratio (determined by dividing the focal length polar alignment, but these mounts are perfect for
by the telescope aperture). The higher this number, short-exposure daylight photography too.
the ‘slower’ the telescope: f/8 and upwards is often
a desirable attribute for planetary telescopes, as it Deep-sky setups
steadies the atmosphere and increases the chance Deep-sky setups are very different. A compact
of clear views. The focal length of the telescope can refractor is generally best for nebulae and galaxies.
be increased with a Barlow lens: a 2x Barlow lens They’re lightweight and easy to use, yet offer crisp

Try these for your
first deep-sky image W Cooled CMOS
cameras are
dedicated to the
The Orion task of clinching
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Designation:
M42
Magnitude: +4.0
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diameter: 1°
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The second-hand
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you control over
Designation: ISO and timings
M31
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diameter: 5° Refractors also offer superior colour management to
Best months get the best from these delicate targets. Aperture is
to image:
also key, as it boosts the light-gathering ability of the
September to
November WHOHVFRSHDQGPDNHVLWPRUHHIƅFLHQW
Shorter focal lengths are generally more desirable:
400mm–700mm will provide the ability to capture
a wide range of targets from the Messier and NGC
Bode’s deep-sky catalogues. A wide aperture and shorter
Galaxy and focal length mean a lower focal ratio, or a ‘fast’
the Cigar telescope: f/5–f/7 means a reasonably fast deep-sky
Galaxy refractor. Smaller focal ratios don’t spread light out
Designation: as much, so they deliver brighter images, which is
M81, M82 exactly what is needed when capturing faint objects.
Magnitude: In addition to refractors, RCs are excellent DSO
+6.9 and +8.4 WHOHVFRSHVDVWKH\FRPELQHKLJKPDJQLƅFDWLRQZLGH
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diameter: 21 and
11 arcminutes
Best months to Ultra-sensitive cameras
image: All year Instead of using cameras that take video, deep-sky
astrophotographers tend to use designated CCD
or CMOS astro cameras: low-noise, cooled devices
The with large sensors and pixels, purpose-built for long
Dumbbell exposures. Taking long exposures through traditional
Nebula cameras introduces electronic and thermal noise into
an image as the sensor starts to heat up. However,
Designation:
M27 astro cameras reduce this through built-in cooling
Magnitude: +7.5 fans which keep the camera cool for longer exposure
Apparent times. Depending on the sensor and its cooling
diameter: abilities, these cameras can take exposures of up to
8 arcminutes (and even over) 20 minutes per frame.
Best months to
A DSLR camera is also a popular deep-sky choice,
image: July to
November as it has the functionality of a deep-sky camera but
can be manually operated without a computer; we
can easily change its light sensitivity (ISO) settings X

Planetary vs deep sky: what’s the difference?
Equipment Planetary Deep sky
Telescope 5HƆHFWRU6&70DNVXWRY 5HIUDFWRU5&6&7
Key feature /RQJIRFDOOHQJWK $SHUWXUHIDVWIRFDOUDWLR IŚI
Camera 3ODQHWDU\YLGHRFDPHUD '6/5&026&&'FRROHGDVWURFDP
Sensor size (diagonal), mm Ś Ś $36& Ś IXOOIUDPH
Mount Altazimuth Equatorial
Accessories %DUORZOHQVDWPRVSKHULFGLVSHUVLRQ )LHOGƆDWWHQHUJXLGLQJV\VWHPQDUURZEDQG
FRUUHFWRU DQG/5*%ƅOWHUV
Image-sequencing software )LUH&DSWXUH 6HTXHQFH*HQHUDWRU3UR
Stacking software $XWR6WDNNHUW5HJL6WD[ 'HHS6N\6WDFNHU6HTXDWRU
Editing software 3KRWRVKRS3L[,QVLJKW*,03$IƅQLW\3KRWR$VWUR3L[HO3URFHVVRU
Techniques Planetary Deep sky

Locating )LQGHUVFRSH*R7RPRXQW *R7RPRXQWSODWHVROYLQJ
Polar alignment Not needed Yes
Focusing 0DQXDORUHOHFWURQLF 0DQXDORUHOHFWURQLF
Exposure time (per frame) )UDFWLRQVRIDVHFRQG 8SWRPLQXWHV
Integration time (total duration 0LQXWHV Hours
of exposures)
Guiding No Yes
Multiple sessions No Yes
X and exposure settings to suit our target. While these make the telescope faster
these don’t come with cooling systems in place, we for DSOs, but they’ll increase the
can still comfortably take exposures from 30 seconds QXPEHURIWDUJHWV\RXFDQƅWLQWR
and over with them, even into the 3–5 minute range WKHƅHOGRIYLHZ
for some of the high-end models. The next thing to do is to
Image exposure length also depends on the check your planetary camera’s
mount. To maximise the duration of our frames, an VSHFLƅFDWLRQKRZODUJHLVWKH
equatorial (EQ) mount is a must. These have one axis sensor, and is it able to take
aligned with the celestial pole, allowing us to track a still pictures in addition to
target across the sky in an arc and keep it central in video? If so, it could be that it
the image frame. A mount that’s accurately polaris capable of some basic deep-
SHAUNNESSEY/ISTOCK/GETTY, @THESHED/PHOTOSTUDIO, HARALD STRAUSS/CCDGUIDE.COM,
aligned lets us take exposures several minutes long sky images. If not, then a DSLR
or, by adding a guiding system, even longer. camera might be a sensible
next purchase.
Making switches to your kit There’s an excellent second-
So, how can we make the transition from planetary to hand market for DSLRs, meaning
deep-sky photography? First, consider the telescope. you can pick up an entry-level
If you’re using a Newtonian telescope, you’re off to a model at a reasonably modest
good start! Many are reasonably fast – a 1,000mm price. The key features needed are a
SAM GOWLAND/ISTOCK/GETTY, CHARLOTTE DANIELS X 2
UHƆHFWRUZLWKPPDSHUWXUHKDVDQIUDWLRRII Live View function for star focusing,

SCTs are also versatile enough to make the move a ‘Bulb’ mode that allows us to extend exposure
S You can speed
from planets to DSOs, although they are likely to times into minutes, and an adjustable ISO function. up a sluggish scope
KDYHDVORZHUIUDWLR Before making any accessory or camera with a focal reducer
There are accessories to speed up sluggish scopes SXUFKDVHVFKHFNRXWDƅHOGRIYLHZFDOFXODWRUVXFK
and ready them for deep-sky objects. It’s time to as www.astronomy.tools and browse your favourite
ditch the Barlow lens and buy a focal reducer; these GHHSVN\REMHFWV&KHFNZKHWKHUWKH\ŝOOƅWLQWRWKH
cause the light entering the telescope to converge at ƅHOGRIYLHZSURYLGHGE\\RXUSDUWLFXODUWHOHVFRSH
DVWHHSHUDQJOHOHDGLQJWRDZLGHUƅHOGRIYLHZDQG and camera. This will help you to determine whether
reducing the focal length. As the telescope’s aperture your current equipment (or planned purchases) will
FDQŝWFKDQJHWKLVUHGXFHVWKHIUDWLR1RWRQO\GR return the results you’re expecting.

14 Vulpeculae
M27
Meade 12-inch LX200 & Canon 6D
Celestron C8 SCT & Canon 6D
Sky-Watcher Explorer 250PDS & Canon 6D
S How the field of view of the deep-sky target the Dumbbell Nebula, M27, S A mount that tracks with the sky over the long
varies using three different scopes popularly used for imaging planets, from a exposure times that faint targets require is a must.
relatively close-up view to a wider view that captures the surrounding starfield Without one, your stars will trail, as shown here
S The slower the telescope, the more time it takes to gather the same level of data as a faster telescope. Left: one 15-minute frame
of the Wizard Nebula, captured using a Celestron 9.25-inch SCT, a ‘slow’ telescope with an f/ ratio of f/10. Right: the same camera and
settings on a faster telescope, a William Optics GT81, which has an f/ ratio of f/5, produces a brighter, more detailed image
If you have an altazimuth mount, the good news Image your target for as long as possible and then
is that deep-sky imaging is possible. However, you’ll stack these images in a stacking freeware such as
be limited to sub-1-minute exposures to account for DeepSkyStacker or Sequator.
ƅHOGURWDWLRQ%HFDXVHDOWD]LPXWKPRXQWVGRQŝWDOLJQ If you already have an equatorial mount, longer
ZLWKWKHFHOHVWLDOSROHWKHƅHOGRIYLHZRIWKHFDPHUD exposures are possible – but the focal length of
remains orientated on the horizon. This means a planetary telescope does complicate things. In
over time, our view of the sky slowly rotates - long addition to polar alignment, deep-sky imagers use
exposures will therefore show the stars trailing. You guiding systems, comprising camera and software
can maximise the possible exposure time by aiming that corrects tracking errors during long exposures.
for a target close to Polaris and the celestial pole; The longer the focal length, the more pronounced
the closer to the celestial equator your object is, the these tracking errors are, so an off-axis guider will be
greater the star trailing will be. required to keep stars pin-sharp.
If your telescope is particularly slow and you don’t Depending on your kit, some level of deep-sky
have a reducer to hand, pick the brightest deep-sky capture should be possible. Temperamental weather
Charlotte Daniels objects to capture as much light as possible within can sometimes put a dampener on this rewarding
is an amateur these short frames. You can also combat the short hobby, but hopefully, by expanding your astronomy
astronomer, exposure requirements of an altazimuth mount by horizons and trying out new things, not only will you
astrophotographer bumping up the ISO setting on a DSLR camera, make the most of your kit, but you’ll gain a deeper
and journalist to pack as much light into each fame as possible. appreciation of our stunning skies.

Is there water on
Today, the Red Planet is a dry and arid place,

but it wasn’t always that way
Y
ou’ve probably seen the online meme
showing a glass of water balanced on top
of a Mars chocolate bar, with the caption:
“Water discovered on Mars!”. It’s very
popular, but every time it’s posted, amid
all the laughter, someone usually responds cynically:
“…again”. They do have a point. The ‘discovery’ of
water on Mars has happened so many times you’d
be forgiven for thinking that the Red Planet is wetter
than a Bank Holiday weekend. So what do we
actually know about the waters of Mars, and will
they be of any use to us in the future?
Long before the birth of the Space Age, there
ZHUHDJUHDWPDQ\SHRSOHZKRƅUPO\EHOLHYHGWKDW
A&M UNIVERSITY, JAMES TUTTLE KEANE AND AARON RODRIQUEZ, MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY
NASA/JPL, NASA/JPLCALTECH, NASA/JPLCALTECH/MSSS, NASA/JPLCALTECH/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA/TEXAS
ZDWHUƆRZHGRQWKH5HG3ODQHW7KH\NQHZ0DUV
was probably a lot colder than Earth because it was
further from the Sun, but they were sure Mars’s water S Mariner 9, the not found on the surface in the liquid form we’re most
was liquid because through telescopes they saw dark first to orbit Mars, familiar with here on Earth. When human explorers
surprised scientists
areas that changed size over the seasons: believing eventually reach Mars, if they want to use its water,
with images of
these to be patches of vegetation, they assumed that ancient river beds they’ll have to dig.
there must be water to irrigate them. Astronomers like Large amounts of water ice have been discovered
Percival Lowell (1885–1916) claimed to have observed
a network of straight lines crisscrossing Mars and, Mars has two permanent
adding 2 + 2 to get 100, he declared they were canals frozen polar caps made of
dug out of the ground by Martian navvies to carry dry ice and water ice
precious water from the poles to thirsty cities.
Mars’s hidden oceans

7KHQ1$6$ŝV0DULQHUVHQWEDFNLWVƅUVWLPDJHVLQ
1971 showing Mars was a frozen, cratered wasteland.
The seasonal patches of vegetation were just vast
ƅHOGVRIƅQHGXVWEORZQDZD\E\VHDVRQDOZLQGVWR
reveal the dark surface beneath, and the canals were
nowhere to be seen. Mars was a dust bowl, drier and
deader than the most arid desert on Earth.
But today, thanks to space missions that followed
Mariner, we know that there is water on Mars. It’s just

SOL 20 SOL 24
InSight
Dry fractured
upper crust
Water-saturated
fractured mid-crust
(11.5–20km depth)
ILLUSTRATION
S Lumps (bottom left of trench) observed by NASA’s Phoenix S By listening to marsquakes, lnSight found evidence for oceans’
lander in 2008 evaporated four days later, confirming they were ice worth of water sandwiched between cracks deep underground
at the Red Planet’s poles and beneath its surface suggested the existence of large reservoirs of liquid
at mid latitudes. But this isn’t clean ice you could water deep within the Martian crust. However, at
plink into a drink on a hot day. Like the ice found depths of 11.5 to 20 kilometres (7 to 12 miles), these
in permafrost here on Earth, this Martian ice is so reservoirs will not be easily accessible to future
thoroughly mixed up with dust and dirt that the only explorers and settlers.
way to release its water would be to heat up the dirty Why is the existence of water on Mars, in any form,
material and melt it out. so important? Because it could be used not just to
There is deeper water too. While nuclear-powered drink but to break down into hydrogen and oxygen,
rovers were busy photographing Mars’s stunning to make fuel and air, both of which will be essential
Stuart Atkinson
landscapes and skies, NASA’s solar-powered InSight resources for the establishment and survival of
is a lifelong amateur
lander’s mission was to explore the interior structure astronomer and permanent bases on the Red Planet. And of course,
of Mars using seismology. author of 11 books ZKHUHYHUWKHUHLVZDWHURQ(DUWKZHƅQGOLIHVRLWŝV
Over four years its sensitive instruments recorded on astronomy and possible that primitive life might exist in these
‘marsquakes’ travelling through the planet, which VSDFHƆLJKW watery environments on Mars too.
Where did the water go?

We can see Mars’s wet history
etched into its surface
While images from spacecraft in orbit around Mars
show us that Mars is dry today, they also prove that
it was much wetter in the past. These pictures
showed meandering dried-up channels where
water once flowed across the landscape, and even
the shoreline of an ancient ocean that once
covered much of the Red Planet’s low, northern
hemisphere. So if you jumped in a time machine
and fell several billion years backwards through
time, you’d probably see a very different Mars to
the one we see today – a beautiful blue world much
like our own, with rivers and streams flowing into a
great northern ocean, all beneath a pale blue sky
painted with fluffy white clouds.
So where did all this water go?
Over time, much of it was lost to space. Mars’s
weak magnetic field and low gravity allowed the
solar wind to strip away its atmosphere, causing its
water to slowly evaporate into space, leaving it
ILLUSTRATION
dusty and dry. What Martian water remains today is Ancient Mars would have
either frozen into the ground or lies underground, looked not unlike Earth today,
having fallen through cracks in the surface rocks. a blue planet of rivers and oceans

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16-PAGE
CENTRE
PULLOUT
JANUARY 2025
LUNAR OCCULTATION
OF SATURN
2025 gets off to a flying start
with a rare lunar occultation
of Saturn on 4 January
MEASURE THE DAZZLING

GREAT RED SPOT DOG STARS
PETE LAWRENCE
Take our challenge to size Follow our tour of superb

up Jupiter’s giant storm targets in Canis Major
About the writers Also on view Red light friendly Get the Sky
this month… Guide weekly
Astronomy Steve
✦ Favourable Quadrantid For weekly updates on
expert Pete Tonkin is
meteor shower peak what to look out for in
Lawrence is a a binocular
✦ Mars at opposition To preserve your night the night sky and more,
skilled astro observer.
✦ Titan shadow transits vision, this Sky Guide sign up to our newsletter
imager and a Find his tour
✦ Minor planet 14 Irene at can be read using a red at www.skyat
presenter on The Sky at of the best sights for
opposition in Gemini light under dark skies nightmagazine.com
Night monthly on BBC Four both eyes on page 54

JANUARY HIGHLIGHTS
Thursday X
Your guide to the
night sky this month
Friday
2 3
At 21:45 UT, As evening
Ganymede twilight
is occulted by Jupiter. darkens, look for the
Io transits as the beautiful sight of mag.
occultation concludes, followed –4.3 Venus just under 2 °
38 minutes later by its shadow. north-northwest of a 16%-lit
Ganymede reappears at 23:52 waxing crescent Moon.
UT and is eclipsed soon after by
Io
Jupiter’s shadow at 00:19–02:50 Quadrantid meteor
UT on 3 January. shower peaks, with
no real Moon interference.
Tuesday Thursday X
7 9
Titan’s shadow In the run-up
transits Saturn’s to midnight,
globe today, starting at the 81%-lit Moon can
16:24 UT just after sunset be seen approaching
and concluding at 21:32 UT. the Pleiades open cluster.
The Moon will continue to
The Eyes of Clavius Ganymede pass across some of the
lunar clair-obscur brighter cluster stars in the
effect is visible at around early hours of 10 January.
midnight tonight. South is up
W Friday Monday Tuesday
10 13 14
There’s In the
another early
Magnificently bright opportunity to see hours, bright mag.
planet Venus reaches a Ganymede shadow –1.4 Mars sits about
greatest eastern elongation transit today. Ganymede itself 10 arcminutes north of the
today, separated from the Sun transits Jupiter from 15:01 until full Moon’s northern limb.
by 47.2°. Dichotomy (50% 17:26 UT, its shadow following
phase) occurs on 12 January, suit between 18:29 and 21:00 UT. Moon Callisto sits
after which Venus appears as a 3 arcseconds from
crescent through the eyepiece. Jupiter’s northern pole at
17:20 UT.
Thursday Saturday X
23 25
Moon Lunar
Callisto libration
sits 3 arcseconds currently favours the
from Jupiter’s Moon’s western limb,
southern pole this morning giving the large Mare Orientale
around 02:50 UT. basin complex a slightly more
favourable appearance.
PETE LAWRENCE X 6, ORIONS BELT: DAVIDHAJNAL/ISTOCK/GETTY
Titan casts its

shadow on Saturn
between 15:28 and 21:00 UT.
Family stargazing
The planet Saturn is occulted (hidden) by the Moon in
the early evening of 4 January, a great thing to engage
young observers with. The waxing crescent Moon should
be easy to find above the southern horizon after sunset, left and
up a bit from brilliant Venus. Look out for Saturn just to the left
of the Moon. Binoculars may help make the scene clearer. Make
a point of recording the time of disappearance. Then, it’s a
matter of waiting for reappearance – binoculars or a small
telescope are recommended for this. Turn to page 46 for full
timing details. www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/stargazing

NEED TO
KNOW
The terms and symbols
used in The Sky Guide
Saturday
4
Monday
6
Although it may not Universal Time (UT)
feel like it, Earth is at The and British Summer
perihelion today, the Lunar X Time (BST)
point in its orbit when and Lunar V Universal Time (UT) is
it’s closest to the Sun. clair-obscur the standard time used
effects are both visible by astronomers around
Saturn is occulted on tonight’s Moon, best the world. British
by a 25%-lit waxing viewed around 18:21 UT. Summer Time (BST) is
crescent Moon between 17:18 one hour ahead of UT
and 18:26 UT (see page 46).
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
Thursday Saturday Monday
16 18 20
Mag. –1.4 Brilliant Ganymede
planet Venus sits puts on a
Photo opp
Use a CCD, planetary
Mars reaches just 2.2 ° to the north display this evening,
camera or standard DSLR
opposition today. of dimmer Saturn transiting the planet
this evening. Jupiter between 18:32 and
20:58 UT. Its shadow follows
Binoculars
10x50 recommended
later, transiting Jupiter’s disc
between 22:30 and 01:20 UT.
Small/
medium scope
Reflector/SCT under 6 inches,
refractor under 4 inches
Monday Tuesday X
27 28
Large scope
With the Reflector/SCT over 6
Moon now inches, refractor over 4 inches
Ganymede puts on out of the way, this
another transit is a great time to
event, crossing Jupiter look at the spectacular Sword
between 22:07 and 00:34 UT. of Orion region which contains
Its shadow follows, transiting the wonderful Orion Nebula,
from 02:31 until 05:04 UT. M42. The region is at its highest
Jupiter will set at 04:36 UT, from around 21:15 UT.
before the event concludes.
Friday X GETTING STARTED
31
Starting at
13:22 UT,
IN ASTRONOMY
If you’re new to astronomy,
there’s a challenging
you’ll find two essential
daylight partial
reads on our website.
occultation of Titan by
Visit bit.ly/stargazing-
Saturn’s northern limb.
top-tips to learn how to
While partially occulted,
stargaze in 12 easy steps
Titan enters Saturn’s shadow
and bit.ly/choose-first-
at 14:33 UT, reappearing at
telescope for advice on
19:43 UT while at low altitude.
Titan South is up choosing your first scope

THE BIG THREE The top sights to observe or image this month
DON’T MISS
Lunar occultation of Saturn

BEST TIME TO SEE: 4 January, 16:30–18:30 UT
Disappearance Takes 52 seconds (ring tip to ring tip) W See Saturn vanish behind the Moon on
5KHDPVDQG'LRQHVEHIRUH6DWXUQŝVƅUVWFRQWDFW 4 January, reappearing 68 minutes later
+,3VDIWHU6DWXUQŝVƅUVWFRQWDFW *Times shown are for the centre of the UK
Titan 3m09s after Saturn fully disappears and will vary with location
edge takes 52 seconds. Interestingly, HIP

Disappearance Dione
114054, a mag. +6.7 star, will be located 36
17:18 UT* Rhea arcseconds southeast of Saturn’s centre
Moon’s altitude and undergoes occultation disappearance
28° Saturn
Titan at the same time as the planet. You
should be able to see Saturn’s largest and
HIP 114054 Moon brightest moon, Titan, undergoing
(mag +6.7 star) occultation disappearance 3 minutes 9
seconds after Saturn.
Reappearance begins around 18:26 UT
(centre of the UK time), with the western
section of Saturn’s rings appearing ahead
Dione
Reappearance of the planet’s globe. This was a
Rhea
18:26 UT* Titan particularly striking thing to see during the
Moon’s altitude August 2024 occultation and should be
24° equally as dramatic for this month’s event.
HIP 114054 Saturn will take 65 seconds to fully
Reappearance Takes 65 seconds (ring tip to ring tip) reappear. Don’t forget to look out for HIP
Rhea 1m38s and Dione 51s before Saturn 114054 reappearing along with Saturn.
+,3VDIWHU6DWXUQŝVƅUVWDSSHDUDQFH Titan reappears from behind the Moon’s
Titan 3m31s after Saturn has fully reappeared bright limb 3 minutes 31 seconds after
Saturn, bringing the event to a close.
Lunar occultations of planets are Hopefully, the event will be assisted by Occultation reappearance occurs under
fairly infrequent affairs. The last the presence of strong earthshine, the darker sky conditions, with Saturn 23° up
lunar occultation of Saturn occurred on effect that makes the night side of the above the southwest horizon.
21 August 2024, although you’d need to go Moon glow slightly. It’s caused by light
back to 2007 for one before that which IURPWKH6XQUHƆHFWLQJRII(DUWKKLWWLQJ
was visible from the UK. WKH0RRQŝVQLJKWVXUIDFHDQGUHƆHFWLQJ
While August’s event involved a 97%-lit back to Earth. If it is visible, it’ll give you an
waning gibbous Moon moving in front of excellent indication as to where and when
Saturn in the brightening dawn twilight, occultation disappearance will occur. If
the transit on 4 January occurs in the not, you’ll need to ‘round the circle’ using
early evening sky, the occulting Moon your imagination and the visible part of
being a 25%-lit waxing crescent. the lunar crescent.
Saturn’s disappearance occurs under Occultation disappearance occurs at
darkening skies after sunset. The Moon 17:18 UT, a time correct for the centre of
ALL PICTURES: PETE LAWRENCE
should be easy to spot around 16:30 UT, the UK, but one which may vary by a few
one-third of the way up the sky, just west minutes depending on your location in the
of south. It’ll also be 12.5° east-northeast country. The Moon is close enough to
of brilliant mag. –4.3 Venus at this time. exhibit parallax, where its position shifts
Saturn will be a lot dimmer than Venus at slightly from different locations, affecting S Saturn emerged ring-first from the
mag. +0.8, only becoming visible just left the timings slightly. Moon’s dark limb last August. This month,
of the Moon as the sky darkens. Disappearance behind the Moon’s dark it’ll appear from the Moon’s bright limb

¡
Moon phase
Mizar
c ` CANES
VENATICI
gh
2 Jan 3 Jan
Plou
9% waxing crescent 16% waxing crescent
Sets at 18:58 UT Sets at 20:27 UT
Alkaid
_ Cor Caroli
d
LYNX
f
Quadrantids
d
Quadrantid radiant
3/4 Jan
(peaks around 28 Dec
2025 16:00 UT on 3 Jan)

12 Jan
`
a
COMA
BERENICES
BEST TIME TO SEE: Evening of Nekkar

3 January, from when it gets dark
o BOÖTES Kit
e
The Quadrantid meteor shower HERCULES
is active from 28 December to ¡
12 January, with low activity over most b Izar
_ Arcturus
of this period. It swings into high activity
e d
over a period of just a few hours, this year t on CORONA
centred on 16:00 UT on 3 January. It can ys BOREALIS
Ke
produce a maximum zenithal hourly rate _
/
(ZHR) of around 120 meteors per hour. S This year’s Quadrantid peak will appear under favourable Moon conditions
The shower radiant – that’s the point in
the sky from which the shower meteors Hercules. Visualise its position by warm and plan several breaks. As ever,
appear to emanate – will be very low extending the straight portion of the make sure you’re in as dark an area as
around 16:00 UT on 3 January, so a watch Plough’s handle through Megrez–Alioth– possible and give your eyes at least 20
through the whole night is recommended Mizar (Delta (δ)–Epsilon (ε)–Zeta (ζ) Ursae minutes in total darkness before starting.
for the best views, the radiant gaining Majoris) for 1.5x that distance again. Looking in any direction will do, but
altitude as you go towards dawn. The cold, post-holiday season period meteor wisdom suggests looking at an
The shower gets its name from the can be uninviting, but it’s worth being altitude two-thirds up the sky where the
now-defunct constellation of Quadrans tenacious, putting the thermals on and DWPRVSKHUHLVVXIƅFLHQWO\WKLQWRQRW
Muralis, the Mural Quadrant. The radiant braving the cold, because this is a very block too much light from meteor trails,
position is located in northern Boötes decent shower to observe. A sunlounger is but thick enough to provide enough
bounded by Ursa Major, Draco and the best platform to use, but do wrap up atmosphere for meteors to appear within.
Venus and Saturn

BEST TIME TO SEE: 10–25 January, smallest separation on 18 January
Venus and Saturn have On 10 January, Venus

a meet-up this month, appears 47.2° from the Sun,
an event that is conveniently having reached a position
timed for early evening known as greatest eastern
viewing in the darkening sky elongation. Basically, the
after sunset. Venus is currently angle between the lines
pretty bright at mag. –4.3; formed by joining Earth to Venus
located above the southwest Venus and Venus to the Sun
horizon early evening, it’s will be a right angle on this
GLIƅFXOWWRPLVV6DWXUQLV date. If you’ve been paying
dimmer at mag. +0.8, located attention and have had clear
16° to the east-northeast of weather in early January, you’ll Saturn
Venus on 1 January. notice that Venus appears
Venus is joined by a 16%-lit closer to Saturn on 10 January,
waxing crescent Moon on the separated by just 7.5°.
evening of 3 January, the This separation continues to
planet located just under 2° decrease until 18 January,
north-northwest of the Moon when both planets will be just
on this date. On the following 2.2°DSDUW \RXFRXOGƅWIRXU
evening, now at 25%- full Moons between them).
illumination, the Moon will Venus then separates from the S How Venus and Saturn will appear through 7x50 binoculars on
occult Saturn (see page 46). ringed planet once more. the evening of 18 January, when the pair will be just 2.2° apart

THE PLANETS Our celestial neighbourhood in January
PICK OF THE
MONTH
e Moon Elnath
Castor _
Moon 11 Jan
12 Jan `
22:00 UT
o 22:00 UT
+ LEO f
Pollux
`
g Moon f
M35
14 Jan Mars 31 Jan
¡
Mars
¡ 22:00 UT c
1 Jan d
h Moon g GEMINI + r r
14 Jan
CANCER a b c i
04:30 UT
Best time to see: 12 January, 00:48 UT b M44
Alhena
Moon ORION
Altitude: 62° 15 Jan
c a i
h j
Location: Gemini 22:00 UT
Direction: South _ j +
Acubens _
Features: Polar caps, surface markings, M67
Betelgeuse
weather ` `
Recommended equipment: 75mm c ¡ CANIS
b MINOR
scope or larger _
Procyon
d m
e
Mars reaches opposition on 16 January
S Big, bright Mars moves into Gemini this month, remaining nice and high for observation
2025, the moment when the planet sits
on the opposite side of the sky to the Sun The bad news here is that Mars will direction. On 14 January at 04:30 UT,
– technically, separated from the Sun by only reach an apparent diameter the Red Planet sits 26 arcminutes
180° of ecliptic longitude. At opposition, of 14.6 arcseconds this to the north of the full
the distance between a superior planet month. The good news is Moon’s centre.
(those with larger orbits than Earth’s) and that it does so at a very By the end of the
planet Earth is minimised for the current favourable position month, Mars will shine
period of observation. This leads to the in the sky, high in at mag. –1.1 and will
opposition planet appearing at its largest the constellation of have an apparent
and brightest for that period. Gemini and able to diameter of 13.8
There are a couple of caveats with this reach 62° altitude arcseconds, reaching
year’s Mars opposition. Firstly, the distance under dark sky a peak altitude of 63°.
between Earth and Mars is actually at its conditions. January 2025 is a
minimal value on 12 January, four days Mars appears bright, great time to observe
before technical opposition. Also, this shining at mag. –1.2 this interesting planet
PETE LAWRENCE X 2
opposition is regarded as aphelic, meaning on 1 January. It moves with a telescope, recording

Mars is in a position where it is nearer to from Cancer into Gemini S Mars comes to its dark surface markings,
the furthest point of its orbit around the throughout the month opposition – a great time polar caps, weather and
Sun and hence more distant from Earth. in a westerly (retrograde) to observe its features occasional dust storms.
The planets in January The phase and relative sizes of the planets this month. Each planet is
shown with south at the top, to show its orientation through a telescope
Venus Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune

15 January 15 January 15 January 15 January 15 January 15 January
Mercury
1 January
Mercury
15 January
Mercury
31 January
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
ARCSECONDS

Mercury month, the planet shrinks to
Best time to see: 1 January, appear 43 arcseconds across, JUPITER’S MOONS: JANUARY
from 40 minutes before sunrise 3 arcseconds smaller than on
Using a small scope you can spot Jupiter’s biggest moons. Their
Altitude: 4° (very low) 1 January.
positions change dramatically over the month, as shown on the
Location: Ophiuchus diagram. The line by each date represents 00:00 UT.
Direction: Southeast Saturn
Morning planet that’s best at Best time to see: DATE WEST EAST
the start of January low in the 1 January, 17:30 UT
1
dawn twilight. Shining at mag. Altitude: 27°
–0.3, Mercury is visible 40 Location: Aquarius 2
minutes before sunrise, but not Direction: South-southwest 3
optimally. It’s lost from view Unable to reach peak altitude
around 9 January as it heads under darkness, it remains well 4
back towards the Sun. placed for observation at the 5
start of January. Occulted by a
Venus 25%-lit waxing crescent Moon 6
Best time to see: 10 January, on 4 January (see page 46). On 7
1 hour after sunset 18 January, shining at mag.
Altitude: 24° +0.8, Saturn sits 2.2° south-
8
Location: Aquarius southeast of mag. –4.4 Venus 9
Direction: South-southwest in deep twilight.
10
Brilliant evening planet, best
from 1 hour after sunset at the Uranus 11
start of the month. Greatest Best time to see:
12
eastern elongation on 10 1 January, 20:45 UT
January, separated from the Altitude: 55° 13
Sun by 47.2° and setting 4.5 Location: Aries 14
hours after sunset. On the Direction: South
evening of 3 January, a 16%-lit Relatively near Jupiter and well 15
waxing crescent Moon sits 2° placed. Shining at mag. +5.7, it 16
south of Venus. On 18 January, reaches 55° when due south.
mag. –4.4 Venus sits 2.2° Currently in Aries, virtually on
17
north-northwest of mag. +0.8 the border with Taurus. 18
Saturn. After greatest eastern
19
elongation, it changes quite Neptune
rapidly through the eyepiece. Best time to see: 20
On 12 January, its phase is 1 January, 18:10 UT
21
50%, but by 31 January this Altitude: 34°
decreases to 38%, its apparent Location: Pisces 22
diameter increasing from 25 Direction: South-southwest 23
arcseconds to 31 arcseconds. Mag. +7.9 evening planet in
Pisces. Best seen at the start 24
Jupiter of January, it loses altitude as 25
Best time to see: darkness falls at the end of the
1 January, 22:10 UT month. Neptune is occulted by
26
Altitude: 59° a 34%-lit crescent Moon at 27
Location: Taurus 13:54–14:54 UT on 5 January
28
Direction: South but won’t be visible in daylight.
A resplendent evening object At 19:00 UT on 31 January, 29
shining at mag. –2.6. It passed Neptune is separated from
30
opposition at the start of last Venus by 3.2°.
month and is best at the start 31
of January, reaching 59° when FREE BONUS 1
due south under darkness. An CONTENT
89%-lit waxing gibbous Moon 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Print planet observing forms
sits 5° north of Jupiter on 10 www.skyatnightmagazine arcminutes
January. By the end of the .com/bonus-content
Jupiter Io Europa Ganymede Callisto

THE NIGHT SKY – JANUARY
Explore the celestial sphere with our Northern Hemisphere all-sky chart
Peanuary
Ja
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-18 tids
J an
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KEY TO When to use this chart
`
NO
STAR CHARTS 1 January at 00:00 UT
a
TH
Arcturus STAR NAME 15 January at 23:00 UT
EA
BO
10
31 January at 22:00 UT
Ö
ST
TE
PERSEUS
1
CONSTELLATION S
NAME On other dates, stars will be in slightly different positions
GALAXY because of Earth’s orbital motion. Stars that cross the
sky will set in the west four minutes earlier each night.
M
OPEN CLUSTER
51
MAJOR
M
URSA
63
GLOBULAR
How to use this chart
VENA ES
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1. Hold the chart
N
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Cor C
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NEBULOSITY
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a
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CO
shows the sky
NICES
VARIABLE STAR ahead of you.
3. The centre of
THE MOON, the chart is the
SHOWING PHASE
point directly
over your head.
COMET TRACK `
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Sunrise/sunset in January*
E A ST
neb
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ASTEROID Date Sunrise Sunset O
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TRACK NO
1 Jan 2025 08:25 UT 16:01 UT R
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11 Jan 2025 08:21 UT 16:15 UT
PATH 21 Jan 2025 08:10 UT 16:32 UT LE
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31 Jan 2025 07:56 UT 16:51 UT 5 a
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Moonrise in January*
et
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Moonrise times
Ci
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1 Jan 2025, 10:09 UT 17 Jan 2025, 20:45 UT Regulus
Alpha Le-31 Jan
Peak 24
5 Jan 2025, 11:05 UT 21 Jan 2025, 00:25 UT

PLANET 9 Jan 2025, 11:56 UT 25 Jan 2025, 05:30 UT
onids
Delta C
13 Jan 2025, 15:17 UT 29 Jan 2025, 08:33 UT Peak 17 ancr
Jan
QUASAR `
*Times correct for the centre of the UK SE _
XT
STAR BRIGHTNESS: AN
MAG. 0 Lunar phases in January S
& BRIGHTER
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
MAG. +1 1 2 3 4 5
a
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MAG. +2
Alph
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MAG. +3 RA
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6 7 8 9 10 11 12
UT
MAG. +4
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13 14 15 16 17 18 19
ST
E W COMPASS AND
FIELD OF VIEW FULL MOON
CHART: PETE LAWRENCE
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
S
MILKY WAY
27 28 29 30 31
NEW MOON

NORTH
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Southern Hemisphere guide
www.skyatnightmagazine.
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SOUTH
MOONWATCH January’s top lunar feature to observe
Compare it with the wonderful

form of Gutenberg, which has
Gutenberg MARE DZHOOGHƅQHGULPDOOWKHZD\
FECUNDITATIS
around except at the east
where it has been completely
Gutenberg E
RYHUODLGE\NPGutenberg
Rimae Goclenius E, which has removed any
Langrenus trace of the original Gutenberg
rim section. Gutenberg E is
Goclenius
itself open, with rim gaps in
the southwest and southeast.
Magelhaens
Together, these create an open
SDWKWRWKHƆDWODYDVXUIDFHRI
Mare Fecunditatis to the east,
both Gutenberg and
*XWHQEHUJ(EHLQJƆRRGHG
Back to Goclenius, and the
crater’s rim also appears to
have a pinch-point to the
Colombo
south. This seems to be a
continuous portion of the rim,
Across the sea from but at certain illuminations is
Langrenus, Goclenius exaggerated into looking as if
has a dark lava floor there’s a gap. Goclenius is
crisscrossed by rilles DURXQGNPGHHSLWVƆDWODYD
ƆRRUFRYHUHGLQVKDOORZKLOOV
and a beautifully delicate crisscrossing rille system.
N
0DQ\RIWKHVHULOOHVDUHWRRƅQHIRUDOOEXWWKHODUJHVW
Goclenius scopes or high-resolution setups, but even with those
Type: Crater will require decent seeing to reveal well.
Size: 55km
One notable exception is the largest rille that runs
Longitude/latitude: 45° E, 10.1 ° S
northwest to southeast. This has a width of just over
Age: Around 3.9 billion years
1km and appears to pass through Goclienius’s closest
Best time to see: Four days after new
approximation to a central mountain complex –
Moon (3 January and 1 February) or three
although, with a height of around 350–400m,
days after full Moon (17–18 January)
Minimum equipment: 50mm telescope ‘mountain’ is stretching the description. The rille
passes up through the northwest rim section,
GHOLFDWHO\GHSUHVVLQJWKHULPDVLWGRHVVR,WWKHQ
Goclenius is a 55km crater located within the FRQWLQXHVDFURVVWKHZHVWHUQƆRRURI0DUH
600 x 500km Sea of Fertility, Mare Fecunditatis. Fecunditatis, clipping the eastern side of Gutenberg
The irregularly shaped mare resembles the shape E, before continuing on its way and petering out just
of a diamond, with the distinctive form of 133km east of 31km Gutenberg G. This rille is part of the
Langrenus on the southeast straight edge Rimae Goclenius complex, other less
and Goclenius in a similar position on the
southwest straight.
A wonderful obvious members running parallel to the
most prominent one described, slightly
*RFOHQLXVLVDQDQFLHQWFUDWHUWKHƆRRU
RIZKLFKKDVEHHQƆRRGHGE\ODYD,WVLWV
part of the Moon HDVWRILWXSWKHƆRRURI0DUH)HFXQGLWDWLV
As ever, these rilles are best seen when
within a region of similar company: 75km to explore when the region lighting is oblique – in other
Gutenberg to the northwest, 41km words, when the lunar terminator is nearby.
Magelhaens to the southwest and 76km the Sun is low Unlike its immediate neighbours, Goclenius
Colombo to the south. All of them and looks to be separated from the shores of
PDQ\RIWKHLUODEHOOHGVDWHOOLWHVKDYHODYDƅOOHGƆRRUV Mare Fecunditatis, appearing almost framed by a
7KHUHŝVVRPHH[TXLVLWHO\ƅQHGHWDLOKHUH7KH FRQWLQXRXVUHJLRQRIVXUURXQGLQJƆDWPDUHODYD
UHPDLQLQJULQJVXUURXQGLQJ*RFOHQLXVŝVƆDWƆRRULV A few local elevations appear around it, notably
more or less continuous with a few gently smoothed to the northeast and southeast, all adding to a
WHUUDFHV,WORVHVVRPHFRKHVLRQWRZDUGVWKHQRUWK wonderful part of the Moon to explore when the
although never fully opens to the surrounding mare. Sun is low in its sky.

COMETS AND ASTEROIDS
Track 14 Irene as it reaches e
opposition in Gemini GEMINI
48
0LQRUSODQHW,UHQHUHDFKHVRSSRVLWLRQ
on 2 January when it can be found shining
against the stars of Gemini at magnitude 31 Jan
+9.5. By the end of the month, it fades
slightly to mag. +10.1, making it an ideal 14 Irene 53
target to track down if you have a small 21 Jan
54
or larger telescope. 28 49
,UHQHVWDUWV-DQXDU\DOLWWOHWRWKHHDVW 25
of the mid-point between the two stars
11 Jan
WKDWIRUPWKHŜERG\ŝRIWKHVWLFNƅJXUHRI o
the twin Castor: mag. +4.4 Tau (o) Castor
Geminorum and +3.1 Mebsuta (Epsilon (ε)
Geminorum). Thereafter, it tracks in a
Minor planet 1 Jan
linear fashion west-northwest to end the Mebsuta ¡
14 Irene 53
month within the southeast boundary of passes from 39
$XULJD,QWRWDOWKHIXOOWUDFNOHQJWKLVD g
Gemini into 40 37
47
little over 7°PDNLQJ,UHQHIDLUO\HDV\WR Auriga during
keep track of once you’ve located it. January 2025
As ever with objects of this type, all
you’ll see will be a star-like point disguised QHFHVVDU\WRUHFRUGWKHVXVSHFWHGƅHOG ,UHQHLVDODUJHPDLQEHOWDVWHURLGWKDW
DJDLQVWWKHPRUHGLVWDQWVWDUƅHOG over the course of several nights, making orbits the Sun at a mean distance of 2.565
EDFNJURXQG,QRUGHUWRLGHQWLI\WKDW\RX note of any objects that appear to move $8,WVPHDQGLDPHWHULVNPDQGLW
have genuinely observed the body, it’s through it. rotates once on its axis in 15 hours.
STAR OF THE MONTH

Mebsuta, a yellow supergiant in Gemini
T Located 860 lightyears
away, Mebsuta marks the
point where the stick-figure
Castor’s legs join his body
Mebsuta (Epsilon (ε) reference against which other

Geminorum) is a mag. +3.0 star stars are compared. With a
in Gemini, part of the northern mass 5.3 times that of the Sun,
twin Castor. You’d be forgiven Mebsuta’s radius has been
for assuming its name measured directly by the Navy
translates to something to do Precision Optical
with the twins, but it actually ,QWHUIHURPHWHUDWWKH
means ‘outstretched paw’. Anderson Mesa Station of the
Equally as curious, 6.5° Lowell Observatory in Arizona.
southeast of Mebsuta lies This allowed the star’s size to
Mekbuda (Zeta (ζ) be determined as 130 times
Geminorum), the name of larger than the Sun. As
which means ‘the lion’s folded Mebsuta sits just under 2°
paw’. As you might now guess, from the ecliptic, it’s a
the names relate to a lion, this candidate for lunar
being a pattern recognised in occultations. When this
ancient Arabic stories. happens, high-resolution
Mebsuta has a spectral analysis can also be used to 4,600K. Compare this with the Despite this, Mebsuta’s large
FODVVLƅFDWLRQRI*,EZKLFK determine the star’s size. Sun, another G-type star, size leads to an overall
means it’s a yellow supergiant Mebsuta is a cool G star, which has a photospheric luminosity which is just shy of
and its spectrum is used as a with a temperature around surface temperature of 5,772K. 7,000 times that of the Sun.

BINOCULAR TOUR With Steve Tonkin
Ride a coaster, fly a kite, catch a plane – and don’t forget to stop and smell the rose
IC 342
NGC 957 IC 1848
r CAMELOPARDALIS Collinder 464
NGC 869 NGC 884
Double Cluster
h a
IC 1805
V805
Kemble’s 6
Kite
NGC 663
NGC 659 f
5 ¡
r 44
Segin
CASSIOPEIA
M103
NGC 654
4 q b
e Ruchbah
NGC 457 Collinder 463
W s
3
p a Eddie’s
NGC 281 d Coaster E
p
Schedar
NGC 225 5º
c _ N _ Polaris
S
NGC 129
h g
W
Caph a Errai
`
m b
NGC 7789
l
/
2 1 k URSA
M52
MINOR
4 Queen’s
Aeroplane CEPHEUS ¡
V649
NGC 7686 f
1. The Queen’s Aeroplane 3. Eddie’s Coaster 5. Cassiopeia triple cluster: NGC 654,
10x Locate golden-yellow mag. +5.0 10x This asterism was discovered by, NGC 659 and NGC 663
50 4 Cassiopeiae, which marks the 50 and is named after, the West Country
15x Look 0.5° east of the middle of an
starboard wingtip of this little aeroplane- amateur astronomer Eddie Carpenter. 70 imaginary line joining Ruchbah and
shaped asterism (pattern of stars). The Given that it’s difficult to identify on a star mag. +3.3 Segin (Epsilon (¡) Cassiopeiae)
other wingtip, a degree to the west, is the chart or app, Eddie’s Coaster is surprisingly and you’ll easily find the brightest of these
mag. +6.6 blue-white V649 Cassiopeiae. obvious in 10x50 binoculars. Look 3° north clusters, NGC 654. Slightly less than 1° to
The curved ‘fuselage’ of stars that shine of Gamma (a) Cassiopeiae to find a 3°-long the south-southeast is the larger but
at mag. +8.0 or brighter extends a degree wave of seventh and eighth-magnitude fainter NGC 663. Your challenge is to spot
northwards to a mag. +6.7 orange-red stars, reminiscent of a rollercoaster. Cast the tiny ghostly glow of NGC 659, just on
star. There’s a lovely variety of star colours around the area; you too may find a the NGC 663 side of the mag. +5.8 44
here, which a dark transparent sky will pattern of interest. SEEN IT Cassiopeiae. SEEN IT
help you to appreciate. SEEN IT
4. The Owl Cluster, NGC 457 6. Kemble’s Kite
2. Caroline’s Rose, NGC 7789 10x Start at mag. +2.6 Ruchbah (Delta (b) 15x From Segin, take a line through mag.
50 Cassiopeiae) and navigate 2° 70 +4.6 Iota (f) Cassiopeiae and extend it
10x Caroline Herschel discovered our
50 next target in 1783. You’ll find it southwest to mag. +5.0 (Phi (q) 7° to mag. +6.4 V805 Cassiopeiae, which
between mag. +4.5 Rho (l) and mag. +5.1 Cassiopeiae) and its mag. +7.0 companion will look deep yellow in binoculars. It’s the
Sigma (m) Cassiopeiae. You won’t be able 2 arcminutes further on. These are the brightest of a 1.5°-long asterism of 10 mag.
to resolve any stars, even using averted owl’s eyes. Its body and wings are +8.5 and brighter stars forming a diamond
vision, but you should see a soft glow composed of ninth and 10th-magnitude kite with a tail that flows south towards
PETE LAWRENCE X 3
about half the apparent diameter of the stars that span an area about 0.25° in the Perseus. There’s an easily splittable double
Moon. Caroline’s Rose is estimated to be direction of a Cassiopeiae. The owl’s star at the kite’s northern tip. SEEN IT
about a billion years old, which is unusually brighter eye is not a cluster member, lying
old for an open cluster. SEEN IT only half as far away. SEEN IT Tick the box when you’ve seen each one


THE SKY GUIDE CHALLENGE
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot seems to be shrinking. Can you measure its size for yourself?
have to wait too long as the
planet’s rapid, sub-10-hour
spin rate moves features
surprisingly quickly across
the imaginary meridian line.
Once the following edge
reaches the CM, record that
time too.
Now, using a program
such as WinJUPOS
(freeware), choose Jupiter
from the ‘Program > Celestial
body’ option, then ‘Tools >
Ephemerides’. Change the
date and time to match your
ƅUVWUHFRUGHGWLPHWKHRQH
Observation 1 where the leading edge
Observation 2
Record the date and time Record the date and time passed the CM. Under the
that the leading edge of the GRS that the following edge of the GRS ‘Ephemerides’ tab, look up
crosses the central meridian crosses the central meridian the ‘System II CM’ value.
This is the Jovian system II
South is up
longitude of the GRS’s
leading edge. Repeat
S Our challenge is to measure the width of the Solar System’s biggest storm, the Great Red Spot, by the process for the following
recording the moment when its leading edge and then its following edge cross Jupiter’s central meridian edge and obtain its system
II longitude too. Ignore
A great deal of emphasis is put on As Jupiter rotates on its axis, system I, as this is for the equatorial zone,
astronomical imaging these days, and the atmospheric features such as the GRS will and system III refers to the planet’s
science of astronomy sometimes gets left approach the CM and at some point their magnetosphere.
behind as a result. However, one important leading edge (sometimes called preceding Finally, calculate the GRS’s longitude
area of observation, measurement and edge) will touch it. This is where you make span by subtracting the following edge
recording concerns changes in our Solar \RXUƅUVWPHDVXUHPHQWUHFRUGLQJWKH longitude from the preceding one.
System neighbours, the planets. This time, as accurately as possible, as the Multiply this value by 1,187 and this will
month, our challenge is to measure the leading edge sits on the CM. give you the kilometre width of the GRS.
most famous storm of all, the Great Red Then it’s a matter of waiting until the Recently, the Great Red Spot has been
Spot (GRS) on Jupiter. following edge catches up to also pass shrinking in width. Now you are set to
Here, visual observation and imaging the CM. Fortunately, for Jupiter you don’t record this variation for yourself.
both work to great effect. The technique
you need to master for this challenge is
how to make a good estimate of central
meridian timings. For this, you’ll need a
telescope and an accurate timepiece. The 1
telescope needs to be over 150mm
aperture to be able to see the Great Red
Spot clearly and, as ever, the larger you go 2
the easier this will be.
An object’s central meridian, or CM, is
an imaginary line down the centre of the
object as you look at it. For Jupiter, this is
the invisible line connecting the planet’s
north pole to its south pole and, despite
not being something you can see tangibly,
S Using WinJUPOS, you can calculate the system II longitude of the leading and following
your eye is pretty good at estimating its edges of the Great Red Spot. 1) Enter the observation date and time 2) Read off the system
position whether at the eyepiece or on II longitude value (here shown as 78.6°). Repeat for leading and following edges of the GRS,
an image. then calculate the difference and multiply by 1,187 to obtain the GRS width in kilometres

DEEP-SKY TOUR Find a clear horizon for our tour of low-altitude
beauties in Canis Major and Lepus this month
1 IC 2165 around this feature. The core of IC 2163 is much

Located in the northwest corner of less distinct and troublesome for smaller
Canis Major, 5° due north of mag. scopes. These galaxies are 80 million
+2.0 Mirzam (Beta (`) Canis Majoris), lightyears away. SEEN IT
is the planetary nebula IC 2165.
Shining at a respectable mag. 4 M41
+10.6, it’s easy to overlook due 2XUƅQDO&DQLV0DMRU
to its small size of 9 x 7 target raises the
arcseconds. It appears just brightness stakes. M41 is a
OLNHDVWDUDWPDJQLƅFDWLRQV beautiful open cluster with
below 150x, only really an integrated magnitude of
starting to appear like a true +4.5. It’s visible to the naked
planetary nebula at powers eye 4° south of Sirius (Alpha
of 250x or above. IC 2165 (_) Canis Majoris). A 150mm
UHDFWVWRDQ2,,,ƅOWHUUHDOO\ scope shows about 50 stars
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ƅOWHULQDQGRXWRI\RXUYLHZWKH from eighth to 12th magnitude,
planetary staying put as the stars with many close pairs visible.
around it fade. At 400x Larger apertures will increase the
PDJQLƅFDWLRQLWDSSHDUVURXJKO\ apparent size of the cluster, making it
6 arcseconds across. SEEN IT appear roughly 50 per cent larger due to
the presence of fainter outer members. M41 is
2 NGC 2204 2,300 lightyears from the Sun and is sometimes
S Target number
You’d think our next target would be a little referred to as the Little Beehive Cluster. SEEN IT
four on this month’s
easier. NGC 2204 is a mag. +8.6 open cluster
tour, bright and
ORFDWHGpZHVWVRXWKZHVWRI0LU]DP(DV\WRƅQG colourful M41 is a 5 IC 418
and relatively bright on paper at least, the 20+ stars winter marvel you For our next target we hop across the
here appear quite faint even through 250–300mm won’t want to miss border into Lepus. Located 2° east-
scopes, appearing more like an unresolved glow northeast of mag. +4.3 Lambda (h) Leporis lies the
approximately 20 arcminutes across. Discovered by mag. +9.3 planetary nebula IC 418, also known as the
CEDIC TEAM/CHRISTOPH KALTSEIS/CCDGUIDE.COM, CHART BY PETE LAWRENCE
William Herschel in 1785, NGC 2204 lies 13,400 Spirograph Nebula. It gets its nickname from
lightyears from the Sun. If you have a large aperture high-resolution images which show extremely
scope, see if you can resolve any of the cluster delicate structures rippling throughout. With an
members. Although tricky to do, a 300mm scope overall size of 14 x 11 arcseconds, IC 418 requires a bit
should be able to pick out around 35 members fainter RIPDJQLƅFDWLRQWRVHHDVDGLVWLQFWLYHSODQHWDU\
than mag. +12.5. SEEN IT amateur scopes revealing around 10 arcseconds of its
true apparent size. Its central star shines at mag.
3 NGC 2207 and IC 2163 +10.3 and is clearly visible through a 150mm scope
We’re doing the rounds of different types despite the relatively bright surrounding nebula. IC
of deep-sky objects on this tour, our next 418 only starts to show a slight elongation through
target being the mag. +10.7 galaxy NGC 2207. larger apertures. SEEN IT
Located 2.8° due south of NGC 2204, NGC 2207 is not
alone as it’s interacting with fainter mag. +13.5 galaxy 6 M79
IC 2163. They’re separated by 1.4 arcminutes and 2XUƅQDOWDUJHWWDNHVXVWRORZGHFOLQDWLRQLQ
both are spirals presenting themselves relatively the southern regions of Lepus. Found 3.9° south
face-on. This means their surface brightness is lower and 0.8° west of Nihal (Beta (`) Leporis), M79 is a mag.
than their integrated magnitudes may suggest. It’s +7.8 globular cluster 0.7° east-northeast of a mag.
the core of NGC 2207 that is most obvious, larger +5.0 star. At declination –24.5°, you’ll need to wait for
apertures possibly revealing the innermost spiral ring
FREE Lepus to be due south for the best view. Despite this,
BONUS a 150mm scope should resolve some of the cluster
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This Deep-Sky Tour has been automated Print this chart aperture doing a great job of resolving many more.
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you to this month’s targets at the touch of Go-To tour
low altitude leading to atmospheric extinction will
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magazine.com/ probably reduce this to 2–3 arcminutes. M79 is around
our free Bonus Content online. bonus-content 42,000 lightyears distant. SEEN IT

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How the Sky Guide events will appear in January
10
F
11
S
12
S
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F
The Moon
Mercury
Venus
Mars
OP
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
3 January: 16%-lit waxing crescent Moon near Venus
Quadrantid meteor shower (ZHR 120)

Calendar
highlights
9 January: 81%-lit waxing gibbous Moon near Pleiades
14 January: full Moon very near Mars
Moonwatch
Deep-Sky Tour
Lunar occultation of Saturn (page 46)
The Big Three Quadrantids 2025 (page 47)
Venus and Saturn (page 47)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F
KEY
Observability Inferior conjunction Full Moon
IC
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CHART BY PETE LAWRENCE
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Morning Daytime Evening Night OP Planet at opposition Last
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Sky brightness
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during lunar phases Planets in conjunction
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quarter) Moon) quarter) (new Moon)

Our HI-LUX coating can be applied to almost any
reflector, in virtually any condition or no matter how
old. Improves the reflective efficiency of your mirrors.
High Reflectivity
Coating
Find out more on
our website: Optics >
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tech enquiries: [email protected]
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www.orionoptics.co.uk
169GBP
In just 20 years from now, the Habitable Worlds
ILLUSTRATION: TITOONZ/ISTOCK/GETTY, NASA’S SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION STUDIO
Observatory may find evidence for extraterrestrial life.

Govert Schilling reports as the project takes shape
I
s there life beyond Earth? No one knows, Still, as yet there’s no convincing evidence of life
but most scientists think it’s almost beyond Earth. But that may change in the next
inevitable. Our Universe is incredibly two decades or so with the launch of the Habitable
extended, both in space and in time, so Worlds Observatory (HWO), a powerful future space
anything that can happen – in this case, telescope that’s currently on the drawing board. On
the emergence of life – is almost bound to happen 1 August 2024, the project entered ‘pre-Phase A’, with
more than once. Moreover, the Universe teems the opening of the HWO Technology Maturation
with planets, and the organic building blocks of life 3URMHFW2IƅFHDW1$6$ŝV*RGGDUG6SDFH)OLJKW
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were formed, it’s extremely unlikely that the engineered to identify habitable, Earth-like planets…
process occurred just once. and examine them for evidence of life”. X

What the Habitable Worlds
Observatory may look like as it
hunts for signatures of life
on Earth-like planets

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From Big Bang to biomarkers

Far from being a one-trick pony, HWO has multiple ambitious science goals
Beyond planets,
HWO’s gaze will fall on
how elements evolve
and galaxies grow
ILLUSTRATION
The primary goal of the observatory: drivers of galaxy observatory will resolve regions will shed more light on
Habitable Worlds Observatory growth; the evolution of stellar populations of many the so-called baryon cycle: the
is to look for biomarkers in elements over cosmic time; galaxies beyond our Milky way in which the chemistry of
the atmospheres of Earth-like the Solar System in its Way, obtain ultraviolet spectra the Universe gets enriched
exoplanets that would galactic context; and living of millions of individual over time, eventually leading
indicate the presence of life. worlds. As astrophysicist sources and image to the origin of life. And in our
But the future space Kevin France says: “HWO does cosmological deep fields four own Solar System backyard,
telescope will do much more. a little bit of everything.” times faster than JWST does. HWO will be able to resolve
Scientists have formulated With its unprecedented Detailed observations of details on large asteroids and
four major themes for the sensitivity, the huge supernovae and star-forming planetary moons.

Saturn
Jupiter
Venus
Earth
Sun blocked by
occulting disc
S Left: an image of our Sun taken by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), using a disc to block its glare. Right: how HWO
might discover Earth 2.0 – a simulation showing our Solar System from 33 lightyears away when a coronagraph blocks the starlight
X instruments are foreseen: a high-resolution,

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Future proofing
Despite being 1.5 million kilometres
from Earth, scientists will be able to
robotically service and repair HWO
The Hubble Space Telescope, Like JWST, the Habitable
launched into low Earth orbit Worlds Observatory will
back in 1990, has been in operate from L2, a region in
operation for decades thanks space almost four times more
to five servicing missions, the distant than the Moon.
last one of which took place Nevertheless, engineers plan
in 2009. Space Shuttle to design it in such a way that
astronauts have replaced it can be serviced – not by
malfunctioning gyroscopes astronauts, but by robots. An
and computers and outfitted uncrewed mission would fly to
Hubble with new solar panels, L2, rendezvous with HWO and
cameras and spectrographs. carry out necessary repairs or
In contrast, the James replacements. What’s more, a
Webb Space Telescope, which key purpose of such a mission While Hubble was close
doesn’t orbit Earth, cannot be would be to install a possible enough for astronauts to
serviced. Once an important second generation of science repair, distant HWO will
component breaks down, the instruments, upgrading the be upgraded by robots
mission will be over. spacecraft’s capabilities.
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The ARIEL (left) and

PLATO (right) exoplanet
hunters will both be
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When will we get
50 years after the Apollo landings, humanity is at last

preparing to return to the Moon. Ben Evans investigates
why it’s taken so long to go back
I
n November 2022, a slumbering baddest machine ever built. Its uncrewed to return humans to our nearest celestial
Florida shook under the guttural $UWHPLV,ƆLJKWWHVWERRVWHGDQ2ULRQ neighbour by 2024.
growl of the world’s mightiest capsule on a 25-day, 2 million km (1.3 Sadly, as 2025 begins, that vaunted
rocket – NASA’s Space Launch million mile) trek around the Moon – the deadline has come and gone.
System (SLS). Generating 8.8 ƅUVWWLPHLQƅYHGHFDGHVWKDWZHŝGVHHQ Artemis’s slow progress, decade-long
million pounds of thrust at liftoff, it a deep-space mission made by a ship development and eye-watering $93
turned night into day, eclipsing the built for astronauts. Artemis I afforded a billion price tag weighs poorly against
NASA
6DWXUQ9DVWKHELJJHVWEHHƅHVWDQG much-needed stimulus for NASA’s plan our last lunar adventure – Project Apollo. X

It’s been 52 years and counting
since Gene Cernan, the last
Moonwalker, left the Moon.
Why did the Space Race turn
into the Space Amble?

S Left: 16 July 1969, Apollo 11 on its way to making JFK’s pledge a reality. Right: after considerably longer on the drawing board, Artemis I
lifted off on 16 November 2022 on its successful uncrewed, tech-testing journey 64,373km (40,000 miles) beyond the Moon and back
X Back then, the Saturn V moved from blueprints in a brutally brisk fashion: two Apollo missions
to the launch pad in six years, nimbly sprinting in 20 cancelled, the Saturn V production line shut down,
PRQWKVIURPLWVPDLGHQƆLJKWWRERRWVRQWKH and plans for Moon and Mars bases binned for the
Moon by 1969. It’s hard to ignore the stark empirical Shuttle – a cheaper, more economical spaceship.
truth: Artemis is taking far longer to get from A to B Improved détente with the Soviets no longer
than Apollo did. required a Space Race, distancing successive
But a closer look at the history of Apollo tells presidents from the Moon. But after Shuttle
another story. In 1961, the Soviet Union, once mocked &KDOOHQJHUŝVORVVLQ6DOO\5LGH$PHULFDŝVƅUVW
as a ragtag nation of potato farmers, surged to the woman astronaut, led a task force to chart NASA’s
WHFKQRORJLFDOIRUHE\ODXQFKLQJWKHƅUVWDUWLƅFLDO future. Her Ride Report recommended a lunar T President George
Bush Sr backed the
satellite, putting living animals in space and sending outpost with a 30-person crew by 2010 and a Mars
Space Exploration
probes to the Moon. These accomplishments raised voyage in the 2020s. By 1989, this vision had grown Initiative (SEI) in
gnawing anxieties in America of a ‘gap’ in missile- into the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), a multi- 1989… until NASA
building know-how. If Russia possessed advanced decade “journey into tomorrow”, including a Moon calculated the cost
intercontinental ballistic missiles, they could strike
ILLUSTRATION
American cities at will. No missile gap actually

existed, but the technology wins gave the Soviets
NASA X 2, NASA/CHRIS COLEMAN/KEVIN DAVIS, ANADOLU/GETTY, NASA JOHNSON
a propaganda tool to wield with relish. In April 1961,

<XUL*DJDULQEHFDPHWKHƅUVWKXPDQLQVSDFH
President John F Kennedy had to salvage US national
pride – and fast. In May, he went public. America
would put a man on the Moon by 1970.
Post-Space Race slump

Kennedy knew the Soviets hungrily coveted the
same goal. NASA’s budget sprang to achieve it, from
0.9 per cent of federal expenditure in 1961 to 4.4 per
cent by 1966. But an unpopular war in Vietnam and
social unrest at home – racial inequality, poverty,
rats in Harlem apartments, illiterate children, the
assassination of Martin Luther King – shifted attitudes.
In the years after 1966, NASA’s budget progressively
fell. After the Moon race was ultimately won in 1969
with Apollo 11, change came upon the programme

Quite the catch:
Starship’s vital role: Starship’s success

hinges on fast
turnaround and
taxi to the Moon redeployment
SpaceX’s Starship will be key to getting humans

and materials onto the lunar surface
With Starship’s Human Landing SpaceX is bringing Starship
System (HLS) set to land people and its Super Heavy booster online
at the Moon’s south pole during by continual success-and-failure
Artemis III, the development of testing. The 121-metre (398ft) stack is
SpaceX’s colossal spacecraft has the tallest rocket ever flown and at
attracted intense scrutiny. Not liftoff generates 16.7 million pounds
only must Starship fly to and of thrust – the most powerful ever.
from the lunar surface, it requires Its first six test flights achieved
multiple spacecraft to do so, mixed results: engine glitches and
meaning a high flight cadence is structural failures, juxtaposed with
needed to assure the viability of successful in-space fuel transfers
the programme. and a spectacular controlled return
Doubts about its feasibility of a Super Heavy from the edge of
came to a head last summer, when space back to the launch pad.
Japanese billionaire Yusaku In 2025, SpaceX plans to begin
Maezawa cancelled dearMoon, a regular in-space refuelling trials
tourist mission to circumnavigate and will rapidly ramp up Starship’s
the Moon. Maezawa said Starship’s launch cadence. If Artemis III is to
lack of “clear schedule certainty” land humans on the Moon, time is
precipitated his decision. of the essence.
base and Mars mission. Then came the clanger: it Sadly, cost undid VSE. It was behind schedule,
ZRXOGFRVWELOOLRQ7KHVKDN\ƆRRUERDUGVRI underfunded and overbudget. In 2010, Barack Obama
political support collapsed. NASA’s emphasis tilted cancelled it, eliminating a human Moon return.
next to robotic exploration, a ‘Faster, Better, Cheaper’ However, in 2011 he authorised building the SLS
SKLORVRSK\LQWRZKLFKKXPDQ0RRQƆLJKWVVLPSO\ rocket, advocating a crewed mission to a near-Earth
GLGQRWƅW7KHQDWLRQDOVSDFHSROLF\GLGQRW asteroid by 2025 and a Mars voyage in the 2030s.
mention humans voyaging beyond Earth orbit.
Next was 2004’s Vision for Space Exploration (VSE), The age of Artemis
T Multiple
a Moon return by 2020 with new crew capsules, lunar Then, in 2017, Donald Trump tilted US space policy
countries will need
landers and heavy-lift rockets. Although criticised as back to the Moon. NASA would now leverage
to collaborate
to get the lunar ş$SROORRQVWHURLGVŠ96(SURGXFHGUHDOƆLJKWKDUGZDUH international partners to build a lunar-orbiting
Gateway built with a test launch of an Ares I rocket booster in 2009. *DWHZD\RXWSRVWZLWKFRPPHUFLDOƅUPVIDFLOLWDWLQJ
payload services, landers, rovers and space suits. By
2019, the Moon return had a deadline: 2024. And it
had a name: ‘Artemis’, Apollo’s twin sister in ancient
Greek mythology. By targeting a single objective,
the Moon, NASA avoided ‘mission creep’, where
complicated projects naturally accrue costs and
failure becomes more likely.
Private industry would be key to the endeavour.
NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS)
LQLWLDWLYHIXQGHGFRPSDQLHVWRƆ\URERWLFODQGHUV
and rovers to the Moon before humans. But CLPS
EHJDQIDOWHULQJO\2QHƅUPGURSSHGRXWZKLOHRWKHUV
were delayed by COVID-19, supply-chain issues,
changing landing sites and technical maladies. Last
year, Astrobotic’s Peregrine 1 sprang a propellant leak
after launch, nixing its landing at Gruithuisen Domes
on the Moon’s Oceanus Procellarum. Then, Intuitive
ILLUSTRATION
Machines’ IM-1 lander alighted near the Malapert-A

south pole crater but broke one of its landing legs,
tipped over and lost power. X

How Starship
ILLUSTRATION
Blue Ghost hopes to could look in its
land in Mare Crisium ƅQDOOLYHU\ZKHQ
in the coming weeks humans roam the
regolith once more
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The $450 million rover
VIPER axed was intended to trundle

the Moon’s southern
polar regions, until
Despite being ready to go, costs and delays saw NASA pulled the plug
the robotic rover cancelled at the last minute

The golf-cart-sized Volatiles $84 million, but the rover was fully
Investigating Polar Exploration built, with its instruments
Rover (VIPER) was to fly on completely integrated and fully
Astrobotic’s Griffin 1 lander to the tested for launch.
Moon’s south pole in September NASA expects VIPER’s objectives
2025 – until the mission was to be met by other future missions
cancelled last summer. and its hardware may be retasked
Equipped with a drill, three for future missions, including on the
spectrometers and its own lighting lunar vehicle to be used by Artemis
source, the four-wheeled VIPER was V astronauts. “The instruments
targeted to land at the western edge from VIPER are candidates for the
of Nobile crater. During a planned Lunar Terrain Vehicle,” said Fisher.
100 days on the Moon, the rover But VIPER’s cancellation was
would prospect for water-ice and received poorly by the lunar and
other volatiles, mapping their planetary science community, with
distribution, depth and purity. the Planetary Society calling for its
But after mission costs swelled reinstatement and the House
past $450 million and launch Committee on Science, Space and
ILLUSTRATION
slipped from 2024 to 2025, NASA Technology requesting additional
decided to end the mission. information on NASA’s decision to
Cancelling VIPER reportedly saved end the mission.
Private companies are DQGRWKHUVY\HWREXLOGWKH/XQDU7HUUDLQ9HKLFOHDQG

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The fundamentals of astronomy for beginners
Supernovae
Some stars die in a spectacularly powerful and violent fashion. Here’s how it happens
The Crab Nebula, the corpse
of a star whose explosive
death was bright enough to
see in daylight in AD 1054
A supernova recorded
in ancient rock paintings
in New Mexico
ILLUSTRATION
A
ll stars die. How they die depends S While some LQ$'E\1DWLYH$PHULFDQVLQWKHIRUPRIURFN
in part on their mass, but their deaths stars quietly fizzle carvings in Arizona and New Mexico.
can result in titanic and spectacular out at the end of Supernovae broadly separate into two main types
explosions in space – supernovae their lives, others and result from either a thermonuclear runaway or
go supernova
ŚZKHQWKH\EULHƆ\RXWVKLQHWKHLUKRVW a core collapse within a star.
– an explosion so
galaxies and radiate more energy than our Sun will huge that the star Type Ia supernovae are the result of runaway
deliver in its lifetime. briefly outshines nuclear reactions. They happen in binary star
7KHWHUPŜVXSHUQRYDŝZDVƅUVWFRLQHGLQE\ its whole galaxy systems where at least one star is a white dwarf
Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky at the Mount Wilson – the small, dense, remnant core of a star that
Observatory in California, when they witnessed has exhausted its fuel and shed its outer layers in
an explosive event in the Andromeda Galaxy. But the form of a planetary nebula. A white dwarf has
supernovae were being observed long before the tremendous gravity and will accumulate material
invention of the telescope, the oldest being RCW 86 from its stellar companion until it reaches the
VSRWWHGE\&KLQHVHDVWURQRPHUVLQ$'DVDŜJXHVW &KDQGUDVHNKDU/LPLWRUWLPHVWKHPDVVRIRXU
star’ visible in the sky for eight months. Perhaps the Sun. When it exceeds this, its core heats up, resulting
most famous supernova is the Crab Nebula, captured in an excessive and unsustainable amount of energy

Zombie stars, beauty queens and black holes
Once a star has gone supernova, it’s destined to live on as one of these three types of object…
ILLUSTRATION
ILLUSTRATION
NEUTRON STARS SUPERNOVA REMNANTS STELLAR-MASS BLACK HOLES
When a Type II supernova of a star with These are the ethereal-looking structures When stars with a mass 20–30 times
8–20 times the mass of the Sun occurs, left over from supernovae, which you’ll that of our Sun exhaust their fuel,
the remnant is a super-hot, ultra-dense have seen in beautiful astrophotos. WKHLUFRUHVFROODSVHWRDOPRVWLQƅQLWH
collapsed core, a neutron star, where They consist of hot gas, plasma and density to create a black hole. The
gravity has even squeezed the space interstellar material swept up by the outer layers may blast into space; the
from between particles in atoms. It is shockwave of the initial detonation. star can be so heavy the shockwave
city-sized but with more mass than The shockwave heats and ionises the can’t overcome the black hole’s gravity
RXU6XQDQGDPDJQHWLFƅHOGELOOLRQVRI gas surrounding it to extremely high and the entire star is consumed. These
times stronger. Neutron stars can spin temperatures, emitting light across explosions can create long gamma-ray
rapidly, hundreds of times per second, various wavelengths. They are also a bursts; material is spun up around the
emitting regular pulses of radio waves source of cosmic rays, where the shock black hole and blasts away at close to
detectable by telescopes – pulsars. accelerates particles to high speeds. the speed of light.
and pressure; a runaway of these supernovae too,

nuclear reaction results and This brilliant supernova FODVVLƅHGE\WKHHOHPHQWV
in galaxy NGC 2525 was
the star explodes. visible in their spectra.
visible for months in 2018
A Type II supernova To study these explosions,
occurs when a star with a astronomers use telescopes:
mass greater than eight the Hubble Space Telescope
COFFEEKAI/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES, BERNHARD HUBL/CCDGUIDE.COM, MILEHIGHTRAVELER/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES,

MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY, NASA/ESA AND THE HUBBLE HERITAGE (STSCI/AURA)ESA/HUBBLE
times that of our Sun runs observes Type Ia supernovae
COLLABORATION, STOCKTREK IMAGES/ISTOCK/GETTY, ESA/HUBBLE & NASA/A. RIESS AND THE SH0ES TEAM
out of fuel and collapses billions of lightyears away
under its own gravity. for hundreds of days after
Having fused its hydrogen detonation; NuSTAR uses
into helium, it sequentially X-ray vision to observe
burns carbon, neon, oxygen before, during and after
and silicon. There is an events; and ULTRASAT
energy balance: gravity observes in ultraviolet
pulling in, radiation pushing light, detecting explosions
out. But once silicon within seconds or minutes.
supplies are exhausted, the Surveys such as the All-Sky
core becomes a hunk of iron and no further energy Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) and
can be released through nuclear fusion. the Dark Energy Survey provide a continuous stream
of data from our Galaxy to identify supernovae.
Rebound effect Astronomers also use Type Ia supernovae as
Once this critical core density is reached, gravity has ‘standard candles’ to measure cosmic distances, since
the upper hand. With no internal pressure to support they blaze with equal brightness at their peak.
it, the outer shell of the star implodes. The collapsing 2QDYHUDJHDVXSHUQRYDRFFXUVHYHU\VHFRQGV
outer layers rebound and detonate as a supernova, Jane Green is an in the Universe. Their remnants (see above) heat up
violently ejecting the star’s material into space. Type astronomy writer the interstellar medium, distributing elements heavier
Ib and Ic supernovas also undergo core collapse just and author of the than iron and providing the ingredients for the next
as Type II supernovae do, but they have lost most of Haynes Astronomy generation of stars – a recycling process vital to the
their outer hydrogen layer. There are subtypes of each Manual ecology of our Galaxy.

Practical astronomy know-how for every level of expertise
SKILLS FOR STARGAZERS

Set the right back focus for your scope
How to tweak your imaging setup to achieve distortion-free stars from edge to edge
S Follow our guide to work out the spacers you need S Elongated, misshapen stars – particularly at the edges – from a field
in your imaging train to achieve perfect back focus flattener positioned too close (left) and too far (right) from the camera sensor
B
ack focus often causes astronomers small imaging area combined with a long focal length
confusion. In general photography terms, means distortions are minimised. Such setups are
it’s the distance from the last glass PRUHIRUJLYLQJRIUHTXLUHGEDFNIRFXVHUURUV
surface in the optical train to the focal )RUZLGHƅHOGLPDJLQJDV\RXŝGXVHIRUGHHSVN\
plane of the camera – typically 55mm YLVWDVLWŝVLPSRUWDQWWRJHWWKHEDFNIRFXVGLVWDQFH
in DSLRs, for example. For telescopes, back focus is DQ\ƆDWWHQHUQHHGVFRUUHFWRUDGGLWLRQDOGLVWRUWLRQV
the distance from the outer end of the focuser draw will occur. If the stars are elongated concentrically
tube (when fully wound in) to the focal plane of the relative to the centre of the frame, the distance
telescope, or – for catadioptric scopes – to the focal EHWZHHQWKHƆDWWHQHUDQGWKHFDPHUDVHQVRUQHHGV
plane when the scope is at its designed focal ratio. WREHUHGXFHGLIWKH\DUHHORQJDWHGUDGLDOO\WKH
Essentially, for telescopes, back focus indicates distance should be increased.
WKHVSDFHZLWKLQZKLFK\RXFDQƅWRWKHURSWLFDO 7KHVHGLVWRUWLRQVDUHHDV\WRƅ[E\ƅWWLQJWKH
components. It’s important to remember that these correct type of spacer between the camera and
RWKHURSWLFDOFRPSRQHQWVVXFKDVƅOWHUV%DUORZOHQV the device. Once you’re in approximately the right
and focal reducers, will alter this value slightly. SRVLWLRQ\RXFDQƅQHWXQHWKHSUHFLVHGLVWDQFHE\
Pete Lawrence is an
Most telescope designs produce curved focal expert astro-imager looking at stars in your images and adjusting by
SODQHV7DNHD1HZWRQLDQUHƆHFWRUWKLVKDVDFXUYHG and a presenter on small amounts until they look beautifully round
focal plane with a radius equal to the focal length of The Sky at Night right to the edge of the frame.
the telescope, meaning the shorter the focal length,
the greater the curvature. Similarly, shorter refractors
produce more curvature than longer ones. What you’ll need
&XUYHGIRFDOSODQHVDQGƆDWVHQVRUVUHVXOWLQ
distorted stars at the frame edge. A solution is to use X Ruler
DƅHOGƆDWWHQHUDQRSWLFDOFRPSRQHQWWKDWPDNHV X Field flattener or reducer-flattener
WKHIRFDOSODQHƆDW)RFDOUHGXFHUVPD\DOVRKDYH
X Manufacturer’s information on the required back-focus value
ƆDWWHQHUVEXLOWLQDQGDUHFDOOHGUHGXFHUƆDWWHQHUV
X Polar-aligned equatorial mount; telescope; deep-sky camera
0DQ\ƆDWWHQHUVDQGUHGXFHUƆDWWHQHUVDUHVSHFLƅF
with a large sensor
to particular telescope models and require optimum
spacing between their back ends and a camera X Extension/spacer tubes
VHQVRU7KLVVSHFLƅFGLVWDQFHLVUHIHUUHGWRDVŜUHTXLUHG X Fine-tuning rings for precise adjustment
EDFNIRFXVŝ7KHƅHOGFXUYDWXUHGLVWRUWLRQVDUHOHVV X A PC and viewing/processing software to magnify and examine the stars
of an issue with planetary imaging setups, where a

Step by step
Typical camera back-focus diagram Reference edge
Telescope Camera
Step 1 Step 2
Check the documentation for your flattener or reducer-flattener Required back focus is usually measured from the flange edge of
for the required back-focus distance. You’ll also need to know the flattener/reducer facing the camera, minus the male threads
the position of your camera model’s sensor relative to the (which disappear into the next component). Confusingly, a few
camera body, which you’ll find in the camera’s manual or online. manufactures do measure from these threads, so double-check.
Step 3
The physical
thickness of other
optical components
– such as filters,
a filter wheel (C),
or adaptors (B and
D) – between the
flattener (A) and
the camera need to
be considered and
added to the
required back-
focus distance. For
filters, add a third
of the filter’s
thickness.
Step 4
Assemble the components, such as filter wheels. Measure from
the flattener’s reference edge to the furthest non-threaded
surface, accounting for any filters. Add the sensor depth (Step 1);
subtract the total from the flattener’s required back focus.
Sensor
depth within
Step 5
Flattener to The remaining
camera distance camera body value is the gap
TOO FAR
that needs bridging
with spacers.
Spacer rings or
T2–T2 adaptors
with adjustment
Spacers rings can be
used to refine
the total distance TOO CLOSE
as accurately
as possible.
There are also
specialised
back-focus
adjusters that
Step 6
Take test shots and examine the frame edges. Do the stars look
Required back focus + 1mm provide additional
distorted? If you have the distance correct, they’ll appear round
(due to 3mm filter) fine-tuning
across the frame. If there’s distortion, adjust the back focus
control.
distance as shown until your stars are as round as possible.

Take the perfect astrophoto with our step-by-step guide
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY
Preserving the Orion Nebula’s core

It’s too easy to burn out the core when imaging M42. We explain an easy way to avoid it
A
long with the all that wonderful detail
Andromeda which is relatively easy to
Galaxy, capture and you’re simply
the Orion ignoring it! However, stay
Nebula (M42) strong and just capture the
is probably the most core. Once you’ve done this,
photographed deep-sky ƆLS\RXUVHQVLELOLWLHVDURXQG
object. And for good reason and try for the fainter
– it’s large, bright, highly regions, choosing exposures
detailed and very colourful. that will burn out the core.
But its brilliance can work Again, it may feel wrong,
against you, as many but stick with it.
smart scope owners have If you own a smart scope,
discovered. It’s all too easy you may be wondering how
to burn out the core, leading this applies to you. Smart
to a nebula that looks scopes work by taking short
beautiful around the outside exposures and live-stacking
but a pure-white mess in the them. If you’re relying on the
middle. This month, we’re output of your device, the
looking at a simple method key is to limit the number
for restoring the core to produce a high-dynamic- S Smart scopes of live-stacked exposures, stopping when the core is
range (HDR) image of the nebula similar (albeit more have a tendency correctly exposed. Then do a second capture letting
colourful) to what you’d see through the eyepiece. to burn out M42’s the smart scope do its thing as long as necessary for
/HWŝVƅUVWGLVFXVVZK\WKHFRUHEXUQVRXW7DNHD core (left), but this the outer regions. Most smart scopes allow you
can be addressed
photograph of the nebula exposed for the core and DFFHVVWRWKHUDZƅOHVQRUPDOO\LQ),76IRUPDW,I
by using a simple
it’ll look wonderfully detailed. However, much of the technique involving you can do this and are versed in rudimentary image
intricacy and colour of the surrounding area will be layer masking processing, you can stack the results yourself but you
lost in darkness. No problem: simply increase the should process two versions, one for the core and one
exposure to bring them back. Now you have M42’s for the outer regions.
beautiful surroundings restored in all their glory… What you’re aiming for here is at least two images
but the main nebula core looks burnt out. that you can manually combine to create an HDR
There will be a middle ground where the core is result that shows the core and outer regions properly
close to, but just below, being overexposed. Here exposed in a single shot. If you get adept at the
there may well be a fair bit of detail in the process, you could also use more than two steps
surrounding regions too, but they will fade into WRIXUWKHUUHƅQHWKHUHVXOW
underexposure, something that will be revealed
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looking less than perfect. equatorially mounted and driven telescope
There is a better way. First, take exposures Pete Lawrence is an
optimised for the core, completely disregarding the expert astro-imager Send your images to:
QHHGWRFDSWXUHƅQHGHWDLODGMDFHQWWRWKLVUHJLRQ and a presenter on
[email protected]
This can be hard to do as it just feels wrong. There’s The Sky at Night

Step by step
STEP 1 STEP 2
Telescope focal length 1,000mm Choose a setup that Set the exposure
Camera: APS-C DSLR captures a decent time to avoid
amount of M42 and burning out the
objects adjacent to core. It can appear
it (the Running Man bright, but you
Nebula makes a don’t want areas
great addition). of pure white.
Framing and Completely
orientation are a disregard the
personal choice, outer regions of
but a shot with the nebula at this
space to allow the step; they really
nebula to breathe aren’t important.
creates a better If using a smart
result. For smart scope and
scopes that don’t intending to use
do mosaics, the the internally
framing and generated image,
orientation are stop the capture
dictated by the when the core
scope’s design and region begins to
time of night you’re appear bright.
doing the imaging.
STEP 3
Once you have a
correctly exposed
core from Step 2,
it’s time to
concentrate on
the outer regions.
Increase your
exposure or ISO
settings to bring
these out best.
Don’t worry that
the core becomes
washed out. If
you’re using a
smart scope, this
will simply be a
regular session
on the nebula, STEP 4
capturing at least If you’re using a smart scope and want to process its FITS files
30 minutes’ worth yourself, download them and use your favourite processing
of image data. software to generate a result from the image stack. When you
stretch the data, create one version favouring the core and
another for the outer regions. Save them as separate images.
STEP 5 STEP 6
You should now have two images: the core and the outer regions. Select the layer mask and blur the image to soften the edges.
Using a layer-based image editor, copy and paste each result into You’ll see that the hole in the upper image begins to blend with
a separate layer in the same image. Put the outer region shot the core image below. When you’re happy with the edge blending,
above the core image. Use the magic wand tool to select the white consider a gentle curve tweak of the lower core image so its
core in the upper layer. Copy and paste as a layer mask. appearance is more suited to the overall look.

Expert processing tips to enhance your astrophotos
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY
How to reduce image noise

using Affinity Photo
Banish grainy artefacts and enhance details using a simple denoising tool
BEFORE AFTER
S Left: a zoomed-in portion of Dave’s image of the Heart Nebula from 20 stacked 200-second frames, showing lots of noise and grain.
Right: the same region after using Affinity Photo’s Denoise tool to reduce the graininess and reveal fine details in the nebula
T
here are many obstacles to are stacked together, the less visible the and dark areas, where noise is easily seen
overcome when we process noise becomes – most of us still end up (see Screenshot 1).
deep-sky images. One key with some noise in our images that we
challenge is the noise that need to reduce. Here I’ll show you how Let’s get started
creeps in when we stretch WRDFKLHYHWKLVLQ$IƅQLW\3KRWRZKLFK 2SHQ\RXULPDJHLQ$IƅQLW\3KRWR
the data from these faint objects and has a great ‘Denoise’ tool that can be To access the Denoise tool, click Filters
prevents us from unveiling delicate details. used not only for deep-sky but also Moon !1RLVH!'HQRLVH:KHQƅUVWRSHQHG
Even everyday images taken using a and planet images. the tool will apply default denoise
smartphone or DSLR have noise. The My one-shot colour image of the settings to your image. Five adjustments
big difference is that during the daytime Heart Nebula (above, left) was the result can be made from within the tool:
there is a lot of light available; with of 20x 200-second subs. I had already Luminance, Luminance Detail, Luminance
astrophotography, there’s usually very stacked and stretched these using Contribution, Colours and Colours
little light, meaning most of the data in $IƅQLW\3KRWRŝVŜ&XUYHVŝŜ9LEUDQFHŝDQG Contribution. As the names suggest, the
our images is down towards the ‘black ‘Levels’ tools to increase the contrast and top three sliders reduce noise resulting
end’ of the histogram, where it’s nestled saturation. Making these adjustments from luminance, while the bottom two
ALL PICTURES: DAVE EAGLE
within most of the noise. brought out unwanted background noise, work on colour noise.
As the image is stretched, so is the preventing me from further stretching ,WFDQEHGLIƅFXOWWRVHHWKHHIIHFWRI
noise, which becomes more visible. While my data and unveiling other details. This using Denoise on your image, so to get
this can be reduced by collecting more was more obvious when zooming into the a better idea click ‘Split View’ at the
data – generally, the more images that image in the areas that had both bright bottom-left (highlighted, Screenshot 2).

3 QUICK TIPS
1. The Denoise ‘Mirror View’ can
also be used to inspect the denoise
preview side by side.
2. In Settings > Tools, set your mouse
wheel to enable it to zoom in and out
of images.
3. Be very careful adjusting settings,
as applying too much denoise can
EOXUDQ\ƅQHGHWDLOV
A dividing line, splitting your view of the

S Screenshot 1: open your image in Affinity Photo. Even after stacking multiple frames,
image into two, will appear in the middle
you may see noise – particularly in areas with both bright and dark details – that only
worsens as you stretch the data. Click Filters > Noise > Denoise to open the denoise tool of the window, with an ‘After’ and ‘Before’
tab on either side (see Screenshot 3). The
right-hand side shows the original image
before applying Denoise. The left-hand
side shows the result of applying Denoise
via the sliders. To get a much better idea
of what the Denoise tool is doing to your
image, grab the line with your mouse and
move it to the left or right to reveal less or
more of each side of the image.
You may decide to either accept the
GHIDXOWVHWWLQJVSURYLGHGE\$IƅQLW\
Photo 2 or manually adjust the sliders –
moving them to the right increases the
amount of denoise applied.
Like many image-processing
techniques, you’ll need to be very careful
QRWWRRYHUGRWKLQJV,WŝVDƅQHEDODQFLQJ
act of reducing noise to an acceptable
level without detrimentally affecting the
image. When too much denoise is applied,
ƅQHGHWDLOVFDQVWDUWWREOXU
S Screenshot 2: the effect of the Denoise tool can be subtle, so use the Split View button
at the bottom-left to show a live before and after view as you make your adjustments Make your adjustments and keep
moving the split screen from left to right
across the image to see the effect of the
changes. Zoom in and out of the image
using the magnifying glass tool (bottom-
left) to see how each change affects the
overall view while scanning the Split View
across the image. Taking a combination
of wide and close-up views of the image
will give you a good idea of how each
adjustment affects the image at all levels.
Once you’re happy with the result,
click ‘Apply’ and close the Denoise tool
KLJKOLJKWHG6FUHHQVKRW 0\ƅQDOLPDJH
(opposite, right) has much less noise,
DOORZLQJƅQHUGHWDLOVWRVKLQHWKURXJK
Dave Eagle is an
astronomer,
astrophotographer,
planetarium operator
and writer
S Screenshot 3: it’s tempting to overdo it, but keep changes small. Carefully watch the
effect on the left-hand side of the screen, regularly zooming out to check the overall image

Your best photos submitted to the magazine this month
ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY FREE
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CONTENT
Find our extended
Gallery at
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PHOTO
OF THE
U The Moon, comet C/2023 A3 and Mount Teide MONTH
Gergely Tóth, Caldera de Taburiente, Canary Islands, Spain, 1 October 2024
Gergely says: “Comet C/2023 135mm lens, Benro Polaris tripod settings to deal with rapidly changing light
A3 is framed here by the Moon Exposure: Sky ISO 640 f/1.8, 8x 8”; conditions or you might burn out the
and the Mount Teide volcano, foreground ISO 640 f/1.8, 8x 4” highlights or end up with an underexposed
creating a unique natural Software: Lightroom, PTGui, Photoshop image. I suggest using planetarium apps like
alliance in the sky.” Sky Guide – that’s how I found out the Moon
Gergely’s top tips: “When photographing ZRXOGULVHMXVWƅYHPLQXWHVDIWHUWKHFRPHW
Equipment: Sony a7 IIIa camera, Samyang comets, be ready to change your exposure and align perfectly with the volcano.”

The Southern
Pinwheel Galaxy Z
Massimo Di Fusco and Adriano Anfuso,
captured remotely via Telescope Live, Rio
Hurtado, Chile, 20 August 2024
Massimo says:
“This picture is a
collaboration
with my friend
Adriano. He
captured the raw data, which I then
processed in PixInsight and Photoshop.”
Equipment: FLI PL 9000 camera, PlaneWave
CDK24 astrograph, Mathis Instruments MI-
1000/1250 mount
Exposure: RGB 15x 300” each, L 18x 600”
Software: PixInsight, Photoshop
Y Jupiter, Io and Europa

John Chumack, Dayton, Ohio, USA,
8 October 2024
John says: “The key to good
planetary imaging is shooting
while the planet is high in the
sky and the atmosphere is
very stable, and getting
precise focus.”
Equipment: QHYCCD QHY5III462 M/C
camera, Celestron C11 Schmidt–Cassegrain,
Software Bisque Paramount MYT mount
Exposure: Best 3,100 of 7,300 video frames,
6ms exposure Software: AstroSurface,
RegiStax, Adobe Camera Raw
Aurora borealis Z
Andrew Morkot,
Gateshead, Tyne and Wear,
11 October 2024
Andrew says:
“The Angel of
the North
symbolises the
history and
people of this area, and living
ƅYHPLQXWHVDZD\,ZDQWHG
to capture this rare aurora
above it, using a wide-angle
lens to capture its scale.”
Equipment: Canon EOS R5
camera, Samyang 14mm lens,
Manfrotto 190CX3 tripod
Exposure: ISO 800 f/2.8, 4”
Software: Lightroom,
Photoshop, Topaz DeNoise AI

U Supermoon over
the Severn Bridge
Tom Roberts, Portskewett,
Monmouthshire, 17 October 2024
Tom says: “Sadly, thick cloud
prevented any ‘Moon illusion’
captures – by the time the
Moon came into view, it was
already higher than the tops
of the bridge’s pillars.”
Equipment: Sony RX10 IV camera, Sony
24–600mm lens, Manfrotto 055XPRO3 tripod
Exposure: ISO 100 f/4.0, 1/20’
Software: Photoshop Elements
The Sun Z
Paul Gordon, Hullbridge, Essex,
8 October 2024
Paul says: “I wanted to try
imaging sunspots on the Sun’s
surface, so I set my equipment
up on the west of my property
to get a clear view of the
setting Sun.”
Equipment: ZWO ASI533MC camera,
Vixen ED103S refractor, Sky-Watcher
HEQ5 Pro mount
Exposure: Best of 100 video frames
Software: RegiStax, Photoshop
Y Aurora borealis
Joanne Popple, Rutland Water,
Rutland, 11 October 2024
Joanne says:
“Being a novice,
I’m pleased with
how this image
turned out
– especially as the location,
Normanton Church, is where
my husband and I got married
in 2015.”
Equipment: iPhone 15 Pro
Exposure: 3”

The Veil Nebula Z
Andrei Pleskatsevich, Minsk, Belarus,
17 October 2024
Andrei says: “The Veil Nebula
is one of my favourite targets.
Last year I processed it in
HOO, so this year I’ve tried to
emulate an SHO palette with
my colour camera.”
Equipment: ToupTek ATR3C571 camera,
SharpStar 76EDPH refractor, iOptron GEM28
mount Exposure: 40x 600”
Software: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop
Y The Pleiades
Mike Read, Corsley, Wiltshire,
3 October 2024
Mike says: “I’m fascinated
by the Seven Sisters. I love
capturing the dust clouds and
aiming to spot that faint
17th-magnitude galaxy nearby.
:KHQWKHƅUVWFRPELQHGVWUHWFKUHYHDOV
the dust – that’s my happy place.”
Equipment: QHYCCD QHY268M camera,
Sky-Watcher Esprit 100 ED refractor, Sky-
Watcher EQ6-R mount
Exposure: RGB 10x 90” each, L 10x 180”
Software: PixInsight
Lunar occultation
of Saturn Z
Soumyadeep Mukherjee,
Kolkata, India, 15 October 2024
Soumyadeep
says: “The
disappearance
view of this
occultation was
stunning and visible to the
naked eye – though sadly for my
location the reappearance was
obscured by very poor seeing.”
Equipment: Nikon D5600
camera, Sigma 150–600mm
lens, iOptron Sky-Guider Pro
mount Exposure: Moon and
Saturn ISO 1600 f/6.3, 1/100”;
lunar disc ISO 1600 f/6.3, 1/125”
Software: PIPP, AutoStakkert!,
Adobe Camera Raw, Photoshop
ENTER YOUR IMAGE

Whether you’re a seasoned astrophotographer or a beginner just starting out, we’d love to see your images.
Send them to us at www.skyatnightmagazine.com/send-us-your-astrophotos

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The best in equipment, accessories and books each month Discover the best
new kit every mon
th
SEE PAGE 26
Find out more about how we test equipment at

www.skyatnightmagazine.com/scoring-categories
86
Does QSI’s full-frame
mono camera dazzle
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HOW WE RATE
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@THESHED/PHOTOSTUDIO
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PLUS: gifts, gadgets and books, including
a hands-on guide to Messier’s famous
+++++ Outstanding +++++Very good
catalogue and the story of the Solar System +++++Good +++++Average +++++Poor/avoid

Our experts review the latest kit
FIRST LIGHT
QSI 760 full-format mono
CMOS imaging camera
Geared towards specialists, this full-frame powerhouse gives sensational results
WORDS: CHRIS GRIMMER
A
full-frame astronomy camera is often always installed. There’s also a SGPro software
VITAL STATS at the top of many astrophotographers’ subscription included (a nice addition, we felt), which
• Price £5,873 wish lists, so when QSI released the is downloaded separately.
with five-
QSI 760 – a full-frame mono camera 7KHIURQWSODWHRIWKHƅOWHUZKHHOKDVDIHPDOH0
position filter
featuring the latest CMOS sensor – we thread for either connecting the supplied 2-inch
wheel; £6,058
with seven- were keen to check it out. nosepiece or for directly attaching to your telescope
position $UULYLQJLQDODUJHVWXUG\ER[WKHƅUVWWKLQJWKDW or accessories. Given the large-format CMOS sensor
• Sensor Sony struck us was the very impressive case the camera ZLWKLQWKLVFDPHUDIRUPDQ\XVHUVDƅHOGƆDWWHQHU
IMX455 is housed in. Opening this, we found the sizeable will be a must-have accessory. Using a separate
full-frame FDPHUDZLWKƅOWHUZKHHODOUHDG\DWWDFKHGQHVWOHG WKUHDGDGDSWRU 0WR7LQWKLVFDVH DQGVSDFHUV
mono securely alongside a power supply, USB cable and ZHZHUHHDVLO\DEOHWRDWWDFKRXUƆDWWHQHU:LWKWKH
• Resolution 2-inch nosepiece. Screws were also supplied for software and drivers installed, we proceeded to
9,576 x 6,380 DWWDFKLQJXQPRXQWHGƅOWHUV attach the camera to our telescope and connect
• Exposure range
Heading to the QSI website, the instruction manual the included power supply and USB 3.0 cable.
1ms–24 hours
ZDVHDV\WRƅQGDQGSURYLGHGFOHDULQIRUPDWLRQRQ Loading up SGPro, we were pleased to see that
• Connectivity
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• Size 190 x 200 drawings and measurements, allowing us to precisely sequencing software. Connecting the QSI 760 loaded
@THESHED/PHOTOSTUDIO X 4, SCREENSHOT: CHRIS GRIMMER
x 140mm with ZRUNRXWWKHRSWLPDOVSDFLQJIRURXUƅHOGƆDWWHQHU a second window that gave us the option to change
integrated To ensure that getting up and running is as simple as the gain setting. QSI has developed three pre-
filter wheel possible, QSI has bundled all its camera drivers into selectable options: high, medium and low, plus a
• Weight 1.9kg RQHHDV\LQVWDOOƅOHHQVXULQJWKHFRUUHFWRQHLV self-customisable option. For our test, we selected X
• Supplier First
Light Optics
• Email
questions@
firstlightoptics.
First-rate sensor
com The QSI 760 features the latest efficiency (QE) of 90 per cent,
• www. Sony IMX455 mono CMOS which means it can translate
firstlightoptics. sensor, which is recognised 90 per cent of the light it
com by many as one of the best receives into data on the
sensors on the market for sensor. Comparing this to
astrophotography. This other high-end CCD cameras
full-frame sensor measures that max out at a QE of
43.3mm diagonally and offers around 77 per cent firmly
a massive 9,576 x 6,380-pixel positions this camera as a
resolution, so will benefit from market leader.
being paired to a telescope Another feature of the
capable of illuminating the sensor is the exceptionally
entire 44mm to take full clean images it produces.
advantage and avoid any Examining a stretched
significant vignette. five-minute dark frame
Thanks to its backside- captured at high gain showed
illuminated architecture, the low noise, zero amp glow and
Sony IMX455 offers a quantum no artefacts or banding.

SGPro
subscription
All purchases of the QSI 700 SCALE
include a free full-featured
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DVWURQRP\FDPHUDZLVKOLVW
@THESHED/PHOTOSTUDIO, CHRIS GRIMMER X 2
VERDICT
Build & design +++++
Connectivity +++++
Ease of use +++++
Features +++++
Imaging quality +++++
OVERALL +++++

.90
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Our experts review the latest kit
FIRST LIGHT
William Optics
Pleiades 68 astrograph
This good-looking compact scope exudes quality and delivers beautiful images
WORDS: TIM JARDINE
W
illiam Optics has been a key The WIFD focusing system requires camera back
VITAL STATS producer of good-value small focus to be set to exactly 55mm, and we appreciated
• Price £2,098; refractors in recent times. This the detailed and informative manual on the William
£2,197 with latest offering, the Pleiades 2SWLFVZHEVLWHWRDVVLVWZLWKWKLVVRPHZKDWƅGGO\
guidescope
68, presents a highly desirable initial set-up process.
• Optics FPL53
astrograph that ticks so many boxes that, after With our camera attached, we found that the
apochromatic
septuplet reviewing it, we were reluctant to send it back! WIFD format made for a central balance position and
• Aperture 68mm Everything about this little refractor just exudes it sat securely on its 210mm Vixen-style dovetail bar.
• Focal length attention to detail, from the matching logos on the A matching 32mm Uniguide scope is available to
258mm, f/3.8 carry case and telescope, to the quality of the purchase separately and sits atop the saddle
• Focuser machining. But these aren’t as important as its KDQGOHEDU2QFHWKHLQLWLDOVSDFLQJLVDOOƅQDOLVHG
Internal rack performance, so we were anxious to put it to the test. this is a simple telescope to use and very desirable
and pinion With a focal length of 258mm, the 68mm for travelling astronomy.
• Extras Dovetail apochromatic objective lens provides a speedy f/3.8
bar, tube rings,
carry handle,
IRFDOUDWLR7KLVPHDQVDYHU\ZLGHƅHOGRIYLHZDQG Easy to adapt
padded case
a telescope designed for use with large, full-frame Almost everything is adjustable on the Pleiades 68,
• Weight 3.83kg
astronomy cameras. We matched it to our full-frame including camera rotation and focuser tension, and
ALL PICTURES: @THESHED/PHOTOSTUDIO
• Supplier The Atik camera (with large 9μm pixels) using the supplied there’s even a tilt adjuster. Each feature is explained
Widescreen M54 connector. However, we also required an Askar clearly in the manual, with detailed diagrams. One
Centre precision adjustable spacer, which was provided by side of the focuser knob contains a thermometer dial.
• Tel 01353 the Widescreen Centre. During our review period, the nighttime temperatures X
776199
• www.
widescreen-
centre.co.uk
Seven lenses = sharp stars
The Pleiades 68 features star shapes right into the
an unusual septuplet optical corners of the image.
system – no less than seven Using parfocal RGB filters
individual lenses, designed in turn, we photographed a
to eliminate the two biggest star in a central position and
issues with refractors: then again with the star in
chromatic aberration (CA), each extreme corner, noting
where the various colours of that there was no significant
light tend to come to focus shift in colour focus across
at different points; and field the image plane. This
curvature, where stars at demonstrated that the
the edges of an image deform three objective lenses
and stretch. Fast focal ratios bring red, green and
often exacerbate these issues. blue wavelengths into
Image results from a full- concentrated points
frame camera, with 36 x 24mm throughout the image, which
imaging area confirmed that is crucial for overall sharp
the combination of four rear focus and essential for
lenses produces reasonable one-shot colour cameras.

SCALE
WIFD focuser
The patented William Optics
Internal Focus Design is a
welcome innovation, enabling
large-format cameras to
achieve full illumination
without vignetting. No
external movement is
observed during adjustment,
Bahtinov mask as the internal mechanism
moves the four rear optical
A favourite feature of ours, the dust cap has a removable plate that unscrews to elements forward and back to
reveal a Bahtinov mask. This makes precise manual focusing of the telescope a achieve focus. The silky-smooth
TXLFNDQGVLPSOHWDVNHYHQWKRXJKPLQLVFXOHPRYHPHQWVRIWKHƅQHIRFXVLQJ twin-speed setup offers
knob are required for perfect sharpness at this focal length and f/ ratio. outstanding performance.
Adaptors
and spacers
The back spacing of the camera is
critical with the Pleiades 68. This is Camera rotator/tilt adaptor
made easier by the choice of rear
FDPHUDƅWWLQJVZLWKUHPRYDEOH Finding the perfect camera position to best frame your
M48 and M54 threaded adaptors target is easy, thanks to the rear camera rotator, which
on the telescope, while a selection is secured in place with a chunky knurled thumbscrew.
of thin Delrin rings make for Removing the thumbscrew and the adjacent blue
millimetre-perfect adjustment ring, which is handily marked in 1° increments,
to the required 55mm back focus. reveals the camera tilt adaptor screws.

FIRST LIGHT
Carry case
The branded soft carrying case is stylish, well padded
and easily able to protect the telescope during
storage or while travelling. It enhances the portability
of the Pleiades 68 and makes it a practical size for
carry-on aircraft luggage. A handy set of Allen keys
is included within the case.
KIT TO ADD X were stable, and once we

1. William initially focused only miniscule
2SWLFVPP adjustments were necessary
guidescope throughout our relatively short
2. Takahashi sessions, dictated by summer
Just one highlight on an
07ULQJV nights in the UK.
outstanding whistlestop
3. Gerd Reduced darkness imaging run: the beautiful
Neumann notwithstanding, the late Heart and Soul Nebulae
Ŝ$XURUDŝPP summer brought some of the
ƆDWSDQHO most impressive nebulous
regions around the Milky Way,
and the Pleiades 68 is made for sucking these huge
sky areas in and doing justice to them on camera. To
make the best of our clear sky time, we used
narrowband hydrogen-alpha (Ha) and oxygen (OIII)
ƅOWHUVDQGDSSOLHG[FDPHUDELQQLQJIRUVRPH
targets to increase light sensitivity.
2XUƅUVWVHVVLRQZDVRQWKH(OHSKDQWŝV7UXQN
Nebula. The little scope easily framed the whole
VFHQHDQGZKHQZHVDZWKHƅUVWLPDJHUROOLQWKH
Pleiades 68 put a big smile on our face. Star shapes
were very good and well handled in the corners.
Small but mighty

Beautiful image results were achieved every time
we had a clear spell: the North America Nebula and
Pelican Nebula, the entire Veil Nebula in all its glory,
the Heart and Soul Nebulae in Cassiopeia, the
%XWWHUƆ\1HEXODQHDU6DGUDQGDVQHDN\HDUO\
session on the Andromeda Galaxy. We even
PDQDJHGWRJHWVRPHUHVXOWVRQWKH(DJOHDQG6ZDQ
Nebulae, capturing all the swirling hydrogen regions
surrounding them, though like Andromeda this target
was very low in the sky.
It soon became obvious that this little telescope
was allowing us to accomplish much more than we
normally do in the way of night-sky imaging in a very
short time. Its ease of use, fast focal ratio and stable
S A rather lovely
VERDICT
@THESHED/PHOTOSTUDIO, TIM JARDINE X 2
image production came together to help us

Andromeda Galaxy
rediscover our enjoyment of the night sky, after a
from 10 x 180” for
cloudy and dismal start to the year. Build & design +++++ each RGB filter.
The quality of the images was impressive and Ease of use +++++ Both images were
:LOOLDP2SWLFVŝLQFOXVLRQRI)3/JODVVHOHPHQWVLQ Features +++++ taken with an Atik
the design, plus a new lens cell arrangement, have 11000 mono camera
Imaging quality +++++
combined to produce, in our opinion, a highly capable,
high-quality astrograph, desirable to newcomers to
Optics +++++
the hobby and veteran astrophotographers alike. OVERALL +++++

THE BEST V LUE
AT S E A
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Charlotte Daniels rounds up the latest astronomical accessories
GEAR 1 Astro Essentials right-angled

camera viewfinder
Price £45 • Supplier First Light Optics
www.ƅUVWOLJKWRSWLFVFRP
DSLRs without an articulated LED screen can force
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Price £90 • Supplier 2OLYLD%XUWRQ
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Price £219 • Supplier 7ULQJ$VWURQRP\&HQWUH
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New astronomy and space titles reviewed
BOOKS
or M1, is the Crab Nebula), as well as more
distant galaxies such as the Andromeda
Interview with
Galaxy (M31 on the list). the author
110 Things to See With a Telescope: The
John A Read
World’s Most Famous Stargazing List is
the latest guide from John A Read, who What’s your favourite
has published many books that list Messier object?
suitable targets for budding stargazers. The Messier
As with his previous works, this one object that
concentrates on practical astronomy I always come
advice. Each Messier object has its own back to is M42,
page with a large-scale star chart the Orion Nebula
[pictured, below left]. This is by far
depicting the relevant constellations, as the brightest and most interesting
well as a smaller simulated eyepiece view nebula in the Messier list and looks
approximately the size of the full Moon. absolutely fantastic, assuming your
110 Things to See Because these objects mostly appear
extended and not as point sources,
skies are dark enough, in any-sized
telescope.
With a Telescope detecting them relies heavily on good
seeing and dark skies, and there is advice What advice would you give to
John A Read with Chris Vaughan beginners to stargazing?
on how to get the most from your
Sourcebooks
telescope, whether it’s an altazimuth or Keep it simple. Some of the most fun
£14.99 z HB stargazing experiences occur under
equatorial mount.
It might feel daunting when you get Messier objects have long been an dark, moonless skies with no
telescope at all. These include
\RXUƅUVWWHOHVFRSHDQGZRQGHUZKLFKRI attractive list of targets for amateur
observing the Milky Way, viewing
all the thousands of possible objects in astronomers, because they are detectable meteor showers or even the Northern
the night sky you should attempt to using a relatively small telescope (Messier Lights. If you do have a telescope,
observe. This is where Messier’s himself used a 4-inch) and all are practise looking at the Moon until
Catalogue, a list of 110 observable from northern skies. you’re familiar with tracking across
astronomical objects The diversity in the list also the sky and noticing how it changes
in magnification as you switch
compiled by the makes for an interesting
eyepieces. For most objects, less
18th-century French observing experience magnification is better.
astronomer Charles that will help new
Messier, can come astronomers to get
What should we be observing in 2025?
in handy. Curiously, acquainted with
We’re at solar maximum right now
this famous list detecting objects
(the peak in the Sun’s 11-year solar
was originally that have many cycle), so try your best to see the
compiled complex and Northern Lights. These were so bright
to rule out certain different shapes. on 11 October 2024 that they could be
astronomical 110 Things to See seen from the city. The best way to
objects – they were With a Telescope also know if the Northern Lights will be
visible on a given night is to follow
targets that Messier gives useful advice on
your local astronomy club or check
RULJLQDOO\FODVVLƅHGDV how to plan a ‘Messier for aurora alerts on social media.
‘not comets’, because marathon’, when a There will be a total lunar eclipse
Anyone for a Messier marathon?
the astronomer simply stargazer sets out to on the night of 14 March 2025, and
John A Read’s book will help you
wanted to record the prep for a long, rewarding night observe the entire two weeks later a partial solar
fuzzy objects that got in Messier list in a single eclipse on 29 March. You’ll need to
THOMAS ROELL/ISTOCK/GETTY
the way of his search for comets. night, an ambitious goal that many check an eclipse map online to see
if these events will be visible from
These ‘not comets’ are in fact a mixture astronomical societies around the world
your location.
of fascinating nearby objects in our own reward their members for. ★★★★★
Milky Way, such as open stellar clusters, John A Read is an astronomy
globular clusters and supernova remnants Pippa Goldschmidt is an astronomy communicator, YouTuber and
WKHYHU\ƅUVWREMHFWRQWKHOLVW0HVVLHU writer and author author of several books

Visual Timelines: Space Into the
Anne Rooney
Arcturus
Unknown
£14.99 z HB Kelsey Johnson
Basic Books
If you want to know the unknown future. The timeline format £28 z HB
everything (in a tiny can seem a bit limiting, but it’s
nutshell) about the punctuated with appealing spreads on Although it
story of humanity topics such as ‘Particles and Rays’ or the discusses many
and space – from mind-bending ‘Fate of the Universe’. astronomical
the notches tracking The choice of facts presented provides phenomena in
the lunar cycle on a balance of knowledge and fun. I was depth, Into the
the 44,000-year-old fascinated to read that as well as Unknown: The
leg bone of a baboon, through to future debunking the idea of the heavens being Quest to
missions to Jupiter and Mars – then this is unchanging in the pre-telescope age, Understand the
the book for you. Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe also had Mysteries of the
Visual Timelines: Space does what the a pet moose and wore a metal nose after Cosmos is a
title says, with colourful intertwining losing his own in a sword fight. book about
arrows sweeping the reader along. We This is comprehensive yet easy to read. physics, not astronomy. In fact, it’s a book
start with evidence that the ancients were While aimed at young readers, replete about epistemology and the philosophy,
as fascinated by the skies as we are, with with playful illustrations and helpful logic and boundaries of modern science.
cave paintings in France showing the graphics, there may be nuggets in here Starting from a discussion of the nature
Pleiades, before stopping off at seminal that space-erudite adults will not know, and limits of knowledge, the restrictions
points in history: the age of the telescope making this book a useful addition to any of human perception and the question of
in the 17th century, our rapidly changing family reference bookshelf. ★★★★★ what is ‘real’, the author Kelsey Johnson
understanding of the Universe during the – professor of astronomy at the University
18th and 19th centuries, the boomtime of Shaoni Bhattacharya is a science of Virginia and former president of the
the mid 20th century, the Space Age, and writer and editor American Astronomical Society – applies
these principles to five main themes: Big
Bang cosmology, life in the Universe, dark
The Story of the Solar System matter and dark energy, black holes, and
the nature of time and physical
Maggie Aderin-Pocock notable features,
STUNNING dimensions. After a lengthy tour of what
BBC Books and highlighting the VISUALS we do and do not know of these topics,
£22 z HB observations and we conclude with a largely anthropic
missions that have review of the nature of physical laws and
Humankind has provided this information. our place in the Universe.
an inherent drive We also deal with topics such as ‘Animals It’s heavy going, but helpful analogies
to explore its in Space’, ‘What is a Planet’ and ‘Time and (both old and new) abound. Although
surroundings. This Space’. While such summaries are not some of the concepts, particularly the
extends from our new, in this book Aderin–Pocock has more esoteric ideas from quantum theory,
immediate vicinity worked with illustrator Emma Price to particle physics and cosmology, can be
here on Earth to make the information more accessible hard to grasp, we come away mostly
our place in space. than in previous works, by presenting it unscathed by the challenging science.
For the latter, exclusively in the form of eye-catching The style is engaging and entertaining,
ever-improving telescope capabilities and engaging infographics. employing just the right level of personal
have enabled us to peer out into the The style of these graphics and the involvement with the reader. But, as the
darkness and discover many of the accompanying text would not look out author often points out, we have to “stick
objects that orbit the Sun with us, while of place as a chapter in The Hitchhiker’s with it” to get through.
the Space Age has allowed us to visit Guide to the Galaxy. To say I was instantly If you’re expecting answers to questions
them, providing us with up-close images hooked is an understatement. This is a such as ‘What caused the Big Bang?’, ‘Do
and measurements, and a better great book that has been skilfully extraterrestrials exist?’ or ‘What happens
understanding of the processes that have constructed to captivate and effortlessly at the centre of a black hole?’, you’ll be
created and shaped our Solar System. instill knowledge in its audience. A must sorely disappointed. If, however, you’d like
In The Story of the Solar System, for any budding planetary scientist. to understand why we don’t (or can’t) know
Maggie Aderin-Pocock presents a ★★★★★ the answers to these questions, you will
fantastic summary of our amassed feast on this insightful book. ★★★★★
knowledge of the Solar System to date. Penny Wozniakiewicz is a senior
Each planet has a section devoted to it, lecturer in space science at the Alastair Gunn is a radio astronomer
describing its key characteristics and University of Kent based at Jodrell Bank Observatory

Anita Chandran talks to Professor Robin Wordsworth
Q&A WITH A HABITABILITY EXPERT

Up to now, the search for extraterrestrial life has focused on finding a planet
like our own. But could alien biology create its own habitable havens?
What do we currently What did your study involve?
understand about life on This was a theoretical study.
worlds beyond Earth? We did calculations to
We only have one example understand the requirements
of an inhabited planet in the for carbon-based life to exist in
Universe right now – Earth – so a self-sustaining fashion
all we know about life beyond Earth – the need for
elsewhere is an extrapolation. liquid water sets constraints on
One school of thought says we temperature and pressure, and
should focus on Earth-like the availability of nutrients and
planets which can support energy is also important. We
liquid water and have plate then analysed what kind of
tectonics that allow volatile biomaterials could maintain
compounds to cycle between temperature and pressures in
the interior and atmosphere. a habitable range. Finally, we
We took another approach, exploring whether S Alien worlds may
looked at how rapidly water and other volatiles would
biology has the capability to generate conditions be self-sustaining be lost to space – an important consideration for
for its own habitability, on planets or elsewhere. habitats with very systems without internal gravity.
different basic
How can life generate conditions for its own requirements for life What kind of biomaterials did you examine?
than we’ve assumed
habitability? We looked at the properties of a range of human-
On Earth, life and the planet have been constantly made bioplastics, as well as biominerals such as
LQWHUDFWLQJ7KLVKDSSHQHGZKHQR[\JHQƅUVW calcite (formed from the shells of many sea creatures),
emerged and changed the composition of the and showed that they could create habitat walls in a
atmosphere, or land plants appeared on Earth’s vacuum environment. The kind of life we’re imagining
surface and covered it, or most recently when humans FRXOGEHIUHHƆRDWLQJKDELWDWVRURUJDQLVPVWKDW
emerged and caused profound changes to the grow on the surfaces of asteroids or icy moons. We
environment. There’s no reason to believe this kind of demonstrated that such things are possible.
interaction isn’t true of life everywhere it appears.
How could this impact future endeavours in space?
Why do we see liquid water as essential for life? One of the key advantages of biology is that it can
There’s an argument that the nature of fundamental recycle waste materials, allowing sustainability in a
interactions between water molecules, and the way way industrial methods currently can’t. Once humans
water behaves and interacts with other solvents, need to spend large amounts of time in space,
means the organic chemistry that all known life relies sustainability is going to be crucial. Biologically
on can be much more complex in water than in other generated habitats could be one way to achieve that.
substances. We assumed liquid water is required, but The lessons we learn about sustainability in space
other forms of life are probably possible. also have the potential to improve how we co-exist
with the biosphere here on Earth.
How does your work challenge our understanding
of extraterrestrial habitability? Will this work affect the way we look for
The current understanding is that life needs a gravity extraterrestrial life?
well to exist. In other words, you need to have a planet Robin Wordsworth We probably should be more broad-minded about
of a certain size for liquid water to be stable. We is professor of Earth potential biosignatures. If we widen our
PPL58/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
and planetary
showed that biologically produced materials are quite understanding of the way life can exist in different
sciences at Harvard
capable of overcoming these constraints outside of environments, then we have more avenues to look for
University. His
planetary gravity wells. If life can stabilise water and research focuses potential biospheres and different signatures of life.
temperature and obtain access to a source of energy, on planetary We could look for spectroscopic signals caused by
then there’s no reason it couldn’t persist on its own, habitability photosynthesis outside the conventional habitable
without the need for a gravity well. zone, or outside planetary gravity wells altogether.

THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
With Glenn Dawes
Enjoy a brighter, redder Mars this month and take
in the sparkling sights along Eridanus, the River
NO
T R
H
When to use this chart
EA
T S
1 Jan 00:00 AEDT (31 Dec, 13:00 UT) The chart accurately matches the sky on the
dates and times shown for Sydney, Australia. Sic
15 Jan 23:00 AEDT (12:00 UT) The sky is different at other times as the stars
kle
LEO
31 Jan 22:00 AEDT (11:00 UT) crossing it set four minutes earlier each night.
a
JANUARY HIGHLIGHTS STARS AND CONSTELLATIONS
Mars is at opposition on 16 January. High in the northern evening sky
_
While not as close to Earth as some is the heavens’ brightest star, Sirius.
`
oppositions, it still appears around double Being close to the celestial equator, this
(14 arcseconds) its typical size. Even small ‘Dog Star’ (Alpha (α) Canis Majoris) can be
scopes under high power and good seeing seen from most places on Earth. However,
will show some shadowy features, the Southern Hemisphere dwellers have the
locations of plains, valleys, mountains and second-brightest, Canopus, to themselves.
a polar cap. To the unaided eye, it’s redder Located 36° south of Sirius, this luminary,
VIRGO
and brighter than normal, rivalling the along with the nearby False Cross asterism,
`
brightest star, Sirius. Watch Mars approach are great signposts to the amazing Milky
then pass stars Castor and Pollux in the Way regions of Carina, Vela and Puppis,
19
northern evening sky this month. now returning to the evening sky.
th
E A ST
_
THE PLANETS
CRATER
The abundance of planets in the Jupiter both transiting, an ideal time to
a
evening continues, including luminous observe these outer planets. Mars is rising
`
Venus still dominating the western sky, around sunset and visible all night.
a
setting around 22:00. Saturn and Neptune Innermost world Mercury can be seen low
b
follow closely, both departing within an in the eastern dawn before being lost to
KRXUDIWHU(DUO\HYHQLQJƅQGV8UDQXVDQG the solar glare in the last week of January.
CO
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RV
U
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S
DEEP–SKY OBJECTS
This month, we take a cruise Panning 1.6° east, you’ll discover galaxy
down Eridanus, the River. One of NGC 1332. This mag. +10.5 lenticular has a
a
the two-dozen fourth-magnitude stars bright stellar nucleus, within a prominent,

making up this meandering stream is slightly oval core that fades quickly into a
Tau4 (o4) Eridani (RA 3h 19.5m, dec. –21° featureless halo (2.5 x 1 arcminutes).
CE
M8
46’), a brilliant multiple star. Its mag. +4.0 Returning to Tau4, make a hop of 2.3° north
NT
3
orange primary star has two main to the galaxy NGC 1300. This 10th-
AU
companions of mag. + 9.5 and +10.8, magnitude face-on barred spiral shows an
RU
S
5.9 and 39 arcseconds away, respectively. oval core extending into a narrow fainter
The brighter pair will need some power bar (4 arcminutes long) surrounded by a
(150x) to resolve. mottled halo (5 x 3 arcminutes).
SO
UT
HE
Chart key
A
ST
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STAR
GALAXY DIFFUSE ASTEROID BRIGHTNESS: `
NEBULOSITY TRACK MAG. 0
CHART: PETE LAWRENCE
OPEN CLUSTER & BRIGHTER

DOUBLE STAR METEOR MAG. +1
GLOBULAR RADIANT
MAG. +2
CLUSTER VARIABLE STAR QUASAR MAG. +3
PLANETARY
MAG. +4
NEBULA COMET TRACK PLANET & FAINTER
January 2025 BBC Sky at Night Magazine

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SOUTH BBC Sky at Night Magazine January 2025

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THE SPACECRAFT DESIGNED TO FIND ALIEN LIFE

#236 JANUARY 2025

THE UK’S BEST-SELLING ASTRONOMY MAGAZINE

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She kept her promise, and a gift to the Stroke

Stroke still shatters lives and tears families apart.

Finding strength through support

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the mystery of why there appear feast,” says Julia Scharwächter

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Environmental concerns over Starlink

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There’s now a 3D map

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