Adrian Dening's Stars Over Somerset

Wednesday, 5 July 2023 17:00

Monday 10th to Sunday 16th July 2023

If you look towards the east early in the morning on Wednesday 12th, say around 1.30am, a 29%-lit Crescent Moon will have just risen above the horizon, with planet Jupiter immediately to the right of it shining at a magnitude of -2.1

Taking in a wider view, Saturn will be located towards the south east and the bright star Capella will be towards the north east.

Capella is actually the sixth brightest star in the night sky and the alpha star in the constellation of Auriga. Although it appears to be a single star to the naked eye, Capella is a quadruple star system comprising two bright yellow giant stars that are about two and a half times the size of our Sun and two much fainter red dwarf stars. The stars are relatively close to us - around 43 light years away.

If you want to see the whole of Auriga, you will have to wait until around 3am when all its stars will have all risen above the horizon. Immediately to the right of Auriga and very close to the horizon will be the constellation of Taurus, with the easily-identifiable Pleiades open cluster of stars just above Taurus.

There are a number of really good opportunities to spot the International Space Station next week. Monday 10th at 1.21am, Tuesday 11th at 2.10am, Wednesday 12th at 1.22am, Thursday 13th at 12.34am and again on the Thursday at 2.11am.

In all these cases, the ISS will appear towards the west and spend around 7 minutes passing almost directly overhead before disappearing to the east.

Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
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