Monday 24th to Sunday 30th June 2024
If you are up at around 3am on the morning of Thursday 27th, a gibbous Moon will have risen above the horizon towards the south east. Just to the left of the Moon will be Saturn, shining quite brightly at a magnitude of around +0.7
Remember that the Moon appears to travel differently across the night sky compared to the planets, because the Moon is orbiting around us every month while the planets, like our own Earth, are orbiting around the Sun every year.
To prove this, if you repeat the experiment at 3am on Friday 28th, the Moon will be slightly more towards the east and this time, Saturn will be located to the right of the Moon.
How about trying to spot the dwarf planet Ceres in the Asteroid Belt? At 1am on Sunday 30th, the constellation of Sagittarius will be sitting just above the horizon to the south. Sagittarius contains an "asterism" or easily-recognisable shape known as "The Teapot".
Ceres will be located just below the handle of the teapot. The little 900Km diameter planet will only have a magnitude of about +7.3 so it will be time to dig that telescope out as with the naked eye from a dark location, you can only resolve objects to a magnitude of around +6.0
Ceres was the first asteroid ever identified, back in 1801 and it is considered to be a dwarf planet rather than just a lump of rock like other asteroids because of its complex composition that includes water ice and different minerals.
www.starsoversomerset.com
Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2024
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