Adrian Dening's Stars Over Somerset

Wednesday, 26 May 2021 17:00

Monday 31st May to Sunday 6th June 2021

I'm going to ask you to stay up later next week, until about 1am on Thursday 3rd June, so long as it's a clear night! Looking low on the horizon towards the south, have a go at spotting the constellation of Scorpius.

At the heart of Scorpius is the red supergiant star Antares which is the fifteenth brightest star in the night sky. Antares mass is about twelve times that of our own Sun and is 550 light years away from us.

Looking slightly to the right of Antares, you should see a faint fuzzy blob - this is the globular cluster of stars known as M4 in the Messier catalogue of deep sky objects. M4 has a magnitude of +6.0 so is just visible with the naked eye if you are in a very dark location, but it's much better viewed in a small telescope. The cluster is just over 7,000 light years away.

There's another telescope event on Saturday 5th June, again in the early hours - about 1.30am. Point your telescope towards the east south east to catch Jupiter rising about the horizon. Two of Jupiter's moons, Io and Ganymede, will be casting shadows on the planet's surface. Io's shadow will disappear first, followed by Ganymede's and everything is all over by 3am.

Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2021

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