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• The night sky for October 2007 - October 2007 (MP3)
  Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the night sky from northern latitudes during October 2007. To the south in early evening is the beautiful region of the Milky Way containing both Cygnus and Lyra. Below is Aquila. The three bright stars Deneb (in Cygnus), Vega (in Lyra) and Altair (in Aquila) make up the "Summer Triangle". East of Cygnus is the great square of Pegasus - adjacent to Andromeda in which lies M31, the Andromeda Nebula. To the north lies "w" shaped Cassiopeia with Perseus below. Jupiter may just be seen in the south-west as the Sun sets as the month begins. At the beginning of the month it is just 20 degrees above the horizon an hour after sunset so is seen in the twilight - by month's end this will have dropped to 12 degrees. At the very beginning of October, Mercury might just be visible in evening sky about 20 to 30 minutes after sunset. Mercury passes between the Earth and the Sun on October 23rd at what is called "inferior conjunction" before it becomes visible in the pre-dawn sky. Mars, is in Gemini during October and is now rising around 10 pm. Its disk is just 9.7 arc seconds across and it shines at magnitude -0.1 at the beginning of October. During the month its brightness increases to magnitude -0.6 and it angular size increases to 12 arc seconds. Venus is now shining brightly dominating the eastern pre-dawn sky! It was at its very brightest in late September but still shines at magnitude -4.7 - the brightest object in the sky apart from the Moon! Viewing it with a telescope will reveal a 38% illuminated crescent. As October begins, Saturn, 3.6 degrees down to the lower left of the star Regulus in Leo, is seen in the pre-dawn sky. They gradually move apart and by the end of the month Saturn is around 6 degrees to the lower left of Regulus. Around October 21st is the Orionid Meteor Shower. While the Orionids are not one of the most spectacular showers, with peak rates around 20 per hour, they are interesting as it is believed that the meteors originate from Comet Halley. It is worth looking out for them for a week around the 21st as the shower is long lived. They will best be seen in the hours before dawn when Orion is high in the southern sky. On October 7th before dawn you can see Venus, Saturn and the waning crescent Moon; perhaps the best sky-scape this month. Depending on your location, you may see an occultation of Regulus from ~ 05:19 until ~ 06:00. In the early hours of October 3rd, the Moon, just after third quarter, will lie close to the planet Mars and the cluster M35 - all in the constellation Gemini. October is another good month to observe the planet Uranus with binoculars, a small telescope or even your unaided eye! On October 11th, the night of new moon, Uranus, with a magnitude of 5.8, lies just over 3 degrees up and to the left of the 4th magnitude star Lambda Aquarii. To the left of the tiny constellation Triangulum is the star Algol in Perseus. It is an eclipsing binary and every 2.87 days its brightness drops by more than a magnitude and then rises again. In October you can watch this happen over a period of hours around 22:50 UT on the 21st and 19:38 UT on the 24th.
• The night sky for April 2007 - April 2007 (MP3)
  Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the night sky from northern latitudes during April 2007. The constellation of Orion is now low in the south west after sunset. Above and to the left of Orion is the constellation Gemini and to the left and south of that is Leo the lion. Between Gemini and Leo, on the boundary of Leo and Cancer is the planet Saturn. Looking to the right of Saturn you can see the Beehive cluster with binoculars. Low to the left of Leo is Virgo and its brightest star Spica. Between Leo and Spica we see, with a small telescope, some of the galaxies that form the Virgo supercluster. Saturn is the star of the evening sky in the south and Venus dominates the western sky after sunset. Jupiter is becoming visible by around 11pm (at the end of April) but is at the lowest part of the ecliptic so from the UK will appear quite low. On April 11th Venus will be two degrees from the Pleiades and on the 18th will be near the Hyades cluster. On the 22nd of April is the Lyrid meteor shower. There are two opportunities to see the minima in brightness of the star Algol on 9th and 12th April.
• Ask an astronomer - Creepy Constellations - November 2006 (MP3)
  As they were recording on Halloween, Tim O'Brien and Nick Rattenbury discuss one of the spookiest objects in the sky; the eclipsing binary named Algol (actually a triple star system). Algol is also known as the eye of Medusa and is seen to "wink" every few days.