If you have a telescope, challenge yourself to find not only the planet itself but also its details and features. Can you find its largest moons? Its gas bands? Its famous great Red Spot? Saturn For most months of 2023, there is at least one night when you can use the Moon as your anchor to locate Saturn, which will appear nearby. Since the Moon is so easy to spot, it serves as a very useful guide toward Saturn. These circumstances will occur on the nights of: Lyra is dominated by its brightest star Vega, the fifth brightest star in the sky. It is a blue-white star having a magnitude of 0.03, and lies 26 light years away. It weighs three times more than the Sun and is about 50 times brighter. It is thus burning up its nuclear fuel at a greater rate than the Sun and so will shine for a correspondingly shorter time. Vega is much younger than the Sun, perhaps only a few hundred million years old, and is surrounded by a cold,dark disc of dust in which an embryonic solar system is being formed! Spreading out of the northeast corner of the Great Square is wedge-shaped Andromeda, the Chained Princess, the home of the famous Andromeda Galaxy, M31.

This bright morning planet is best observed at the end of the month, where it will be low in the east before sunrise. For a short time after sunset on Tuesday, Nov. 14, just above the southwestern horizon, the very slender crescent of the young moon will shine several finger-widths to the left (or four degrees to the celestial southeast) of Mercury. That will make them close enough to share the view in binoculars (orange circle), but delay your search until the sun has completely set. Observing late August? Then Saturn is one of the best planets tonight. Saturn is at opposition on 27 August when the rings will brighten. The Moon is close on 2, 3 and 30 August. A very large 16-inch diameter information-rich planisphere (plastic) for use anywhere between latitude 30°& 60° North. Also available in a Southern Hemisphere edition.Uranus reaches opposition when it can be seen shining at mag. 5.6 in the night sky tonight amongst the stars of Aries. West of the Summer Triangle sits the Great Square of Pegasus. Once you've found the Circlet, you can use it to help you find the Great Square of Pegasus. Credit: Pete Lawrence On Saturday evening, Nov. 18, the terminator boundary between the moon's lit and dark hemispheres will fall just to the left of a trio of large craters named Theophilus, Cyrillus, and Catharina that curve along the western edge of gray Mare Nectaris.

As you can see, Neptune will be visible for much of 2023, though it will be brightest between July 19 and November 8. This program will even tell you about galaxies, clusters, comets, and asteroids in addition to the Moon and planets.What about the so-called outer planets, Uranus and Neptune? At times, they might be just visible with the naked eye, but they’ll look identical to stars. To appreciate these planets, you need a good pair of binoculars or a telescope. A simple way to find the Andromeda Galaxy M31 is to start in the top-right (northwest) of the Great Square, at Scheat (Beta (β) Pegasi).

These coordinates are the night sky’s equivalent of longitude and latitude, describing where an object is on the celestial ‘globe’. November is the best month to view the Pleiades star cluster which is also known as the Seven Sisters or M45. In Greek mythology the seven sisters were called Maia, Alcyone, Asterope (or Sterope), Celaeno, Taygete, Electra, and Merope. This star cluster is found just above the constellation of Taurus which is home to the star of Atlas, who in Greek mythology was the father of the sisters. Their mother, Pleione, also had a star named after her, and sits just slightly northwest of Atlas. This cluster will be at its highest point at around midnight on 18 November.South of Triangulum is Aries, the Ram, the current home of the very bright planet Jupiter and significantly dimmer Uranus. When should you look for Object X or Planet Z? Many celestial bodies are visible on some nights and not others. Others appear at their best during a particular time frame. Knowing when to look for something is very important. And finally… When a planet is in a favourable position in the evening or morning sky, it will look like a bright 'star', the most obvious point of light visible to the naked eye.

Over a week starting on Sunday evening, Nov. 19, the waxing moon will visit four planets in succession — Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, and Uranus. (Image credit: Chris Vaughan/Starry Night) To the East (left) of the Summer Triangle is the constellation of Pegasus (the Winged Horse). The main feature of Pegasus is the square formed by the four brightest stars. This asterism (shape) is known as the Great Square of Pegasus. The square is larger than might be expected but once found is easier to find again.

Experience Space on Earth

Above the horizon already at sunset and setting a couple of hours later, Venus and Jupiter will be all but unmissable as the bright points of light in the southwest in the early evening sky. Take a look for yourself! Morning planet, not well-placed. Occulted by the Moon from the north of the UK on 17 May. The northern part of the UK will experience a rare daylight lunar occultation of the planet Jupiter on 17 May 2023. Credit: Pete Lawrence Best in the morning sky on 31 December, Mercury is visible one hour before sunrise low above the southeast horizon. Algol normally shines at magnitude 2.1, similar to the nearby star Almach (aka Gamma Andromedae). But while fully dimmed, Algol's brightness of magnitude 3.4 is almost identical to Rho Persei (or Gorgonea Tertia or ρ Per), the star sitting just two finger widths to Algol's lower right (or 2.25 degrees to the celestial south).