Night Sky Astronomy

Archive for April, 2015

My final night trying to spot the Lyrids Meteor shower was a couple of nights ago, when it was at its peak. This time I did manage to see some meteors! Yay! But only three, which was a shame. I was outside for almost an hour as well, so I was expecting to see a few more to be honest with you.

The three I did see were pretty good though. The first one was really bright and quite big seeming, and it shot along the sky just under the shining Jupiter. It left a nice trail behind it, which lasted a couple of seconds, and the way it went just below Jupiter made it an awesome sight. The other two meteors were literally one after each other, with only about 1 second between them, if that. They were in a different area of the sky and were quite dull compared to the first one. But, as they whizzed past almost at the same time and in the same place, that made it really interesting for me. I had never seen two meteors in such close proximity like that before.

Other than the meteors, I managed to see ten satellites go over and 6 planes fly over Plymouth. I never knew there were so many planes flying over Plymouth each night! The satellites were mostly the usual bright spot, tracking along the sky, but this time I saw two of them basically following each other. It looked as though they were in the same orbit and travelling at the same speeds, which I hadn’t seen before. I found it quite interesting following them passing over our house.

So all in all, it wasn’t a good few days of meteor spotting. In fact, I usually see more meteors than I did, when there isn’t a meteor shower due!  Hopefully, the skies will remain clear for the next meteor shower which will be the Eta Aquarids in early May, but this year isn’t going to be a good year to see them due to the size and brightness of the moon. Oh well!

Unfortunately, I again was unable to see any Lyrid Meteors last night, although I was only outside for about 20 minutes. I did manage to see 3 satellites and 2 planes in that time though, but there wasn’t a single meteor at all! It seems that when I go out purposefully trying to see meteors, I don’t see them, but when I go out just to have a general look at the sky, one or two always seem to shoot across the sky! 😉 Perhaps I will have better luck tonight as it is the height of the meteor shower today.

Last night I went out to try and find some meteors as it was a beautiful night.  It was clear as a bell and the stars were twinkling away above me!

I must have spent a good hour or so outside the back of my house, from about 9:15 until 10:15, but as the days are getting longer now, it didn’t get fully dark until nearer the time I went in. Because of this, I didn’t actually see any meteors, but did see a record for me of 7 satellites and 3 planes. The ISS was due to fly over as well, but I must have missed that unfortunately.

A couple of nights ago, I was outside for only 10 minutes and I managed to see 3 satellites and a really bright meteor shoot overhead, so it shows how random these meteors are.

The Lyrid Meteor shower of 2015 isn’t due to reach its peak until tomorrow night (22nd April), so I am hoping that whilst the weather lasts, I will try again tonight and tomorrow and see what I can see. Hopefully, a few more meteors will shoot over our house in the next couple of days, as it really is an astonishing spectacle!

Just after Valentine’s Day this year, the Moon, Mars and Venus all lined up vertically in the night sky. Unfortunately, in Plymouth, the weather was awful for the few days of the alignment so I was unable to see it, but when it cleared on the 22nd February, I managed to take a couple of photos of the Moon and the planets.  As you can see below, they weren’t quite in line, but I was amazed at how close Mars and Venus were to each other, considering only a week or so previous, Mars was all the way up to the far left of the Moon.

Here is the photo I took. See if you can spot Mars near Venus.

The Moon, Mars and Venus

If you had trouble making out Mars in the above pic, here is an annotated version. You will see how close Mars was to Venus.

The Moon, Mars and Venus – Annotated

Here is another pic I took when it wasn’t quite so dark. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the camera to focus properly so the brightness of the Moon and Venus made them blurry, but at least in this pic, you can clearly make them out, and also Mars as the reddish splodge just above and to the right of Venus.

The Moon, Mars and Venus – Lighter