Adrian Dening's Stars Over Somerset

Wednesday, 2 November 2022 17:00

Monday 7th to Sunday 13th November 2022

I'm going to suggest a little adventure for telescope users, but you will need to be up around 5am on Monday 7th. The reward for such an early start is the chance to observe a collection of distant galaxies and the dwarf planet Ceres which is the largest object in the Asteroid Belt.

First find the constellation of Leo the Lion towards the south east. Then locate the bright star Chertan which is in the vicinity of the lion's bottom! A little below Chertan is a group of three galaxies, known as the "Leo Triplet".

These three spiral galaxies are named M65, M66 and NGC3628. They have magnitudes between +9.0 and +10.0 because they are over 35 million light years away! If you look at them in your telescope, you are seeing these deep sky objects how they were 35 million years ago because their light has taken that long to reach us!

If you imagine these three galaxies as marking three corners of a square, dwarf planet Ceres will be marking the 4th corner, shining at a similar magnitude.

There is a further opportunity to observe two of Jupiter's moons, Europa and Ganymede, transiting across the face of the planet between midnight and 1.30am on the morning of Thursday 10th. At that time, Jupiter will be located towards the south west.

Finally, a couple of dates for your diary. As my last astronomy lectures at Ham Hill sold out so fast, I have managed to agree two further evenings on 27th January and 17th February next year.

Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium