Saturday SkyWatch
Saturday 21st December 2024
Hello Stargazers, this is your Saturday SkyWatch.
Tonight’s Moon is a Waning Gibbous (66%) that has set as of 11:25am… that means dark skies tonight for some hopefully great viewing!
The weather forecast is scattered cloud, so the viewing forecast is fair, but as always wander outside and take a look up into the sky (or drop us a message) to know for certain whether the viewing is good.
There have also been some fires around the area so there is a bit of smoke in the sky at the moment, but we’re hoping that clears by tonight, so we get a good horizon.
Venus, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter, Mars and Mercury will all make an appearance in the night sky over the next coming fortnight, and keep your eyes peeled in January when you’ll be able to see 6 planets in the sky at the same time! (So long as you have a nice pair of binoculars or a telescope handy).
Tonight, you will be able to see Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter early in the night and if you look up a bit later (around 11:30pm) you can catch Mars.
Sunset tonight is at 8:26pm, nautical sunset at 9:33pm and Astronomical sunset at 10:14pm. A reminder that during summer when the sun sets later, the Observatory will stay open later (around 11pm) so that everyone can get some viewing in, especially since the telescopes can only be aligned once the stars are visible.
Orion is rising in the east along with Sirius so you can get a look at the Dog Star and the Orion Nebula, as well as the Horsehead Nebula and the Flame Nebula both of which are near Alnitak in Orion’s Belt.
If you come out, feel free to remind Matti (Matilda) or Layton to bring out Wall-e so you can take a look at some fantastic images of nebula being stacked live on the TV inside.
The Pleiades Cluster (Seven Sisters) is also in an optimal viewing position at the moment along with the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds. This means that this time of year is great for looking at the Tarantula Nebula and Layton’s favourite cluster 47-Tucanae.
Don’t forget to bring your Aeroguard or Bushmans as the mosquitoes were out in force last weekend and will likely be out in force this weekend too.
If you are on Facebook or Instagram and would like to follow our pages you can find them here:
As always, we look forward to seeing you at the Observatory and don’t forget to look up wherever you are!
– The TRRO team