A starry sky over a winter forest scene. The constellation Orion is rising,

The Sky for December 2024

The celestial events visible in the sky for December 2024.

The Sky for December 2024

Posted on by Scott Young
Posted on: Wednesday November 27, 2024

Winter nights start early and last long, making them perfect for star watching. Except for the temperature… and the clouds… Catch a clear December night, though, and you’ll be treated to the brightest stars and planets in the sky.

Comet Updates

The great fall comet, 2023 A3 (Tsuchinshen-ATLAS) has come and (mostly) gone, providing some beautiful views in October and November. It’s still in the evening sky, but only visible with telescopes as it rockets away from the inner solar system.

Another comet, Comet 2024 G3 (ATLAS), was discovered by the same program that helped find 2023A3 – the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS. This comet, a so-called “sun-grazer” will likely get quite bright, but only be visible in the daytime sky and from the southern hemisphere, so that means most Manitobans won’t be able to see it.

The Solar System

Mercury passes between Earth and Sun (and slightly above the Sun as viewed from Earth), so it remains invisible until the second half of December, when it appears low in the southeastern sky just before sunrise. On the morning of December 28, the thin crescent Moon is nearby, next to the reddish star Antares.

Venus spends the month in the evening sky, low in the southwest after sunset. The thin crescent Moon approaches on the 3rd, is nearby on the 4th, and is still close on the 5th, making a nice photo op. It stands a little higher at sunset each night, and sets about three hours after sunset. In a telescope, Venus displays phases like the Moon, and in December it is about 50% illuminated, a tiny half-moon shape at high power.

Mars rises in the northeast about 9pm in early December, and a bit after 7pm by month’s end. By midnight it is high in the south, providing the clearest telescope views. Mars reaches its best next month, its closest point to Earth on this orbit, but it’s worth looking at now.

The planet Jupiter and two of its moons.
The planet Jupiter’s intricate clouds bands and visible through a telescope. Two of its largest moons are seen at right. [Image: S. Young]
December 2024 belongs to Jupiter, The giant planet reaches opposition on December 7, 2024, rising at sunset, hitting its highest altitude in the south around local midnight, and not setting until sunrise. Jupiter dominates the evening sky, outshining everything else except Venus and the Moon. A small telescope will reveal some of Jupiter’s banded clouds, while its four largest moons are visible in binoculars as tiny “stars” in a line on either side of the planet.

Saturn is low in the south at sunset, and sets before midnight. The rings are nearly edge-on as seen from Earth, but visible in a telescope with more than about 30x magnification. Saturn edges closer to Venus and the setting sun each night, making it lower and harder to get clear telescopic views.

Sky Calendar for December 2024

Dec. 1 : New Moon

Dec. 4: The thin crescent Moon is below Venus, just after sunset, low in the southwestern sky.

Dec. 5: The thin crescent Moon is to the left of Venus in the southwestern sky, just after sunset.

Dec. 7:  Jupiter at opposition, visible all night.

Dec. 7: The crescent Moon is below and to the right of Saturn in the evening sky.

Dec. 8: The First Quarter Moon is to the left of Saturn in the evening sky.

Dec. 13-14: Peak of the Geminid meteor shower. The nearyl-full Moon will reduce the number of meteors seen, but you can still expect 20-40 meteors per hour in late evening and early morning.

Dec. 14: The nearly-full Moon forms a line with Jupiter and the bright star Aldebaran in the eastern sky.

Dec. 15: Full Moon

Dec. 17: The waning gibbous Moon is just above Mars as the pair rises in the East about 7:15 p.m. local time.

Dec. 21: The winter solstice occurs at 4:20 a.m. Central Time, marking the beginning of astronomical winter in the northern hemisphere (and the beginning of summer in the southern hemisphere).

Dec. 22: Last Quarter Moon

Dec. 22-23: The peak of the Ursids meteor shower, which radiate from near the North Star. They only produce a few meteors per hour, though.

Scott Young

Scott Young

Planetarium Astronomer

Scott is the Planetarium Astronomer at the Manitoba Museum, developing astronomy and science programs. He has been an informal science educator for thirty years, working in the planetarium and science centre field both at The Manitoba Museum and also at the Alice G. Wallace Planetarium in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Scott is an active amateur astronomer and a past-President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Manitoba Stories: In the Sky

View More

Bright Comet This October?

Posted on by Scott Young

UPDATED 2024 Oct 10 0915 CDT

Manitobans will have a chance to catch a comet this October (2024). Comet C/2023 A3, a.k.a. Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS, will be visible in our evening sky beginning about October 11. This article will describe how to see the comet yourself and provide a day-by-day description of its period of best visibility.

Based on its behaviour up until October 10, I am tempering my expectations for this comet a bit. It’s still going to be a great sight, but it won’t be as bright as some have been predicting. The comet will likely need binoculars or a camera to spot it while it’s in the bright twilight over the week of Oct 11-16.

However, the comet’s tail is longer than expected, stretching nearly 45 degrees across the sky – that is about the distance from the horizon to halfway overhead. So even though the comet’s head sets soon after the sun, its tail might be visible sticking up above the horizon much later, when the sky has gotten darker. You’ll still want dark skies free of city lights, and binoculars or a camera, to get the best view.

(Note: While written for Manitoba, this article works for anyone in southern Canada, or at roughly the same latitude of 40-50 degrees North anywhere in the world. So, much of Europe and Asia will have similar views.)

(Second note: Comets are notoriously unpredictable. They can undergo outbursts that make them brighten 100x in an hour; they can also fragment or fizzle out without any obvious explanation. This article presents the best predictions available at the time of writing, and will be updated as conditions change.)

(Third note: While another potentially bright comet, Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS), was discovered recently, this comet will likely not be visible from Manitoba.)

Coloured circles show the orbits of the inner planets around the Sun. A white oval path dives through the plane of the solar system, showing the orbit of Comet 2023 A3.

In September and early October 2024, Comet 2023 A3 was visible from more southerly locations, with the best views coming from the southern hemisphere. This is due to the angle of the comet’s orbit to the plane of the solar system – it came in from the north when still faint, dove down to the southern reaches as it rounded the Sun in late September, and will now be rocketing northward again. The comet passes almost between the Earth and Sun on October 9, and after that will begin to appear in the evening sky.

There are two factors which influence the comets visibility in October: how far away from the Sun it is, and how far away from the Earth it is. In general, the comet is intrinsically brightest when it is closest to the Sun and closest to the Earth, but that doesn’t mean we can see it. When the comet it “brightest”, it will also be so close to the Sun from our point of view that it will be invisible. We have to wait until the comet moves farther from the Sun in our sky so we have a chance to seeing it in a semi-dark sky.

A sunset view of the sky showing the position of Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS on October 11, 2024.

Oct 11, 2024: First Glimpse

Baring some unusually outburst from the comet, Manitobans will probably get our first view of Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS right after sunset on the evening of October 11th. You’ll need a very flat western horizon, with as few buildings or trees in the way as possible; a flat prairie or even the ocean-like horizon of Lake Winnipeg will be perfect. You’ll also want to be away from any local light pollution – outside the city, and away from any streetlights or houselights that will interfere with your view.

Sunset is a few minutes before 6:30 p.m. local time, and as soon as the Sun is fully below the horizon, start scanning the sky along the horizon with your binoculars. Once they sky darkens a bit, you’ll spot Venus, a useful signpost to the comet for the rest of the week. The comet may become visible as a small fuzzy round spot in the bright twilight sky around 7:15 p.m., but the comet is setting so that as the sky darkens, the comet sinks into the murky air near the horizon. Just spotting it tonight will be an accomplishment and a harbinger of things to come.

Don’t give up once the comet official “sets” about 8 p.m. local time – that time is for the comet’s “head”. The tail is extending roughly straight up from the horizon and may become visible as the sky darkens. The geometry of the comet relative to the Earth and Sun changes daily this week, so it’s hard to say how long the tail will be or whether it is bright enough to see on its own – stayed tuned!

A sunset view of the sky showing the position of Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS on October 12, 2024.

Oct. 12, 2024: Easier to Spot

In just a day, the comet has moved higher in our sky. From this point, things just get better in terms of the comet’s elevation, giving us more time to spot the comet before it sets. You’ll be able to see it longer after sunset, which means it will be visible in a darker sky. Darker skies will be required for spotting the comet’s tail visually, but a camera might pull some of the faint tail out of the twilight (see “imaging the Comet” below).

On October 12th, the comet will be higher in the sky than Venus, but you’ll still want a clear western horizon.

A sunset view of the sky showing the position of Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS on October 13, 2024.

Oct. 13, 2024: Getting Better

The comet is more than a binocular field above the horizon tonight, so you’ll have to sweep around a bit to spot it. The comet should still be bright, and you might even see it without binoculars. The image shows the view at 7:30 p.m. local time, but you can afford to wait even later to see if the view improves as the sky darkens. The comet’s tail actually stretches well off the top of the map, and so even after the “head” of the comet has set, the tail may become visible as the sky darkens. Don’t go home too early!

A sunset view of the sky showing the position of Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS on October 14, 2024.

Oct. 14, 2024: Elevation versus Distance

From tonight on, we see how the competing factors of the comet’s elevation above our horizon versus its increasing distance will play out. The comet is actually fading as it moves farther away from us and as the tail appears foreshortened (it’s pointing generally towards the earth, which should make it appear shorter but brighter). Improving the situation is the comet’s greater altitude above the horizon, and the chance to see it in a darker sky after sunset.

It’s still worth getting out early to see how early you can spot the comet, but the best views might come slightly later each night, perhaps as late as 8:00 p.m. local instead of 7:30 p.m. There will be a period of best visibility each night that will probably last for 15 minutes or so as the various factors of sky brightness, altitude, and sky conditions align, but forecasting exactly when that will occur is impossible. The more time you are out observing the comet, the more likely you will get a memorable view.

A sunset view of the sky showing the position of Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS on October 15, 2024.

Oct. 15, 2024: Fading Away

Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS will be visible above the western horizon at sunset until at least December, but at some point it will fade enough that you will need a telescope to see it. It will probably remain visible in binoculars until late October, but the changing angles will mean the tail fades quickly after this date. The comet will be more of a round puffball than the typical “comet with a tail” shape, but may still be fascinating to view. Remember, that puffball has likely never been this close to Earth before and may not return to our vicinity for tens of thousands of years, if ever, so this literally is a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Imaging the Comet

As always, imaging will show more of the comet’s tail than is visible to the eyes, so you might see impressive images flooding your social media feed for days or weeks to come. Just remember, electronic cameras, even those in a typical cellphone, can show much fainter objects than our eyes can see. But there is something magical about viewing the actual light from an object, individual particles of light than have travelled millions of kilometers to end up inside your eyeball and stimulating your brain to see them.

If you manage to record images of Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS, we’d love to see them! Email them to space@manitobamuseum.ca. We’ll show the best ones on Dome@Home, our award-winning online astronomy show, which runs the last Thursday of every month on the Manitoba Museum’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Scott Young

Scott Young

Planetarium Astronomer

Scott is the Planetarium Astronomer at the Manitoba Museum, developing astronomy and science programs. He has been an informal science educator for thirty years, working in the planetarium and science centre field both at The Manitoba Museum and also at the Alice G. Wallace Planetarium in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Scott is an active amateur astronomer and a past-President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Manitoba Stories: In the Sky

View More

The Sky for October 2024

Posted on by Scott Young

October is a great month for stargazing. Aside from the cooler temperatures and earlier sunsets, we have at least one reasonably-bright comet expected, and quite possibly two. The planets rise early enough to see before midnight, and the most distant object visible to the unaided eye comes into view.

Comet #1: 2023 A3 (Tsuchinshen-ATLAS)

This is the comet you’ve been hearing about on social media lately. It’s been limited to southern viewers so far, but now that it has rounded the Sun it will be moving into the northern skies quickly.

There is a full article on this comet, with day-by-day details, in preparation, but the short version is most Canadians won’t be able to spot it until after October 10 or so. It is not quite as bright as forecast, and so it won’t become visible in broad daylight or even in the very bright twilight sky. It will become visible in the evening sky after sun is it rockets between Sun and Erath, rapidly moving higher in the evening as it moves farther away.

Click here for more tips on spotting this comet.

Comet #2: A11bP7I (Soon-to-be Comet ATLAS)

This comet was discovered on September 27, and is so new that it doesn’t have a formal name yet – “A11bP7I” is a temporary designation. This comet is a rare kind of comet called a sun-grazer, which gets very close to the Sun and therefore can get very bright. Initial forecasts sound like this one could be even brighter than Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS, but we’ll have to wait and see. It will be at its best (whatever taht menas) around the end of october. More informations as it becomes available.

The Solar System

Mercury remains too low to see in the evening sky this month.

Venus is very low in the southwest in the evening sky this month, and remains very low throughout October. It is quite far from the sun, but the angle of the solar system is very close to the angle of Manitoba’s horizon in the fall, keeping the planet low. it is very bright, though, likely the first star you see in the evening if your southwestern horizon is clear.

Mars rises in the northeast before midnight, in the middle of the constellation Gemini the Twins. Mars is slowly approaching our planet and will be at its best this orbit in January 2025.

A simulated view of Saturn and its rings.

Jupiter Rises in the northeast about 10pm at the beginning of October, betweemn the horns of taurus the Bull. The largest planet stands high in the south at dawn, offering clear telescopic views. Its four largest moons are visible in binoculars as tiny “stars” in a line on either side of the planet; their positions change nightly as they orbit the giant planet.

Saturn is low in the southwest at sunset, and is visible all night. It rises only about 30 degrees up in the south at its best, though, so telescope views are still blurred by the Earth’s atmosphere. The rings are nearly edge-on, but visible in a telescope with more than about 30x magnification./

Sky Calendar for October 2024

Click on highlighted dates for a star chart showing the view!

Oct. 2 : New Moon

Oct. 5 (evening): The thin crescent Moon will be below Venus in the evening sky after sunset (likely invisible except with binoculars and very clear skies).

Oct. 6 (evening): The thin crescent Moon will be to the left of Venus in the evening sky after sunset.

Oct. 7 (evening): The thin crescent Moon will be just to the to the left of the bright star Antares in the evening sky after sunset. Venus stands farther to the right. The sky on October 7, 2024.

Oct. 9 (evening): Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS passes between Earth and Sun, passing just above the Sun from our point of view. The comet will likely be at its brightest today, but not visible because of its closeness to the Sun.

Oct. 10 (evening): First Quarter Moon. Also the beginning of likely period of visibility for Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS. See day-by-day coverage posts .

Oct. 13 (evening): Saturn will be the brightest “star”, far to the left of the waxing gibbous Moon tonight.

Oct. 14 (evening): Saturn will be the brightest “star” to the right of the waxing gibbous Moon tonight.

Also tonight, Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS passes another, much fainter, comet: Comet 13P/Olbers. Olbers is a periodic comet that has been visible in mid-sized telescopes for a while, and the two aren’t physically close4 to each other, but just in our line of sight from Earth.

Oct. 15 (evening): Comet Tsuchinshen-ATLAS passes near the globular cluster M5, a “faint fuzzy” visible in binoculars. Images of the comet on this night will probably also catch the globular cluster, which is a group of several hundred thousand stars which are among the oldest stars visible.

Oct. 17: Full Moon, the Harvest Moon.

Oct. 19 (all night): The waning gibbous Moon sits between the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters tonight, with bright Jupiter nearby to the lower left.The sky on October 19, 2024.

Oct. 20 (all night): The waning gibbous Moon is above Jupiter tonight as the two rise in the northeast about 9 p.m. local time.

Oct. 23 (morning): The nearly last quarter Moon is near a trio of bright stars. From top to bottom they are Castor and Pollux, in the constellation Gemini, and the red planet Mars.

Oct. 24 (morning): A similar view to yesterday morning’s sky, but with the Moon having moved through the trio to sit on the lower left of the scene.

Oct. 24 : Last Quarter Moon.

Oct. 28: The new comet A11bP7I makes its closest approach to the Sun. More updates as they become available.

Oct. 31 (evening): Hallowe’en, a great night to have your telescopes or binoculars out to show trick-or-treaters the sky.

Scott Young

Scott Young

Planetarium Astronomer

Scott is the Planetarium Astronomer at the Manitoba Museum, developing astronomy and science programs. He has been an informal science educator for thirty years, working in the planetarium and science centre field both at The Manitoba Museum and also at the Alice G. Wallace Planetarium in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Scott is an active amateur astronomer and a past-President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Manitoba Stories: In the Sky

View More

The Sky for August 2024

Posted on by Scott Young

August brings the return of some planets to the evening sky, the most famous meteor shower of the year, and longer nights than we’ve seen for a couple of months. The Milky Way is on full display, offering an unforgettable view from a dark, moonless sky. Unfortunately all of these benefits will likely be offset by smoke in the air from forest fires across Canada, which has become a fixture of summertime observing for the last several years.

The Perseid Meteor Shower

The annual Perseid meteor shower is the most famous meteor shower of the year, although it is not the best one of the year. Its occurrence in August during summer vacation likely makes it more accessible than the much better Geminids, which occur in mid-December. For a complete rundown on the Perseid meteor shower, check out this blog post.

2024 is a good year for the Perseids, since the peak time occurs with the Moon out of the sky. The thing about meteor showers is, they peak in the few hours before dawn for any given location. So to see the Perseids at their best, you want to observe from about 1:30 a.m. to dawn. There will be almost no meteors before midnight – you might see one or two, and the ones you do see will likely be bright ones, but it won’t be much of a “shower” unless you stay up all night.

To observe the Perseids, get away from city lights. Light pollution will wash out the fainter meteors, and there are a lot more faint meteors than bright ones. Bring a reclining lawn chair and blanket to ward off the early-morning chill, and set up facing the darkest part of the sky (or straight up, if you’re in a nice dark spot). Turn off your electronic devices and your car’s lights – any stray light will make it hard to see the meteors for you and anyone near you. The meteors only last a second or two, so you need to watch the sky continuously – literally, don’t blink or you’ll miss it.

You can also try and take pictures of meteors – set up your camera on a tripod and take a bunch of time exposures of the sky. If you’re lucky, a meteor will happen while you’re taking a picture.

We’d love to show your Perseid pics on Dome@Home, our online astronomy show. Send them to space@manitobamuseum.ca and then tune in to our August 28th show at 7 p.m. Central on the Museum’s Facebook and YouTube channels.

The Solar System

Finally, some planets are visible in the evening sky! Barely…

Mercury is still on the evening side of the sky, but in August it sets just after the Sun and so isn’t visible for Canadian viewers. Folks farther south still have have a chance to catch it early in the month, low in the west just after sunset.

Venus has appeared in the evening sky, although like Mercury it is still low in the sky; only its great brightness allows it to be spotted very low soon after sunset. The thin crescent moon is nearby on August 5th.

Mars rises about 2 a.m. local time in the northeast, inconspicuous compared to nearby Jupiter and both the Pleaides and Hyades star clusters. Mars and Jupiter pass less than half a degree apart on the morning of August 14th; see the Sky Calendar entry below for details.

A simulated view of Saturn and its rings.

Jupiter is the brightest “star” in the eastern sky after midnight, outshining all the visible stars as it cruises through the stars of Taurus. The waning crescent Moon is nearby on the morning of August 27.

Saturn rises about 11 p.m. local time early in the month, and moves into the south by dawn. The ringed planet reaches opposition on September 8, so it’s coming into its best viewing position for the year. The rings are only tilted about 4 degrees to our line of sight, making them appear very thin from our point of view. The nearly-full Moon is to Saturn’s left on the evening of the 21st.

Sky Calendar for August 2024

Click on highlighted dates for a star chart showing the view!

Aug 4: New Moon

Aug 11 – Aug 12 (morning sky): Best viewing for the annual Perseids meteor shower; see featured article above. Decent rates should occur the morning before and after as well.

Aug 12 (evening sky): First Quarter Moon

Aug 14 (morning sky): Jupiter and Mars are close together in the morning sky, separated by less than the size of the Full Moon. They’re still pretty close the morning before and after this date.

Aug 19: Full Moon

Aug 20-21 (after midnight into morning sky): The waxing gibbous Moon is to the left of and slightly above Saturn. The two are only about 3 degrees (6 Full Moon diameters) apart, fitting easily into the same binocular field-of-view.

Aug 26: Last Quarter Moon

Aug 27 (morning sky): The waning crescent Moon is above Jupiter, rising together in the morning sky about 1 a.m. local time in the morning sky. Mars is below and to the left, forming a not-quite-right triangle. The red supergiant star Aldebaran is to Jupiter’s right along with the Hyades star cluster, with the Pleaides above them all. The morning rising of these star clusters remind us that winter is coming.

Aug 28 (morning sky): The Moon, Mars, and Jupiter form a very squashed triangle pointing downwards in the eastern sky before dawn.

Aug: 29 (morning sky): By this morning the Moon has moved farther on, still forming a rough line with Mars and Jupiter in the early morning sky.

Scott Young

Scott Young

Planetarium Astronomer

Scott is the Planetarium Astronomer at the Manitoba Museum, developing astronomy and science programs. He has been an informal science educator for thirty years, working in the planetarium and science centre field both at The Manitoba Museum and also at the Alice G. Wallace Planetarium in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Scott is an active amateur astronomer and a past-President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Manitoba Stories: In the Sky

View More

Meteor Showers in Summer (2024 Edition)

Posted on by Scott Young

Meteors

A meteor (a.k.a. falling star, shooting star) looks like a bright streak across the starry sky that lasts for a second or two before fading away. Most people believe they are rare enough that you should make a wish when you see one, but they are surprisingly common if you watch the sky a lot. On any given night with no Moon, if you get away from city lights and watch the sky continuously, you’ll see up to a half-dozen meteors per hour. Any light sources – the Moon, city lights, you phone – will reduce that number to near zero.

Each meteor you see is actually a tiny piece of dust about the size of a grain of sand which is burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere. Space isn’t empty, you see – it’s dusty, with all the dust leftover from the big construction job that was the formation of the solar system. As the Earth orbit the Sun, it plows through the dust at over 100,000 kilometers per hour. It’s a one-sided collision, and the poor speck of dust disintegrates in a flash of light that we can see from the ground as a meteor.

A diagram of the solar system showing the Perseid meteor stream.

Meteor Showers

So far, so good – you can see these little specks of dust as they vaporize, and they pretty much occur randomly all the time, we just don’t usually notice. But, it turns out that space isn’t evenly dusty. There are spots, just like in your house, that have more dust than others. In my house, these dust bunnies congregate under the furniture and anyplace the air vents push them; in the solar system these dust bunnies remain where they were shed, in the orbital paths of comets. The solar system is crisscrossed by trails of dust left behind by various comets (and a few asteroids). If the Earth’s orbit intersects one of those trails, we will fly through an interplanetary dust bunny every year around the same time. That’s a meteor shower.

The name “meteor shower” makes you think you can see a lot more meteors than on other nights. But here’s the thing: “a lot” can mean different things. Forty times the normal rate sounds like a lot, until you remember it’s forty times about one meteor per hour. There are over a hundred meteor showers catalogued, but there are only a couple of meteor showers a year that produce more than forty meteors an hour. Even during an official meteor “shower”, you can probably only expect to see a half-dozen meteors per hour, and that’s under perfect skies with your eyes watching the sky 100% of the time.

The Perseids for 2024

So, most meteor showers don’t produce many meteors; that’s the bad news. The good news is, the Perseids in August is one of them, which makes them probably the most famous meteor shower of all. And, in 2024 the Moon will be out of the sky during the crucial morning hours. If you can get away from city lights under a clear, dark sky, you might see up to 60 meteors an hour – one a minute – in the early morning hours of August 12.

That’s pretty specific timing, but luckily the Perseids “dust bunny” is more than one day wide. The Earth actually enters the outer edge of it in late July, and each morning the rates will increase until the peak on the 11th-12th. So, we have several chances to see a decent Perseids display this year.

The key point to remember is that all meteor showers are best between about 1:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. local time. Pre-midnight observing might be 1/10 or less of the morning rates. Really, you have to stay up all night to see this.

To get the best view, get as far away from city lights as practical, and set up a reclining lawn chair or blanket so you can lean back and see as much of the sky as possible. Keep all the lights around you off, especially if you are in a park of other spot with other observers. One peek at your phone will shut off the natural night vision of your eyes for up to ten minutes, so you really need to avoid looking at any lights. (If you need to keep your car running, cover the headlights with a blanket or something so you don’t blast the whole park with your lights!) If you have any lights nearby, put them behind you out of your view, and just watch the sky. You don’t need a telescope or binoculars – in fact, those instruments restrict your field of view so much that you probably won’t see any meteors through them at all. The meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, and they only last a second or two – literally, don’t blink or you can miss them.

Meteors and Cameras

You can take pictures of meteors, but it involves a little luck, and some understanding of your camera. If you have a DSLR or mirrorless camera, you can put it on a tripod and set your exposure manually for something like 5 or 10 seconds – you’ll get a lot of pictures of stars, but if you’re lucky a meteor will happen while you’re shooting, and it will show up in one picture.

If you’re using your phone camera, you might need to download a better camera app than the one your phone came with – check out the app store for one that is designed for night or sky photography. The same tactic applies – take lots of pictures, and hope you catch one. Make sure the light from your camera doesn’t interfere with your vision, though – just take the pictures now, and look at them later.

One thing to watch for: satellites. There are piles of satellites that will show up in your images as streaks of light. You can tell satellites by the trail being the same brightness and thickness throughout; meteors tend to start faint and narrow, get brighter and wider, and then trail out again.

Other Summer Meteor Showers

While technically there are other meteor showers in July and August, in practice these are not noticeable to the average observer and are scientific designations only. They’re named after the constellation or star that the meteors appear to radiate from, but most of them produce a meteor every couple of hours or so – not even a spritzing, let alone a shower. Even the bigger South Delta Aquariid meteor shower, which peaks in late July, only produces about 5 meteors an hour at best. If you are interested in these minor meteor showers, there is backyard science that can be done by tracking them with a camera, though; visit the International Meteor Organization for some great information on getting deeper into the science of meteor observing.

tl;dr: The morning of August 12th between 1:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. you will probably see quite a few meteors. The morning before and after, you’ll still see a good number. The rest of the summer, you’ll hardly see any, but you might see one anytime you are looking at the stars.

The Sky for July 2024

Posted on by Scott Young

The Visible Planets

For planets, early morning is the time to observe. Although Saturn rises shortly after midnight, it stays low until the early morning hours. For unaided eye viewing you can catch it anytime after midnight, but telescope viewers should wait until it rises out of the thick murky (and probably smoky) air near the horizon for the clearest views.

Mercury moves into the evening sky this month, but the geometry keeps it very low to the horizon. It will be very difficult to catch even with binoculars, probably lost in the bright twilight after sunset. The best time to try for it is on the evening of July 7, when the thin crescent Moon will act as a pointer (see Sky Calendar below).

Venus reaches perihelion, the closest point to the Sun in its orbit, on July 10, but the same geometry keeps it very low in the west after sunset. What is the first day you can spot it with the unaided eye?

Earth reaches aphelion, the farthest point to the Sun in its orbit, on July 5. The slight change in the Earth-Sun distance doesn’t cause the seasons, but it does influence how long they are – this is why northern hemisphere summer weather (which occurs in July and August) is less pronounced than southern hemisphere summer weather (which occurs in January, when the Earth is closest to the Sun).

Mars spends the month in the morning sky, edging closer to the famous Pleiades star cluster and the planet Jupiter. It rises about 2:30 a.m. local time at the beginning of July and by 1:30 a.m. local time by month’s end. Still distant, it appears too small in a telescope for very good views.

Jupiter rises about 3:30 a.m. in the east-southeast, the brightest object in this part of the sky and just above the V-shaped star cluster that marks the face of Taurus the Bull. By month’s end it rises before 2 a.m. and forms a pretty triangle with Mars and the bright star Aldebaran.

Saturn is getting high enough this month for decent telescopic views, but you’ll have to get up early. The ringed planet rises shortly after midnight in early July and by 10:30 p.m. at the end of the month, but it will be at its best telescopic view when at its highest, in the early morning sky a couple of hours before dawn. Saturn’s 29.5-year orbit around the Sun gives us a differing angle to views the amazing rings of Saturn, and this year we see them almost edge-on. While this makes it less impressive than other years, they are still an amazing sight in any telescope. This geometry also opens up a series of events for Saturn’s 146 moons, several of which will transit across the planet’s disk or cast their shadow onto the cloud-tops.

The Outer Planets

All of these objects require binoculars or a telescope to spot. Due to their distance, they appear as tiny spots or star-like points, and will require a good star atlas or app to positively identify them. Try Stellarium’s web version or the free Stellarium program for PC.

Uranus is near Mars in the morning sky, but you’ll need binoculars to see it as a tiny faint “star” among a sea of other stars. Your best chance will be in mid-July, when the two planets pass within a degree of each other – that’s about twice the apparent size of the Moon int he sky. See the Sky Calendar entry for July 15th for details.
Neptune is near Saturn in our sky, but you’ll need large binoculars or a telescope plus a good star chart or app to track it down.
Dwarf planet Pluto reaches opposition on July 23, whicvh usually means a planet is at its brightest and most visible. That’s true in this case, however for Pluto, “best” is relative. It’s so small and distant that you’ll need a good-sized telescope to be able to identify it.
Star chart showing the positions of Comet Olbers in July 2024.

Comets

In July there is one comet within the range of binoculars. Comet 13P/Olbers was last visible from Earth in 1956, and takes 69 years to orbit the Sun. On this pass through the inner solar system (called the comet’s “apparition”), Comet Olbers passed closest to the Sun on June 30th and is now slowly swinging back into the depths of space. It is visible in July in the evening sky low in the northwest after darkness falls, travelling slowly through the little-known constellations of Lynx and Leo Minor (down below the feet of Ursa major the Great Bear).

Comet Olbers is probably visible in binoculars only from a dark sky as a faint fuzzy spot without a tail. Recent images of the comet show a detailed blue ion tail and a wide diffuse dust tail, but these will only be visible in long-exposure telescope images. Still, spotting one of these celestial interlopers on their uncommon passes through the solar system reminds us of how many small bodies in the solar system are out there, just below the limit of our visibility.

For a printer-friendly version of the star chart click here.

Sky Calendar for July 2024

3 Jul 2024 (morning sky): The crescent Moon sits to the upper left of Jupiter in the east-north-east, both fitting comfortably into a binocular field of view. The two form the base of a triangle with the Pleaides at its apex. Mars is farther east and higher.

5 Jul 2024: New Moon occurs at 5:57 p.m. CDT.

7 Jul 2024 (evening sky): The crescent Moon and Mercury are in the same binocular field. Mercury is to the lower right of the Moon, but sets soon after the Sun so you’ll need a very clear horizon and good timing to spot them.

13 Jul 2024: First Quarter Moon occurs at 5:49 p.m. CDT.

15 Jul 2024 (morning sky): Bright Mars passes close to distant Uranus, so close that they’ll be visible in the same field of view of most telescopes for several days centered on the 15th.

17 Jul 2024 (evening sky): The waxing gibbous Moon is to the left of the bright red star Antares, very low in the south. The Moon actually passed in front of (or occulted) the star about 2pm this afternoon, but it wasn’t visible on this side of the Earth.

21 Jul 2024: Full Moon occurs at 5:17 a.m. CDT.

23 Jul 2024: The dwarf planet Pluto reaches opposition, the point when it is opposite the Sun and visible all night. Unfortunately, its position in the southern sky makes Pluto a difficult observation from Canada this year without electronic imaging or travel.

24 Jul 2024 (morning sky): The waning gibbous Moon is to the right of Saturn this evening, but far enough away that they won’t both fit into the field of view of typical binoculars. The Moon will occult (pass in front of) Saturn later today, but it is not visible from Manitoba.

27 Jul 2024: Last Quarter Moon occurs at 9:51 p.m. CDT.

28 Jul 2024 (morning sky): Technically the peak of the Pisces Australis meteor shower, but it is not really a northern hemisphere event.

30 July 2024 (morning sky): The South Delta Aquariids peaks in the pre-dawn hours this morning. See “Meteor Showers” below.

A family looking at the stars.

Other Events

Meteor Showers

This month there are two meteor showers (although neither is a “big” one). The one perhaps worth watching is the South Delta Aquariid meteor shower, which is slowly building throughout July to a peak on the morning of July 30. Patient observers may spot a dozen or more meteors per hour from this shower in the pre-dawn hours of the 30th. (Compare this to the typical 2 or 3 so meteors per hour you can see on any summer night.)

Technically, the Piscid Australis meteor shower also peaks in July, and you’ll see it listed in several sky calendars, but it will contribute less than 1 meteor per hour to Manitoba skies at best, so it is mentioned here only so you don’t get too hyped up over a listing elsewhere.

“The Blaze Star”

A note that T Corona Borealis, the so-called “Blaze Star”, is expected to go nova sometime this summer, brightening to about 2nd magnitude (about the brightness of the stars in the Big Dipper). It is located just beside the “crown” or Corona Borealis, and is normally too faint to find without a telescope. It is a double star system that has a massive eruption in brightness every 80 years or so, and observations indicate it could go at any moment. Watch for an upcoming blog detailing how you can see this rare event, and how simple observations anyone can do can contribute to our scientific understanding of this amazing star system.

The Sky for March 2024

Posted on by Scott Young
Posted on: Friday March 1, 2024

March hosts the “first day of spring”, although someone forgot to tell that to the weather. Astronomically, spring begins when the Earth reaches a specific point in its orbit around the Sun – it’s an easily-measurable instant in time when the Sun rises due east, sets due west, and is in the sky for 12 hours a day. Usually, the weather takes several weeks to catch up to that, but so far Manitoba has had three “winters”, two “autumns” and a “spring” since January 1, so the equinox is becoming less useful as an indicator.

March is also when we “spring ahead”, moving our clocks forward one hour to the poorly-named “Daylight Savings Time”. (Spoiler: no daylight is saved, we just alter our schedule so that people who work 9-5 see a bit more of it after their work day is done.) The official change happens in the morning of March 10th: 1:59 a.m. Central Standard Time is followed by 3:00 a.m. Central Daylight Time. We lose an hour of sleep that night, so expect inattentive drivers, cranky coworkers, and other symptoms of poor sleep to crop up in your life for the following week or so.

 

The Solar System

The planets are described in the order they are most visible in this month’s Manitoba skies. 

Solar System Highlights 

There is a penumbral lunar eclipse on March 24-25 which is visible across Canada. See the Calendar entry below.

Mercury is at its best evening visibility of the year for Canadians, peeking up above the western horizon in evening twilight about the 12th and rising higher each night until greatest elongation from the Sun with occurs on the 19th. It will probably easiest to see on the few days around March 16 when it is as its brightest and near its highest above the horizon. 

Jupiter is visible in the west-southwest after sunset, and sets before midnight local time. Telescopic observers will want to catch it early before it sinks into the turbulent air near the horizon.

Uranus sits above Jupiter in the evening sky, in the direction of the Pleaides star cluster. Only easily spotted in binoculars or a telescope, Uranus looks just like a faint dot of light indistinguishable from any other star.

Mars is higher than Venus in the pre-dawn sky but much fainter, making it difficult to observe until near the end of the month. Mars will return to prominence in the second half of 2024 but until then it remains a less-than-impressive object.

Venus remains very low in the south-southeast just before sunrise,  only visible because of its great brilliance. It passes very close to Saturn on the mornings of March 21 and 22, but the low altitude above the horizon makes this event probably unobservable for Manitobans.

Saturn is invisible for most of the month after its February 28 conjunction with the Sun. It reappears in the morning sky towards the end of the month, very low in the southeast before sunrise.

Neptune reaches solar conjunction on the 17th, and is unobservable for the month.

Celestial Calendar for March 2024

Sun Mar. 3 (evening): A celestial event on Earth – Bill Nye “the Science Guy” will be speaking live at the Manitoba Centennial Concert Hall on his “The End is Nye” tour. Planetarium Astronomer Scott Young will introduce Bill and moderate the Q&A session. Showtime is 7:30 pm.

Fri Mar. 8 (morning): The razor-thin waning crescent Moon is very low below Venus and Mars just before sunset, but all three are very low in the sky and likely invisible unless you have a very clear atmosphere and flat horizon to the southeast.

Fri Mar. 8 (evening): The monthly meeting of the RASC Winnipeg Centre, the Manitoba chapter of Canada’s largest astronomy club. Meetings are open to the public, and details can be found here.

Sat Mar. 9 to Sun Mar 10: Daylight Savings Time begins: Remember to set your non-internet clocks forward 1 hour late on Saturday March 9 or after midnight on Sunday, March 10, to ensure your circadian rhythms are as messed up as everyone else’s. 

Wed Mar. 13 (evening): The waxing crescent Moon is to the right of Jupiter in the evening.

Wed Mar. 14 (evening): The waxing crescent Moon is close to the Pleiades star cluster, with those farther west seeing a closer approach. 

Sat Mar.23: Spring Break begins at the Manitoba Museum! 10 days of programming, exhibits, and hands-on science, plus the premiere of a new planetarium show!

Sun Mar. 24 to Mon Mar. 25 (morning): A minor lunar eclipse occurs in the wee hours of the 25th. Not the “blood moon” of a total lunar eclipse, the moon only passes through the outer part of Earth’s shadow. These penumbral lunar eclipses are easy to miss if you aren’t watching for them, since the bright Moon doesn’t look too different minute to minute and there are no major colour changes. Still, they are interesting to watch, and the Planetarium’s Dome@Home astronomy show will host a live-stream of the event beginning at 11:30 pm on the 24th.

Thu Mar. 28 (evening): Dome@Home, the Manitoba Museum’s award-winning online astronomy show, runs at 7 pm. Central time on the last Thursday of every month on the Museum’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. This episode will feature the April 8 solar eclipse, including how you can safely watch the event as it unfolds from anywhere in Manitoba.

Other Astronomy Resources

To learn when the International Space Station and other satellites are visible from your location, visit Heavens-Above.com and select the closest city or town to you. 

For information on Manitoba’s largest astronomy club, visit the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada – Winnipeg Centre. 

Scott Young

Scott Young

Planetarium Astronomer

Scott is the Planetarium Astronomer at the Manitoba Museum, developing astronomy and science programs. He has been an informal science educator for thirty years, working in the planetarium and science centre field both at The Manitoba Museum and also at the Alice G. Wallace Planetarium in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Scott is an active amateur astronomer and a past-President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Manitoba Stories: In the Sky

View More

Manitoba Skies for December 2023

Posted on by Scott Young

December provides long winter nights for observing and features the best meteor shower of the year as well as the return of the winter constellations to early evening prominence. Colder temperatures can make observing more difficult, since astronomy is not an aerobic activity! Dress in layers, and plan for a temperature at least 10 degrees colder than the forecast. Good boots and a warm hat are the most important accessories. 

Visible Solar System 

Saturn is nearly gone, low in the southwest after darkness falls. This hasn’t been a great year for observing the ringed planet since it has been so low in the sky from Manitoba.  

Jupiter is already fairly high in the east-southeast as darkness falls, and rises into the south by mid-evening, providing clear views for Canadian observers. Binoculars show several of its four largest moons, and a telescope will reveal cloud bands and structure in the gas giant planet’s atmosphere. 

Venus rises about 4 a.m. local time at the beginning of December. It stands about 20 degrees up in the southeast before dawn but rises later and loses altitude throughout the month.   

Mercury begins to creep above the eastern horizon at dawn towards the end of the month but is more easily visible in the first week of January. Even so, Manitobans will have a tough time spotting it in the bright twilight just before sunrise. We’ll have a better chance in March when Mercury is visible in the evening sky. 

Mars is on the far side of the Sun this month, too close to the Sun to be visible in the morning sky. 

Calendar of Celestial Events

(All event dates and times are local times for Manitoba – Central Standard Time. Almost all events are visible across Canada, though – just use your local time instead. The exception is an event like the Solstice or a specific phase of the Moon, which happens at a specific time and date. In those cases, you have to adjust to your local time by adding or subtracting time zones.)

Mon 4 Dec 2023: Last Quarter Moon occurs just before midnight Manitoba time tonight, so many calendars that use Eastern Time or Universal/Greenwich Time will show it on Dec 5th instead. 

Sat 9 Dec 2023 (morning): The waning crescent Moon is 4° to Venus’ lower right. 

Tue 12 Dec 2023: New Moon 

Wed 13 Dec 2023 (evening) through Thu 14 Dec 2023 (Thu): The annual Geminid meteor shower peaks overnight, with the nearly new Moon providing dark skies. With a theoretical rate of over a hundred meteors per hour for most of Canada, this is the meteor shower to see. You’ll want to get to dark rural skies and be well-prepared for a long night of winter observing. Pay particular attention to your vehicle if the temperatures are low, as being stuck in the middle of nowhere on a cold December night can be dangerous. 

The Geminids are also one of the few meteor showers that are active before midnight, making them a bit more accessible than other showers such as the Perseids in August, which are at their best in the few hours before dawn. For details on how to turn your meteor watching into scientifically useful data, visit the International Meteor Organization’s Geminid page.

Sun 17 Dec 2023 (evening): The waxing crescent Moon is about 3° below Saturn. 

Tue 19 Dec 2023: First Quarter Moon 

Thu 21 Dec 2023 (evening): The waxing gibbous Moon is far to Jupiter’s right.  

Thu 21 Dec 2023: Also tonight, the winter solstice occurs at 9:27 p.m. CST, marking the sun’s farthest movement south in our skies. This translates into the late sunsets and long winter nights of winter. After this date, the sun will rise earlier each day, and the number of daylight hours will begin to increase. 

Fri 22 Dec 2023 (evening): The waxing gibbous Moon is far to Jupiter’s left. 

Tue 26 Dec 2023: Full Moon 

Thu 28 Dec 2023 (evening): The Manitoba Museum’s award-winning online astronomy show Dome@Home airs at 7 p.m. CST, live on the Museum’s Facebook and YouTube pages. Dome@Home covers the celestial sights and events visible in the coming month, and highlights some of the cool space stuff that’s happened in recent weeks.  

Sun 31 Dec 2023: The last day of the Gregorian calendar which is used in most parts of the world including Canada. 

To find when the International Space Station and other satellites are visible from your location, visit Heavens-Above.com and set your location.

For information on Manitoba’s largest astronomy club, visit the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada – Winnipeg Centre.

Scott Young

Scott Young

Planetarium Astronomer

Scott is the Planetarium Astronomer at the Manitoba Museum, developing astronomy and science programs. He has been an informal science educator for thirty years, working in the planetarium and science centre field both at The Manitoba Museum and also at the Alice G. Wallace Planetarium in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Scott is an active amateur astronomer and a past-President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Manitoba Stories: In the Sky

View More