The Night Sky: Aurora displays light up the sky

A POWERFUL solar flare generated a display of the Northern Lights across Wales during late October.

Stephen Webber managed to capture a faint display of the Aurora Borealis from the Rhigos Mountain.

However, an image captured from a North Wales astronomy colleague Mel Hughes stole the show with this breath-taking shot taken with a Sony a7 III camera from the Great Orme in Llandudno.

Tara Lofts, another colleague caught a totally different appearance of the aurora that appeared after a display earlier in October.

Following its lift-off on Saturday, October 16, Nasa's ambitious Lucy mission continues to have a problem with the unfurling of one of its solar array wings.

One of Lucy’s two wings hasn’t fully extended which means that the craft will be unable at present to absorb as much power from the Sun as it would when fully open.

Lucy, named after a famous female fossil, found in Ethiopia, which helped in the understanding of the evolution of our species, is set to visit eight different asteroids between the year’s 2025 and 2033.

Bridgend Astronomical Society celebrates its 40th anniversary

Josh Burnett - Bridgend Astronomical Society 40th Anniversary Logo Design Winner

The first meeting of the new BAS season was held back in September.

It was the first in-person meeting the society has held since February 2020.

Guest speaker at meeting was Royal Astronomical Society’s president elect, Professor Mike Edmunds. Junior member Josh Burnett was presented with a prize of a new pair of binoculars for winning our juniors 40th birthday logo competition!

Jason Mead, vice-chairman and observations director said: “This season, dubbed our #BAS40 anniversary season, will include star parties, family events and educational short courses that are discounted for members. Our membership is large and varied consisting of amateurs, beginners, families and juniors.”

Joan Hawkins, one of the three amateur astronomers who founded the group along with Laurie Brophy and Frank Morris, said: “When BAS was founded in 1981, we became an instant success through having lots of publicity in libraries, shop windows and local newspapers. Fast forward 40 years BAS is still thriving with 2,000 Facebook members and dozens of paid members.”

BAS Chairman Stephen Radford said: “With BAS’s 40th season underway I would like to extend my thanks to all those that made it possible to get to 40 years. During lockdown, we saw an increasing number of people taking an interest in the night sky. Interest in astronomy literally rocketed with all sorts of questions from the public ranging from the International Space Station which occasionally zooms overhead, to things to consider when buying a telescope."

Partial lunar eclipse

A difficult yet not impossible chance to catch a partial eclipse of the Moon this month. You’ll need to be up early though as the partial eclipse takes place on the morning of Friday, November 19, before sunrise.

From around 5am, the full moon will be positioned over the west north-western horizon. The Moon will slowly begin to head towards the horizon. Soon after 6am it enters the weak outer part of the Earth’s shadow, the penumbra, but actually spotting this very small change to the lunar surface will be difficult.

To see any real change, we have to wait until after 7am as the moon enters the inner, darker part of the Earth’s shadow, the umbra. How much you actually catch of the partial eclipse as the shadow extends across the lunar surface will depend on how good a view you have of the western horizon. Find yourself a safe viewing position with the best vantage point of the western horizon a few nights before the event.

Planets

Venus is magnificent in the evening sky to the south-west, setting around 6.30pm during November. From a non-science point of view, it really does live up to its name of the ‘Evening Star’.

On the evening of Sunday, November 7, a thin crescent moon appears to the right of Venus.

If you sweep around to the south from Venus, you will arrive at Jupiter. If you continue sweeping to the left, you will arrive at Saturn, which will appear much fainter than Jupiter.

On Wednesday, November 10, the moon will be positioned below Saturn, with Jupiter to the left. The following night, Thursday, November 11, the moon passes below Jupiter with Saturn positioned to the right.

Meteors

The annual Leonids meteor shower takes place during November but unfortunately this year the peak of the shower coincides with a waxing moon which will washout many of the meteors.

The Leonids, are associated with the debris left by the passage of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle which orbits the Sun every 33 years, the Earth passing through the rubble to create the meteors.

In 1833, we had a spectacular meteor storm with 100,000 shooting stars per hour. More recent storms have occurred in 1966 and 1999-2001. However, 2021 is not expected to produce anything substantial, with perhaps 15 meteors per hour at best around peak activity on the morning of Wednesday November 17. Look high in the north-east.

Society meetings

• Bridgend Astronomical Society – Wednesday, November 17 - 7.30pm. Bridgend Tennis and Bowls Club. Martin Griffiths, “We are Starstuff”.
• Barry Astronomical Society – Monday, November 29 – 7pm. Katrin Raynor-Evans “Exploring Astronomy and Space Through Philately”.

Free online talk

Cardiff Astronomical Society in conjunction with Bath and Bristol astronomical societies are hosting a series of four free online talks via zoom on Saturday, November 13 - 1.30pm to 5.30pm. To secure your spot visit www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/extreme-stellar-environments-tickets-169977235487

Moon phases

• New moon November 4;
• First quarter November 11;
• Full moon November 19;
• Third quarter November 27.

Sunrise/sunset times

• Start of November: Sun rises at 7.05am. Sets at 4.44pm.
• End of November: Sun rises at 7.54am. Sets at 4.06pm.

• Jonathan Powell is a contributor to the BBC Sky at Night magazine. He has written three books on astronomy, Cosmic Debris; Rare Astronomical Sights and Sounds (which was selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2019); and From Cave Art to Hubble, all of which are available from Amazon. Jonathan worked at BBC Radio Wales as their astronomy correspondent and is currently a columnist at the South Wales Argus, and presenter on Astro Radio UK. He has also written a book on castles, Fortress Wales, and was part of the writing team for the BBC Television show, The Fast Show, which won a BAFTA.