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  • Enjoy a meteor shower Monday night … and other skywatching tips from NASA

    A new month has just started and so NASA has returned with some tips on the exciting stuff to look out for over the coming weeks.

    Eta Aquarid meteor shower

    First up is the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, which originates from Comet Halley. 

    “Eta Aquarids are fast moving, and a lot of them produce persistent dust trains that linger for seconds after the meteor’s initial streak,” NASA says in its latest skywatching video (top).

    It adds that while it’s one of the best annual showers in the Southern Hemisphere, it tends to be more subdued north of the Equator, though even there you can still expect to enjoy between 10 and 20 meteors per hour. 

    “On the peak night [on May 6], the moon sets by around 3 a.m., leaving dark skies until dawn for ideal viewing conditions,” NASA says.

    As with all meteor showers, try to find a location away from light pollution and with a broad view of the sky for the best chance to see plenty of shooting skies.

    Planets galore!

    May is also a great month for picking out planets in the night sky. In the hours after sunset, for example, you’ll have a great opportunity to view Mars and Jupiter in the west. Mars is identifiable by its salmon-pink color, while Jupiter stands out for its brightness. 

    Meanwhile, early birds have a great chance to spot Venus and Saturn over throughout this month. At the moment, they appear fairly close together but the distance between them will gradually increase as the weeks pass.

    “For several days in late May, early risers will enjoy a gathering of the moon with Saturn and Venus in the eastern sky before dawn,” NASA says. “Watch as the moon passes the two planets while becoming an increasingly slimmer crescent. You’ll find the moon hanging between Venus and Saturn on May 23.”

    Waiting for a nova

    NASA also has some tips on how to view a nova, which is a sudden, bright explosion on the surface of a white dwarf star caused by the rapid fusion of accumulated hydrogen from a companion star.

    NASA points to events in a binary star system called T Coronae Borealis around 3,000 light-years away. It comprises a red giant star with a smaller white dwarf star orbiting around it.

    “About every 80 years, the white dwarf has accumulated so much of the other star’s hydrogen, that it ignites a thermonuclear explosion — and that’s the nova,” NASA says. 

    The nova is expected to occur any time in the coming months, and astronomers believe it’ll be as bright as the constellation’s brightest star, which is about as bright as the North Star, Polaris. 

    Be sure to watch NASA’s video to find out how to spot the bright light from this very special event, which should be viewable for several days. 

    Of course, all of the above depend on clear skies, so fingers crossed that the clouds stay away so that you can get the most out of NASA’s skywatching tips for May. 

  • An expert’s advice on how to see the Lyrid meteor shower this weekend

    The next week will be a fun one for skywatchers, as the Lyrid meteor shower will be visible over the weekend and peak on Monday night. If you’re hoping to catch sight of this charming cosmic event, then Robert Massey, Deputy Executive Director of the Royal Astronomical Society, has shared tips on how to get the best view from wherever you live.

    The Lyrids will be visible from 17 to 26 April, and will peak on the evening of 21 to 22 April. You won’t see long, bright streaks like you do with other meteor showers, but you might see brief flashes called fireballs.

    “With the Lyrids, you’ll be looking for a little flurry of short-lived streaks of light – what you might popularly call ‘shooting stars’,” Massey said in a video explainer. “With this particular shower you could expect to see maybe 10 to 15 an hour at the peak, so it’s not massively prolific… but if you’ve got a clear sky it’s still very much worth it.”

    A meteor shower happens when the Earth passes through a cloud of debris in its orbit, leftover from comets or asteroids. In the case of the Lyrids, the debris comes from the tail of Comet Thatcher, which takes more than 400 years to complete an orbit around the sun and hasn’t come close since 1861. But the debris it left behind is still present, and Earth passes through it once per year, with pieces burning up in the atmosphere to create the shooting stars.

    If you want to try and see the meteor shower, there should be a good view throughout the northern hemisphere as the moon won’t rise until late in the night — as long as there aren’t clouds in the way.

    “The good thing about a meteor shower – and the Lyrids are no exception – is that you don’t need any special equipment,” Massey said. “The best equipment is just your eyes, looking up at the sky. Now in this particularly case, the radiant – the point of the sky they appear to come from – is in the constellation of Lyra, near the bright star Vega, part of the Summer Triangle.

    “So if you’re looking in the small hours of the morning – which is the best time to look – then if you’ve got a clear sky just look up. The radiant will be slightly over towards the east, but it’s not absolutely critical which direction you’re looking.”

    If you’re hoping for the best view, you’ll need to be patient and give your eyes time to adjust to the darkness. So set yourself up somewhere comfortable like a deck chair, get a good view of the sky, and avoiding looking at bright objects like your phone to give you the best night vision.

  • Look out for the Lyrids … and other skywatching tips for April

    NASA’s skywatching tips for this month include a meteor shower, planets at dusk and dawn, and a distant “city” of stars.

    Let’s kick off with the Lyrids, described by NASA as a “modest” meteor shower that promises up to 15 sightings per hour during its peak overnight on April 21 and into the following morning.

    “The Lyrids are best observed from the Northern Hemisphere, but can be seen from south of the equator as well,” NASA points out. “View them after about 10:30 p.m. local time until dawn, with the best viewing around 5 a.m.”

    As with the every meteor shower, for the best view, find a spot away from city lights or any other kind of light pollution, and with the broadest possible view of the sky. Also, give your eyes a little time to adjust to the darkness as you try to spot the bright flashes of light streaking across the sky.

    There are plenty of planets to spot during April, too. Mars, for example, will be high overhead in the south each evening. You can identify it by its salmon-pink color, and when you do, ponder for a moment that NASA has a couple of rovers tootling across the martian surface

    Morning skies this month offer a view of Venus — the brightest planet in our solar system —  in the east before dawn, moving a little higher each morning as the month goes on.

    And then, at the end of April, you can enjoy a wonderful view of Jupiter appearing close to the crescent moon in the western sky about half an hour after sunset. 

    For the final tip, you’ll need to grab a pair of binoculars or a telescope. It’s a chance to view a globular cluster known as M3, a vast collection of stars 34,000 light-years from Earth in our galaxy’s outer reaches. When viewed through binoculars, it appears as a small, fuzzy, patch of light. With a small telescope, however, you’ll see a more defined glow with a slightly grainy texture, and using a telescope that’s 8 inches or larger, the cluster appears as hundreds of individual stars. 

    “Globular clusters contain some of the oldest stars in the universe, often over 10 billion years old,” NASA said. “M3 itself is probably 11 to 13 billion years old and contains around half a million stars. And it’s relatively easy to spot in April under dark skies with binoculars or a small telescope.”

    For more information on how to locate April’s recommendations, check out NASA’s video midway down the page.