The Binocular Sky Newsletter, January 2021

[BinocularSky]

Happy New Year!
The first Binocular Sky Newsletter for 2021 is ready. As well as the usual overview of DSOs, variable and double stars, this month we have:

* Last chance to see Neptune for a few months, but...
* ...Vesta is back
* A meteor shower that often has fireballs

I hope this helps you to enjoy these long winter nights with your binoculars or small telescopes.

To pick up your free copy, just head over to http://binocularsky.com and click on the Newsletter tab, where you can subscribe (also free, of course) to have it emailed each month, and get archived copies.

[Stormbringer]

Cheers again mate and Happy New Year to you and familly 🍻

[happy-kat]

Thank you, a meteor shower, worth a read for that reminder alone 🙂

[Tiny Clanger]

Excellent, thank you.

"Last chance to see Neptune for a few months "

Hmm, well I've had 4 or 5 tries already, but the blighter is in a really inconvenient area of skyglow from my back garden and I've not identified it yet (although I have certainly looked in the right area and may have seen it without knowing !) Wonder if the clouds will clear for long enough that it's worthwhile me heading a few km out into the rural darker skies to have another go, or will I just have to wait and hope I'm better at finding things when it comes around again !

Heather

[Nik271]

On 01/01/2021 at 18:55, Tiny Clanger said:

Excellent, thank you.

"Last chance to see Neptune for a few months "

Hmm, well I've had 4 or 5 tries already, but the blighter is in a really inconvenient area of skyglow from my back garden and I've not identified it yet (although I have certainly looked in the right area and may have seen it without knowing !) Wonder if the clouds will clear for long enough that it's worthwhile me heading a few km out into the rural darker skies to have another go, or will I just have to wait and hope I'm better at finding things when it comes around again !

Heather

I have seen Neptune from central London in 15x70 bins but it was faint and I really needed to know where to look. The key is to look while it is as high as possible in the southern sky, so sometime between 5pm and 6pm for January. I found that the asterism of the three stars of Psi Aquarii helps to find the general area, see the attached Stellarium picture. It is quite bluish once you see it, so you can't mistake it for anything else. Good luck hunting!

[Tiny Clanger]

5 hours ago, Nik271 said:

I have seen Neptune from central London in 15x70 bins but it was faint and I really needed to know where to look. The key is to look while it is as high as possible in the southern sky, so sometime between 5pm and 6pm for January. I found that the asterism of the three stars of Psi Aquarii helps to find the general area, see the attached Stellarium picture. It is quite bluish once you see it, so you can't mistake it for anything else. Good luck hunting!

Thanks for that, unfortunately there is one whacking big evergreen tree in a neighbour's garden almost exactly south of mine, which hides Neptune at it's highest at the moment , and when it is west of the blasted thing, that particular lower patch of sky has a very bright area of streetlights and houses. With a little electronic level (wixy as they are often called) to get my 'alt' correct, and ocular view on stellarium I know I've looked in the right place, but no suitably coloured dot to be seen there !

Think  I just have to head out into the countryside when (if ?) a proper clear dry night ever happens...

Heather

[Josh78richards]

On 04/01/2021 at 04:01, Nik271 said:

I have seen Neptune from central London in 15x70 bins but it was faint and I really needed to know where to look. The key is to look while it is as high as possible in the southern sky, so sometime between 5pm and 6pm for January. I found that the asterism of the three stars of Psi Aquarii helps to find the general area, see the attached Stellarium picture. It is quite bluish once you see it, so you can't mistake it for anything else. Good luck hunting!

binocular

Wow that's soo cool !

Edited January 13, 2021 by Josh78richards