So when you do find the time, you'll need to know what's visible in the night sky tonight, and the best things to look out for when stargazing. Visual Magnitude: This is the astronomer's scale for measuring the brightness of objects in the sky. The dimmest object visible in the night sky under perfectly dark conditions is about magnitude 6.5. Brighter stars are magnitude 2 or 1. The brightest objects get negative numbers. Venus can be as bright as magnitude minus 4.9. The full moon is minus 12.7 and the sun is minus 26.8. On opposition night Uranus will be closest to Earth for this year — at a distance of 1.73 billion miles, 2.79 billion km, or 155 light-minutes. Uranus' minimum distance from Earth will boost its brightness to magnitude 5.62. It will also appear slightly larger — showing a 3.8 arc-seconds-wide disk in telescopes for a week or so centered on opposition night. While you wouldn’t think it, there are lots of terms that seem to be new in the field of astronomy – at least to me. One term I had never heard before this year was “Hybrid Solar Eclipse,” which is apparently how you can describe the solar eclipse happening on April 19th. The Leonid meteor shower reaches its peak, with maximum activity expected this morning under favourable conditions (ZHR 15).

It ends at a triangular pattern representing the northern fish, which is hard to make out. Andromeda The Andromeda Galaxy, by Yann Sainty, Lorraine, France, 22-23 August 2022 Europa and its shadow transit Jupiter between 16:35 and 19:28 UT. Callisto drifts south of Jupiter as this is happening. July 14 – September 1, Perseids: The Perseids constitute one of the best-known and most enjoyable meteor showers in the Northern Hemisphere. The night of August 11-12 is projected to be the peak in 2023, but you can also try to spot meteors in the days before and after.

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A: Neptune is the coldest planet. The further away from the sun, the planets are, the colder they are.

November 19- December 24, Geminids: This awesome annual shower can produce up to 120 meteors per hour! Best seen from the Northern Hemisphere, the Geminids are 100% worth staying up late to see. In 2023, this shower is expected to peak the night of December 12, which is close to a new moon—that means dark skies and excellent viewing conditions. Meteors should be visible all night long and at their best around 2 am.

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Poorly positioned evening planet, best seen mid-month, but low in the west-northwest as the sky darkens. Constellations through which the ecliptic passes this month are: Libra (the Scales), Scorpio (the Scorpion) Sagittarius (the Archer), Capricornus (the Goat), Aquarius (the Water Carrier), and Pisces (the Fishes).

After opposition on 3 November, this evening Io appears to transit Jupiter from 22:21 UT, just ahead of its shadow. Uranus is just observable this month as it was in conjunction with the Sun on 5 th May. It rises in the east just as the sky darkens. Uranus will be best seen later is the night as it rises higher in the sky. It will be best at about 04:00 and just before sunrise. The sky between Perseus and Cassiopeia hosts the Double Cluster, a pair of bright open star clusters that together cover a finger's width of the sky. They make a spectacular sight in binoculars (orange circle) or a telescope at low magnification. Like Uranus, Neptune is an ice giant with a gassy atmosphere of molecular hydrogen, atomic helium, and methane. What sets Neptune apart? For one thing, it’s the windiest planet in our solar system. These high winds propel frozen methane clouds across Neptune at 1200+ miles per hour (2000+ kilometers per hour).

Is it bright, but on the wrong side of thesky to the ecliptic? Then it's not a planet. Mars at opposition can be a wonderful sight, even with the naked eye. But through a telescope you'll see so much more. Credit: Pete Lawrence Where should you look? It’s one thing to know, intellectually, that Mars is supposed to be bright tonight, but that knowledge doesn’t amount to much if you don’t know where to point your telescope. The conjunction itself occurs when the two share the same right ascension, a coordinate in space which is similar to longitude here on the Earth.