Our spring sky at night

This spring brings some excellent star viewing with a few astronomical events worth noting. Author and night sky expert Geoffrey Lindop tells you what to watch for in the spring night skies.

Thanks to the minimum of light pollution in the South of Scotland, we can see a multitude of stars, yet most of them lie far away. March is the best time to see the Beehive Cluster, which some people call Praesepe and astronomers’ catalogue as M44. It lies 577 light years away and is a gravitationally bound group of about a thousand stars. The unaided eye sees it as a blurry blob. With a pair of binoculars, you can count 20 stars. Galileo counted 40. A large amateur telescope will reveal 200! 

Over half the stars are red dwarfs. They are smaller and longer lived than the Sun and if they have habitable planets in orbit around them, life would have a longer time to establish itself than it has taken the human race to evolve.

The Seven Sisters

The Pleiades Star Cluster, or Seven Sisters, is somewhat closer to Earth at 444 light years. Book a place in one of our public conservatories like the one in Moffat on April 4th to observe the Moon passing directly in front of the Pleiades.

It is a phenomenon that astronomers call a lunar occultation. As the dark edge of the Moon passes in front of it, starlight is suddenly extinguished, as if by magic.

The following bright stars in the Pleiades will be occulted at the following times:

17 Tauri 21:45

23 Tauri 22:17

Alcyone 22:43

27 Tauri 23:21

Times are approximate and based on observers in Moffat. Fainter stars will also be occulted. The Moon will show a slender crescent; the best phase to observe occultations, so this promises to be a good event. 

Planet spotting

Following an excellent winter viewing of the planets parading across our night skies; they begin to disappear as spring approaches. Mercury is always difficult to spot as it is the closest planet to the Sun and always sets close to sunset or rises just before sunrise. There is a good chance to see it on March 8th in the west. Its position in the sky is marked by its neighbouring planet, Venus, which outshines it but is only five degrees above it. Mercury sets at 8:55pm. The two planets disappear from our skies after March 19th and will be seen again in the autumn.

Mars, a bright red planet, can be seen in the south at the beginning of March and forms a triangle with Castor and Pollux, the two brightest stars in the constellation of Gemini. On March 8th, the Moon is very close to the three of them. The Moon greets them again on April 5th, but on that occasion, Mars has moved and the four of them are almost in a line. By April 10th the Moon has moved away and Mars, Castor and Pollux are in a line. If you wait till May 4th you can see Mars midway between the Moon and the Beehive Star Cluster.

In March, Jupiter is high in the south halfway between Venus and Mars. Venus, the brightest of the planets is low in the west, while Mars is high in the southeast.

On March 5th and April 2nd and 30th, Jupiter is close to the Moon. In May the planet is low in the west and sets soon after the Sun.

Position your picture

Mobile phones now have the technology to photograph any of the above planetary alignments. I like to capture them with Caelaverock Castle in the foreground, but there are many other features within the South of Scotland to make your picture unique. 

The Lyrids

A shooting star can appear at any time, but they will definitely grace our skies between April 19th to 25th when debris from Comet Thatcher will produce brilliant swift meteors. Known as the Lyrids, as they radiate from the constellation of Lyra, the best time to see them will be on April 22nd and with no moon to interfere, it should be a good time to observe.

Partial eclipse of the sun

On March 29th there will be a partial eclipse of the Sun. DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN as it will damage your eyesight. Use special eclipse glasses – sunglasses are not strong enough. Alternatively, join Mike Alexander at The Dark Space Planetarium in Kirkcudbright. The partial eclipse starts at 10am and lasts for around 2 hours. At mid-eclipse approximately 40% of the Sun will be covered. Solar telescopes and eclipse glasses will be available to safely view the Sun.

Please note this is a morning event and will take place outside the planetarium. Scottish weather is unpredictable so if it is cloudy, a live stream of the eclipse will be shown inside the dome. This event is free, but planetarium seats are limited to 30. Please use the “Book” option to reserve a seat.

We are grateful to Geoffrey for also producing a monthly-night-by-night guide to the skies above us, so you can check out what there is to see throughout the upcoming spring months in the South of Scotland. Geoffrey has written a guide to the night sky in the south of Scotland for those wanting to learn more – available to purchase at various locations or directly from the publisher.

Geoffrey will be back later in the year with his guide to the skies season by season.

You can learn more with our Top Tips for stargazing and be sure to visit our Dark Skies section for all the information and inspiration to plan your next visit.