Our winter sky

Wrap up warm, take a flask of a hot drink, and enjoy the dark skies of our region now winter is upon us. Dark sky expert Geoffrey Hugh Lindop guides us through his top picks of what to watch this winter and wishes us all Clear Skies!

A shooting star is particularly exciting, suddenly appearing then quickly moving across the sky. They are not stars, but bits of dust. The debris of a comet, an asteroid, or a piece of space junk broken off from a satellite. Whilst the appearance of an individual shooting star – astronomers call them meteors – can not be predicted, some of them form a dust cloud around the Sun. The Earth passes through such clouds at the same time each year resulting in excellent shooting star viewing.

The first opportunity, this winter, is the Geminid Meteor Shower between December 7 and 15. It is debris from Phaethon, an asteroid just over three miles in diameter. It crosses the orbits of Mars, Earth, Venus and Mercury every 523.6 days. It is unusual for an asteroid to cross the path of Mars, let alone Mercury. Its orbit takes it to half the distance that separates Mercury from the Sun. When it does so, the solar heat bakes its surface. With its low gravity and no atmosphere, the dust devils fly off into space. They stream around the Sun in similar orbits to Phaethon. It is a dense cloud producing a hundred meteors every hour when conditions are right.

There is another chance to spot a meteor between December 17 and 25. Somewhere between the handle of the Plough and the North Star, (Polaris), is the radiant, or celestial point in the sky from where these meteors seem to come. They are known as the Ursids, named after the constellation of Ursa Minor, (The Little Bear). These shooting stars are the debris from Comet Tuttle. They produce a weak shower with only a tenth of the number that the Geminids produce. The Moon gets in the way during the mornings.

Conditions look very good to see the Quadrantids between January 1-4. They originate on the right shoulder of the Herdsman (Bootes) and are named after the constellation of Quadrans Muralis – not being an official constellation, it does not appear on modern star charts. The dust cloud is quite narrow, and although at its peak a hundred meteors an hour may be seen, the peak only lasts a few hours. Check my winter sky diary for optimum times. The blue meteors are fairly faint, but since the Moon is not in the sky at that time, it should be well worth observing early in the morning, when the Herdsman is higher in the sky.

Head to a telescope near you

Meteors are difficult to photograph unless you happen to have your camera pointing in the right part of the sky with the shutter open. Planets, on the other hand, may be wandering stars, but they are slow moving and predictable. They are best seen through a telescope. Why not book a place in one of our public observatories to enjoy the spectacle.

The Moffat Community Observatory
Galloway Astronomy Centre
Kielder Observatory

Top photographic tip

Have a look at my Winter Sky Diary. I have predicted when the Moon and planets come together to form a beautiful alignment in the sky. All you need is the camera of your mobile phone to capture them. Better still – a large camera mounted on a tripod. Try getting one of our landmarks in the foreground to add interest to your image.

Planets to spot this season

Mars, a small red planet, orbits the Sun at a greater distance than the Earth. In January the Earth passes directly between Mars and the Sun. At midday the Sun is due south. Twelve hours later, when the Earth has turned through 180 degrees, Mars is due south and lies just over half the distance that separates us from the Sun. The Red Planet, located in the constellation of Gemini, will be visible all night.

Mars has no protective magnetic field, nor a thick atmosphere. Therefore, the chance of finding life on the planet is very unlikely. That may not always have been the case. The latest thinking is that it retained its atmosphere longer than previously thought, and primitive life may once have inhabited that world in the oceans that used to water the planet. Some of our children may, one day, land on Mars to discover the truth.

I wouldn’t recommend them volunteering to go to Venus. When it rains on that planet sulphuric acid beats down upon its surface. The last place you would expect to find life. Yet evidence has been found of microbial life in its upper atmosphere. It has not yet been positively proved to be life, but time will tell. The best time to see Venus, which outshines everything except the Sun and Moon, is at the beginning of January after sunset.

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

Geoffrey has written a guide to the night sky to assist business owners in the south of Scotland, available to purchase at various locations or directly from the publisher.

Be sure to check back for Geoffrey’s Our sky in Spring blog next year!