Brian Jones: Comets & Planets

This Spring, the evening twilight sky will be playing host to Comet PanStarrs. The fact that this particular comet appears to be making paying its first visit to the inner reaches of the solar system suggests that it might become a fairly conspicuous object. Comets, however, are very unpredictable and we can only wait and see. Comet PanStarrs should become visible from around mid-March.

On 12/13 March, the crescent Moon will be located quite close to the comet and should help you to track the comet down. From then, and over the next few weeks, Comet PanStarrs will make its way slowly northwards through the constellations, passing a little way from the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) on 4 April and between the two bright stars Schedir and Caph  in Cassiopeia around 20 April. Up to this time, and given clear skies above the northern horizon, Comet Pan Starrs may be visible to the unaided eye and should, hopefully, be fairly easy to track down with binoculars. By the time it passes Alrai in Cepheus on 13 May it will be below naked-eye visibility and, from our viewpoint on Earth, heading towards the star Kochab in Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, which it should reach by around mid-June. At this point, Comet PanStarrs will be faint and probably only visible through a telescope.

As far as the planets are concerned, over the next couple of months we have both Jupiter and Saturn on show, Jupiter being prominent in the south-western evening sky in the constellation Taurus after sunset during February, March and early-April. The crescent Moon lies fairly close to Jupiter, and the bright star Aldebaran, on the evening of 17 March. The orbit of Jupiter then carries it away from Aldebaran, and on 14 April the crescent Moon is again seen close to the planet. Saturn, on the other hand, rises at around 10pm during March evenings and even earlier during April. The Moon, a few days past its full phase, can be seen near to Saturn on the evening of 30 March, and on 25 April Saturn will be located a little way to the north east of the Full Moon. Saturn reaches opposition (opposite the Sun as seen from Earth) on 28 April, at which point it will be visible throughout the night.

Until the next blog . . . happy star (and comet) gazing!