Adrian Dening's Stars Over Somerset

Monday 11th to Sunday 17th December 2023

I'll start next week's report with the evening of Tuesday 12th, when it is the turn of Ganymede to be occulted by Jupiter. If you look towards the south east at 8pm, the Galilean moon will be just about to disappear behind the planet.

Moving on to the night of Thursday 14th into the early hours of Friday morning 15th, we have the peak of the annual Geminids meteor shower. Around midnight, the constellation of Gemini will be located towards the south east with the familiar shape of the "Twins" looking as if one is above the other. The radiant point of the shower, where the meteors seem to originate from, will be a little above the bright star Castor which marks the head of the top twin.

Staying with the astronomical theme of observing objects appearing to be on top of one another, at 7.30pm on Sunday 17th, a 27%-lit Waxing Crescent Moon will be sitting just below a magnitude +0.8 Saturn if you look towards the south west.

An hour and a half later, at 9pm, the Galilean moon Callisto will be directly below Jupiter's south pole if you turn your telescope towards the south. You should be able to see all four of the Galilean moons simultaneously, forming a line stretching away from the planet.

If you try doing that, be careful as you will be making the same observation that Galileo did back in 1610, when he realised that our Solar System was "Heliocentric" with the Sun in the middle - an observation that found him to be "vehemently suspect of heresy" and placed under house arrest for the rest of his life!

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Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2023