Monday 30th September to Sunday 6th October 2024
If you look towards the east north east from around 11 pm on Monday 30th, Jupiter will have risen above the horizon with the bright star Capella (that I mentioned last week) above and to the left of it.
Look slightly above and to the right of Jupiter and you should be able to see what looks like a "V-shape" of stars on its side, with one particularly bright star.
You will be looking at the centre of the constellation Taurus and the bright star is Aldebaran. Above the "V" you should be able to make out the Pleiades open cluster of stars M45.
Now this lot are all pretty easy to spot with the naked eye, but if you are feeling the urge to dig out that telescope, you can find the Crab Nebula a bit below and to the left of Jupiter, sitting just above a magnitude 2.95 star called Tianguan.
The Crab Nebula is the very first deep sky object that Charles Messier logged back in the 1700s, so it is also known as M1 in his catalogue. It will have a magnitude of about 8.4
This is actually the optimum chance to observe the Crab Nebula as the Moon will be below the horizon creating zero light pollution and during the course of the night, Jupiter and the objects around it rise to 60 degrees above the south east horizon, meaning less atmospheric distortion. They reach this high altitude around 5 am on the morning of Tuesday 1st, so maybe you should consider getting up early rather than staying up late!
As a bonus, Mars, the constellation of Orion with Betelgeuse and Rigel, plus the brightest star in the night sky Sirius will all also be visible then in the same direction.
Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2024
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