Brought to you by Dr. Roy Gretton, Journal Editor of The Nottingham Astronomical Society.
Contact details are on the Nottingham Astronomy website: https://nottinghamastro.org.uk/
Please note, the NAS new permanent venue for our main meetings on first Thursday of the month is ยญNottingham Emmanuel School, Gresham Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham. NG2 7YF
Keeping in Touch with Mars
On the ๏ฌrst of December last year, Mars came closer to Earth (under 51 million miles) than it will be at any time during the rest of this decade. You may remember seeing it a year ago as a bright orange
โstarโ high up in the winter sky. By way of contrast, on November 18th this year, Mars is in the exact opposite situation, a very long way away from us on the far side of the Sun, 234 million miles from Earth. For many months, Mars has looked progressively tinier through our telescopes, to the point where none of its surface features can be discerned. Throughout November and December 2023 the planet will be too close to the Sun to be observed at all, and it wonโt be until later next year that it will be worth observing through a typical amateur telescope. Even so, in spite of Mars being so distant and lost in the glare of the Sun, we are still in daily contact with it by means of communication with the various robots that are working for us there.
Among these can be numbered the Perseverance rover that landed on Mars in February 2021, carrying a tiny helicopter called Ingenuity, intended to test if it is feasible to ๏ฌy such a craft in Marsโ thin atmosphere. Well, Ingenuity has exceeded expectations and has already carried out dozens of ๏ฌights above the Martian surface. Another noteworthy mission is a previous rover called Curiosity which landed on Mars in August 2012 and amazingly is still operational 14 years later. And another long endurance record has been set by a different kind of spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which was placed in orbit around Mars as long ago as March 2006 and is still sending back incredibly clear pictures. It is said to be able to spot features as small as a dinner plate on the Martian surface! These and many other spacecraft beam their results back to Earth in the form of radio signals which are monitored by the Deep Space Network, a set of three communications centres spaced roughly equally around the globe, so that they can maintain contact with spacecraft all over the Solar System while the Earth rotates. One is at Goldstone in California, one near Madrid, Spain, and the other near Canberra in Australia. And so, although we canโt see Mars directly at present, images from the planet are constantly being received on Earth, along with masses of other data. Weโre still in touch!
The Other Planets
In November and December this year the giant planet Jupiter, in the constellation of Aries, will be dominating the evening sky and will be visible all night as a bright, nonยญ-twinkling โstarโ. Saturn, much less prominent and considerably lower down, will be setting in the southwest at about midnight. Early risers will easily spot Venus, even brighter than Jupiter, shining in the east before sunrise. In midยญ-November it rises at 3 am and at the end of December at 5 am. Mercury pops up into the evening sky in early December, but is always low down and never free from the sunset glow.
Shooting Stars
The Geminids are simply the best of our annual meteor showers and this year, weatherยญ-permittng, we have a golden opportunity to enjoy them. (Although I do realise that hanging about outside on a cold winter night might not be everyoneโs idea of enjoyment!). To watch for shooting stars I put on several layers of warm clothes and recline in a deck chair or lounger (to avoid cricking my neck as I stare upwards). The reason for our excitement about the Geminids this year is the fact that they reach their maximum activity on the night of December 14th, just a day or so after the New Moon. The worst time to look for meteors is, of course, at Full Moon. Anyway, this year we might be lucky enough to see a shooting star every couple of minutes when they peak.
Phases of the Moon
| NOV | DEC | |
| Last Quarter | 5th | 5th |
| New Moon | 13th | 12th |
| First Quarter | 20th | 19th |
| Full Moon | 27th | 27th |
