Monthly Challenge

Planetary alignment 2025

All month – Four planets Visible: In the first couple of hours after dark, you’ll find Venus and Saturn in the southwest, Jupiter high overhead, and Mars in the east. (Uranus and Neptune are there too, but a telescope is needed to see them.) Planets always appear along a line in the sky, so the “alignment” isn’t special. What’s less common is seeing four or five bright planets at once, which doesn’t happen every year. Is it a “planet parade”? This isn’t a technical term in astronomy, so call it what you wish!

All month – Mars at Opposition: The Red Planet is directly opposite the Sun from Earth and shines brightly all night. It’s in the east as night falls and in the southwest at dawn.

2025 Stargazing Dates

We have a new venue for stargazing, at Typebagger Forest (see Events page)

Dates for 2025 are as follows

Just to let you know our StarGazing dates at the Tyrebagger are as follows
January   15th from   7.30pm
January   29th from   7.30pm
February 19th from   7.30pm
February 26th from   7.30pm
March       5th from   7.30pm
March    19th  from   7.30pm
March     26th from   7.30pm
Thanks      Alex     AberdeenWestAstronomy

All welcome!

Owl Cluster

Finding the Owl Cluster in the Night Sky

To find the Owl Cluster start by finding the constellation Cassiopeia,Then identifying the star Ruchbah in the W of Cassiopeia. With Binoculars or a low power eyepiece (25mm) in your telescope’s focuser, trace out a short line to the RIGHT of Ruchbah and the cluster will come into view.This is a real Hoot to find and looks good in any eyepiece give it ago ,Have fun.

Owlcol (1)