Moore Winter Marathon Results The Sky at Night

Welcome to The Sky At Night.

We've come to the gorgeous and remote Kielder Observatory in

Northumberland where we're promised some of England's darkest skies.

We have something exciting happening in just a few hours' time.

An asteroid will be making one of the closest approaches to

Earth in recent years. And we're hoping to see it.

And all the team are here.

And we're also joined by friend of the programme Jon Culshaw, who will

be helping us meet the challenge of the Moore Winter Marathon.

We'll be find out how you got on,

seeing Patrick's 50 favourite winter night sky objects.

The Kielder Observatory looks spectacular in the remote

Northumberland landscape.

It's at the end of a long forestry commission track

and the view of Kielder water is breath-taking.

It feels very wild here, a suitable place to go hunting for asteroids

and objects from the Moore Winter Marathon.

Gary Fildes is the observatory director

and he is rightly proud of the facilities here.

The observatory has won design awards,

but it's the telescopes and the dark skies which now win praise.

This 14-inch reflecting telescope is ideal for looking at

galaxies and nebulae.

Gary relies on the dedicated and strong support of astronomers

who can use the telescopes,

such as this magnificent 20-inch reflector.

-Gary, what a fantastic location.

-Yeah.

How long have you been here, and how was this site chosen?

We have been here for nearly five years now.

We searched high and low for a good location to build the observatory.

The primary point is that we've got tremendous dark skies.

It certainly feels really remote.

Perfect for our Moore Winter Marathon.

But before that, we have something equally special happening -

this close flyby of the asteroid.

How are we going to be looking at that?

Well, we have been contemplating this for the last week.

We're currently setting up a number of different telescopes

attached to cameras and camera lenses,

because this thing is travelling at quite a velocity.

So we are using many different forms of media to actually track

and record this object as it zips by and says hello.

I've brought my binoculars with me

so I'm hoping for some guidance of where to look.

-And I'll be trying to catch it, as well.

-Excellent. Superb. Me too.

The sun has not yet set and we already have our first astro hit.

Jupiter in the daytime sky. Wonderful.

There you go.

-Oh, yeah!

-Have you got it?

-I like the stripes.

-The stripes, yeah.

Seeing Jupiter against a blue sky.

That is absolutely astonishing.

Wow!

To see Jupiter so soon in the night,

it makes you feel that we're in for a good night's observing.

It bodes well.

As it darkens, Gary gives one of his many public talks,

this time with an impromptu performance from Jon,

a poem he wrote about Patrick.

AUDIENCE APPLAUD

Of course, The Sky At Night established almost 56 years ago

by the great Godfather of astronomy, Sir Patrick Moore.

Of course.

Capturing the fascination of astronomy beautifully, like that.

In 1957, The Sky At Night began

They asked me to present the show

Well, I'll do the best I can

So as The Sky At Night got underway

The space race started too

We achieved the show's objectives

Delivering all events to you

We saw the far side of the Moon

Could our consciousness absorb it?

And Sputnik launched on October 4th

Into elliptical low Earth orbit

AUDIENCE LAUGH

At our 55th anniversary

Another birthday flag unfurled

With thanks, with pride, with gratitude

We are the longest-running show in the world

Good night.

AUDIENCE APPLAUD

It's completely dark now

and the night skies of Kielder have really delivered.

We are out on the observation deck,

waiting to see the asteroid come into view.

Gary and his fellow astronomers have joined us

to share this unique event.

Just a few minutes ago, a small lump of rock called 2012 DA14 made one

of the closest passes past the Earth that we had in recorded history.

And we are all still here.

Yes, we are all still here, so it didn't hit.

How close did it get, Lucy?

At closest approach, it was about 17,200 miles from us.

Maybe some people won't be thinking that's that close,

but it is in astronomical terms.

It's closer than satellites that broadcast TV, isn't it?

-It's nearer than they are.

-That's right.

Any satellites are in a geosynchronous orbit.

It has cut straight through those orbits.

There was never any chance of it colliding with a satellite,

and never any chance of it colliding with us.

How big is this thing? That's the first question I want to know.

How should we imagine it?

It's about 45 metres in length. Which is a fair size.

-An Olympic swimming pool, sort of size.

-Yeah.

A swimming pool size worth of rock shooting past the Earth.

The reason we are here now is, it's about to rise.

As seen from here in Kielder.

We should see it go up, I think, just beneath the tail of Leo there.

And then by 9:30, it should be crossing the Plough.

And it will be visible in telescopes, but also in binoculars.

I'm looking forward to having a look at it.

I'm wondering what it's actually going to look like,

this Olympic-size swimming pool,

that sized object travelling at five miles per second.

It should be rising, so should we go and have a look?

I think we should, yes. I think we should.

Let's check it's on the course they said it was.

I'm hoping that the skies stay clear enough that I can get a view,

even though it's going to be rather faint.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 is now in our sky,

but it's proving very, very difficult to see.

As it gets to that point, which is easy to locate,

it will have got dimmer.

We have been sent some great footage from our viewers who are having

much more luck that we are here in Kielder.

This helpful arrow pinpoints the fast-moving object, as seen by

Simon White, who is camped out on Shap in Cumbria.

Another helpful arrow to show the asteroid,

which is moving incredibly fast.

This is from Australia, by Colin Legg.

We are still having no luck, no matter how hard we stare,

it's just not there.

There are no arrows in our sky, but Dave Thompson and Brendan Martin

from Liverpool have managed to pinpoint the pesky asteroid.

Well, I haven't managed to find it yet but I'm still hopeful.

It should just be approaching the handle of the Plough.

I'm going to give it five more minutes,

and then maybe I'm going to ask Pete for some help.

It's really frustrating trying to see what's moving and what's not.

-Does somebody have it?

-I've got it!

-You've got it?

-Yeah!

-I can see the thing moving.

-Where?!

Well, right at this moment, the asteroid is with us.

Pete Lawrence there with a great sense of determination. He is on it.

He's got his camera going.

He is collecting lots and lots of pictures of it.

You can actually physically see the asteroid moving.

-Got it!

-Ah, and Paul Abel has it now.

-What can you see, Paul?

-It's a tiny, faint point of light.

But it's moving noticeably against the background of stars.

I'm quite surprised that the motion is as detectable as this.

Are you seeing the motion, Pete? It is quite remarkable.

-It's absolutely incredible. Never seen anything like it.

-Me neither!

It just looks like a faint star,

but you can see it visibly moving through the binoculars.

I expected to see something that would look stationary.

And then you'd come back to it a moment later,

and you'd see it would have moved.

But I can actually visibly see it moving. It looks like a satellite.

And you can see the shapes it's making with the stars out there.

The shapes are just changing

because that asteroid is moving through the stars.

It makes it very difficult to find a reference point to describe to

other people.

Because as soon as you say it's right by that star, making

an Isosceles triangle, it has moved and the shape is no longer the same.

I didn't expect it to be quite so visibly in motion as that.

That's just astonishing to think that is an asteroid,

about 45 metres across, moving through space.

I'm very glad I've seen it here for Kielder, as well.

David Strange saw it from Devon.

And here is this lovely sighting from Richard Fleet from Wiltshire.

Well done to everybody who managed to catch a glimpse

of this flying visitor.

Oh, God, I've lost it!

It's an object that really makes you work hard to keep up with it.

-I've gone and lost it.

-I think it's moved on since I last saw it.

-Oh, hang on.

-Have you got it? If it moves, you've got it.

Yes, that is moving.

THEY CHEER

Whoa!

Look at that. So that's what half a football pitch,

travelling at five miles per second, looks like.

-Good grief!

-That's really rather special.

You can look at our website to find more images of this asteroid

and many others captured as they tumble through space.

One asteroid, which did not have a safe encounter with Earth,

is the meteorite, which scattered in Chelyabinsk in the Russian Urals.

Here is a view of it from space just as it's entering the Earth's

atmosphere, taken by one of our weather satellites.

We will be discussing its impact in next month's programme.

Well, that was absolutely fabulous. But we were really lucky.

The asteroid has been and gone just as the clouds rolled in.

I can't quite believe it was clear just when we needed it to be.

But we are not giving up.

We still have a lot to do, because we want to have

a look at some of Patrick's favourite objects in the Moore Winter Marathon.

Last April, Patrick came up with the Moore Marathon

to celebrate his 55th anniversary on The Sky At Night.

He was so pleased with the results, that in autumn he decided to

challenge you all again, this time with a Moore Winter Marathon.

And this should be good,

with the Winter Sol the most magnificent of the entire year.

Pete insisted on including the Celestial G,

but Patrick was a little sceptical.

Who invented that one, I do not know.

-Well, Pete...

-It was a chap called Graham.

-Even now, I don't know what it is.

-Pete, enlighten us.

-OK.

Patrick challenged us to see 50 objects, and while waiting around

for our asteroid to arrive, we decided to get a few under our belt.

With clear skies beckoning, a good place to start

was Orion, the Hunter.

Everyone knows Orion.

You've got Betelgeuse, which means armpit of the great one.

You've got Rigel, which is his foot.

You've got the Belt, the three stars, and then

hanging down from the Belt, just about here, you've got the Sword.

And in that Sword you've got the misty nebula,

the fiery unformed mist of future suns. It's a stellar nursery.

A place where a cluster of stars is just forming.

And it looks fabulous in a telescope.

We can use that to navigate around the sky.

The belt is incredibly useful.

If you follow the line it makes, down and to the left,

that points to the brightest star in the night sky,

which is Sirius,

or brightest star in Canis Major, The Great Dog.

It's also known as the Dog Star, of course.

And the body goes down towards the horizon,

and there is even a little, tiny tail on the back of it, as well.

I can't quite see the tail. What do you think, Jon? Convincing as a dog?

THEY LAUGH

I would love to have been on the committee of those who

decided what the constellations were.

Because, I don't know,

it may be open to the interpretation of the time when it was done.

Indeed.

If you locate Sirius, there's another Moore Winter Marathon object

four degrees below it.

If you're not sure how big four degrees is,

that's about eight moon diameters below.

-The moon is half a degree.

-That's right.

So if you look directly below it, you've got lovely, dark,

crystal-clear winter skies.

There is M41 twinkling away. I'm having difficulty at the moment

because it is a little bit hazy down there.

And of course, round Aldebaran,

you've got that V-shape of stars, as well, which is on the Moore list.

It is. The Hyades as they are known, is a fantastic open cluster.

It often gets overlooked but I think it still looks fantastic.

And it represents the face of Taurus, the Bull.

Aldebaran is supposed to be his eye.

And the point at the end of the V is his nose.

The whole lot overshadowed by a temporary star, of course,

because that's where Jupiter is at the minute.

We've got a beautiful clear sky here. Beautiful dark site.

And we can see all the things.

But you can notice the difference between Jupiter and Aldebaran,

and notice how they move, from any sky.

And you can watch that, night after night, in the middle of London.

You can see how those two are dancing around

and that's part of the joy of astronomy too.

The clouds are rolling in but our first night

here at Kielder has been a success.

We have bagged a few of those Moore Winter Marathon objects

and seen the asteroid.

Our second day at the Kielder Observatory has started

a little ominously. The mist and rain has rolled in,

but we are not down-hearted.

We had a good night last night. I enjoyed myself.

But to keep track of what we have seen,

Chris, I think you have sorted out a map for us. This is a very exciting.

We've got the official Moore Winter Marathon map.

There we go. Where shall we start?

What a grand unveiling.

Fine list of 50. Why don't we start with Jupiter?

Michael Murphy from County Dublin said,

"Always good to see the king of the planets."

Mike Stewart of Sheffield said, "Stunning as always."

The reason he never finished the full list,

-cos Jupiter was so distracting.

-Excellent.

Well, we all saw Jupiter, so d'you want to put that up on the board?

Philip Jennings of Malton says, "The highlight of the year,

"always seeing the Pleiades rise in the east,

"knowing that the winter constellations are on the way."

Which we all saw, I mean, that was very nice.

There's a nice comment here from one of our young astronomers,

Andrew Suttle, who said he counted 13 stars.

Wow, that's pretty good.

That's a test of how good your skies are.

Always count the stars in the Pleiades.

We shall watch his career with great interest.

Where shall we go next, Jon?

-Well, we have the Triangulum Galaxy.

-Oh, this was lovely.

Nice description from Chris Pearce. "At last!

"Been trying for over a year to spot this, but without success,

"but Pete's observing guide really did help."

-Fantastic, that's good to know.

-I found it really tough.

I think that maybe I saw the idea of a hint of it last night,

cos the moon's in this area, the moon was about here.

I failed to see that one, I found the moon quite distracting.

-It's so beautiful.

-But not on the list!

-But not on the list.

-What next, Jon?

-M35 in Gemini.

-I enjoyed these, so we've got, what?

M36, 37 is the closest to Gemini and then Messier 38, erm...

This is like Peter Snow on election night.

LAUGHTER

A trend towards M38 last night, I found.

-PETER SNOW IMPRESSION:

-The votes for M36 are coming in now...!

And talking about the Celestial G, cos that's number 13 on the list...

It spans quite a large portion of the sky, as well,

that's what surprised me

when I was reading it in the guide, and I actually went out

and it was really nice to see this way of tracking around...

I'll stick it in the middle.

Because a lot of those stars are different colours, as well,

so that's what makes it a nice-shaped thing.

The orange of Betelgeuse

and the brilliant blue of Rigel really contrast very nicely.

-I love colours in stars.

-I do!

It's such an obvious way of learning something

-fundamental about the object.

-Absolutely.

-Cos our star, it's sort of yellow, isn't it?

-Well, it looks it.

It looks it through our atmosphere, but actually, the light from the sun

peaks in the blue-green part of the spectrum,

so it's a green star, not a yellow star.

-You never think of the sun as being green!

-You don't.

Rather appropriate for you, Lucy, isn't it?

It is, and Lucy means "light" I think.

-TOM BAKER IMPRESSION:

-You are the sun's ambassador to Planet Earth.

-Where next, Jon?

-Where would we like to go?

Lovely description here from Philip Jennings again in Yorkshire,

"Leaned back on a hedge to observe both a double cluster and M31.

"Unfortunately, I had to observe both from inside the hedge as

"I became stuck there and my scarf got tangled in the branches."

"Spectacular in..." It's sort of turned into a Lee Evans routine!

That's dedication for you.

The perils of astronomy.

Not without its hazards. Where shall we go next?

While we're up there, shall we just mention that one which

a lot of people have commented on, which is Kemble's Cascade?

Beautiful binocular object.

I hadn't seen it until you put it on the list, actually. I was stunned.

It's like a little stream of coloured stars.

It's a waterfall of starlight.

There's a little cluster at the end which is the celestial splash pool.

-Really?

-It is.

-That's really got people's imagination.

Wayne Young simply, "Wow!"

Alan Beaton, "Like a rollercoaster following the stars.

"What a lovely sight, I counted 21 stars leading downwards

"like a celestial waterfall."

Andrew Suttle, our young astronomer once again,

"Below Cassiopeia and just above the conservatory.

"Dad had to lift me up."

Obviously, your conservatory may be in a different place.

You've had to localise these...

Yeah, but a lot of wow factors with that one.

We only have one more night at Kielder

to complete the Moore Winter Marathon,

and the task and the weather ahead of us is daunting,

but like all marathon runners, we're here for the long haul.

Fortunately, we have some help.

Some of our marathon astronomers have come along with their telescopes.

-You got it?

-Yeah.

Dad Paul Williamson and Olivia, who is just eight,

are from near Winchester,

and they started observing a little over one year ago.

Whose idea was it to do the Moore Winter Marathon? Was it your idea?

Sort of, yeah, both our ideas, we decided we'd do it for a challenge.

'They also took part in Patrick's last Moore Marathon.

'Dedicated star spotters.'

Congratulations on getting 49 out of the 50 objects.

Now you've done the Moore Winter Marathon, what's next on your list?

What's the one we've been going for?

Oh, the Horse Head and the Flame Nebula.

Definitely one of my favourites along with the Crab Nebula.

Sarah Dunwood is from Warrington and took part in the last Marathon too.

The best two for me were actually imaging Jupiter

and actually seeing the Great Red Spot...

Did you see it? It's very faint, isn't it, at the moment? Well done!

It was difficult in terms of viewing but again, camera object,

it came out quite nicely.

'The Kilgours are from Glasgow and they're new to astronomy.

'Mum Katherine has made their new telescope its own cover,

'which may have to stay on if this rain doesn't clear.'

You look like you're set up and ready to go, take up the challenge.

How many objects have you seen on the list?

We've maybe seen just under 20 of the naked eye objects,

we've just started the telescope version.

That's a good approach, isn't it?

Get familiar with the sky, navigate your way around

and it's amazing what you can see through binoculars, as well.

How did the Orion Nebula look through binoculars?

It was really amazing, cos we could see, like, erm,

a few of the stars in the nebula, and a bit of stardust.

At that point it just looked like a fuzzy patch,

but when we put it into the telescope,

we could see a lot more of the dust

and you could even make out the trapezium, which was really amazing.

'Lastly, we have Steve Brown from Stokesley in Middlesbrough.

'He's only been observing for a couple of years, and likes drawing,

'so that should please Paul.'

So Steve, congratulations.

This man got all 50 objects, you must be very pleased.

Yeah, very pleased.

I did not get all 50 objects because of cloud, weather not too like this

in fact, so what particularly was your favourite one?

-Erm, I liked the, erm, the Double Cluster was good.

-Yeah, beautiful!

Lovely, yeah, like two for the price of one in the viewfinder.

What about the Flaming Star,

cos we're told a lot of people had trouble with it?

That was difficult, took four attempts to find it.

Had to double-check to make sure it wasn't something wrong with the

telescope or my eyes or something, but it was definitely there.

Let's hope we see something tonight. If you get the Double Cluster,

I will be back to have a look, cos it's one of my favourite objects.

Steve, thank you very much.

This winter's weather has challenged many of you,

but you can still see many beautiful

and spectacular images on The Sky At Night Flickr site.

'Unfortunately, the Northumbrian weather has crushed our hopes

'of seeing any more winter Marathon objects tonight.'

Well, I have to say, this is utterly miserable.

It's raining, it's foggy,

I don't think there's any chance we're going to see anything tonight.

No, we are out of luck,

but we have some people inside who have been successful.

Let's go and find out what they saw.

'There's nothing to do but go into the observatory and warm up.

'Our guests have seen all the objects and they can give us

'a helping hand to finish the chart.'

Right, Chris, where are we going to start?

I think we should start with the Crab Nebula,

which I haven't seen this winter at all, cos the weather's been bad

and because I've been lazy, so who saw the Crab? Yes?

Excellent, if you put that on the map.

Jon, who else had success seeing the Crab Nebula?

Quite challenging for quite a few folks.

David Scanlan from Romsey said,

"Very faint owing to its low surface brightness.

"Had a distinctive Y-shaped regularity about it."

Wayne Young said, "The original fuzzy blob." Very descriptive.

Chris Pearce said, "Would love to have seen this 1,000 years ago.

"Come on, Betelgeuse! Hurry up and go supernova!"

-Charming.

-I agree with him. OK...

It looks nothing like a crab. That's the key thing.

Messier 77, is this one of the planetary nebuli

or one of the clusters?

-It's a galaxy.

-Well, I was close!

You'd better show me where to find it.

Jon, what were the comments about this one?

Sam Copley in Rochester said, "Just a small blob in the scope.

"The sky was washed out by the moon."

But he got it despite all of that, so that's a good thing.

The next one's the Little Dumbbell, so who saw that?

I accidentally got it with my camera.

CHEERING AND CHATTER

-Somebody's going to need to point it out.

-Jon, did anyone else find this?

Dr Peter McCann of Chorley in Lancashire, near my part of

the world, "Nice moist rectangular box with a pinch in the middle.

"Very cold tonight, I'm not hanging around for long."

Robert Plant in Lichfield, he says, "Medium? Pah!

"If this is medium, I'm going to struggle with the hard ones!"

I think a few people did struggle.

It wasn't an easy marathon, it's the last few that always get you.

-The Eskimo Nebula.

-Oh, Eskimo!

I wanted to see this one and I didn't manage it, so who saw this one?

You got it, there you go, Steve. Absolutely beautiful!

Lovely nose and a fur-lined hood.

Andrew Hindmarch of Lingfield said, "It looked more like a hoodie!"

-A modern take on it.

-Exactly, a nice interpretation there.

"Simply not as impressive as Hubble's photos," says Chris Pearce.

This is a sunlight star giving off its outer atmosphere

-near the end of its life.

-That's right, jettisoning its outer layers,

and actually discovered by William Herschel in 1787,

so we're seeing what he saw.

We've got another nebula, the Flaming Star Nebula.

You saw 49 of them between you two, I know,

so what was the Flaming Star nebula like?

It was one of the hardest ones that we had to find.

It took me several attempts to actually capture it, in the end.

-Luckily, there it was.

-Can you find it for us now?

-Hopefully.

No pressure.

Very good. This next one's one of my favourites, something I saw

yesterday, which is the Fish's Mouth in Orion, so you know where this is?

Smack in the middle. So what did that look like when you saw it?

We could see the nebula dust and we could just see a slightly

darker patch where the Fish's Eye is and also the Trapezium.

-The next one's the Trapezium.

-D'you want to put that one up?

A beautiful object,

a wonderful grouping of stars in the middle of M42.

-Brilliant, lots of people saying brilliant!

-Brilliant!

About the Trapezium. Brilliant!

Any excuse, Jon!

The Owl Cluster.

There you go, you might need a lift to get to Cassiopeia, I think.

-Oh!

-Teamwork.

Yay, there you go. So I've got number 50, the last of them,

so this is Messier 52, which is a cluster. Who saw this?

It's actually one of my favourites. You got all 50, Steve.

It's only right that you should ceremonially put the 50th up.

-Last one, there we go.

-Excellent.

APPLAUSE

-I declare you the champion of the Moore Winter Marathon.

-Well done.

You get to keep the poster.

This collection of objects represents a huge

amount of effort on all of your behalfs.

I know you all went out week after week, month after month,

so you all deserve a big round of applause, well done.

Absolutely, I know Patrick would have been proud of all of you,

and angry at us for not going out enough, cos you've got to get out

every clear night, and you guys all did that, so well done.

I think we've just invented the first Sky At Night advent calendar.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

There's an elite bunch who saw all 50 objects,

so well done to Wayne Young from Thatcham in Berkshire,

Paul Hutchinson from Torquay in Devon,

Sam Copley from Hoo in Kent

and of course Steve Brown from Stokesley in Middlesbrough.

February's been such an exciting month.

March has a lot to live up to, but fortunately there's a comet.

Pete and Jon have more information.

Well, Pete, this is some busy time for astronomy right now, with

the asteroid powering past, and the fireball over Russia

and coming very soon, the first of the bright comets for this year.

That's right, Jon, we've got two potentially bright comets

that hopefully will appear in our skies this year.

The first one should be visible from the UK

from about the middle of March onwards.

It's actually been seen from the Southern Hemisphere

and we've got some great pictures of it at the moment,

showing a lovely tail, two tails actually, a dust tail curving away

from the comet and a very straight, what's called a gas tail, as well.

This comet is called C2011 L4 Pan-STARRS.

The numbers and letters at the front of it identify which one it is.

But that has the potential to be a naked eye comet.

So could we expect, say, something comparable to a Hale-Bopp of 1997?

Comets are really difficult to predict.

It could get close to the sun, it could fragment and then you

get a huge dust tail form from it, so it could still surprise us.

They do whatever they like.

So we can consider Comet Pan-STARRS as a warm-up act for the big one

in November, which is Comet Ison.

Ison, we'll deal with that one later in the year,

but that could be quite spectacular.

Lots of events to keep us going.

Comet Pan-STARRS might be a faint fuzzy,

but Pete's charts are on the website if you do want to find it.

We've had a wonderful time here at Kielder Observatory,

and we've been fantastically lucky to see the asteroid whizzing past

and many of the Moore Winter Marathon objects.

We certainly were lucky, so we owe a huge thanks to Gary and the rest of

the team up here in Kielder, and to everyone who's trekked up to

join us in this remote and beautiful part of the world.

Next month, we'll be finding out all about meteorites,

including that dramatic event above Russia.

And we'll be holding the first of our space surgeries,

for anyone who has a question about anything astronomical

or about observing.

You can contact us through the website.

So until next time...

ALL: Goodnight.

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