Moore Winter Marathon The Sky at Night

Good evening. For this programme

we have another Moore Marathon for you,

examining the winter stars.

And this should be good,

as the winter stars are the most magnificent of the entire year.

With me, Chris Lintott.

I agree, Patrick, the winter stars are amongst the most beautiful.

We have a constellation of experts to help guide us around!

As usual, Paul Abel, Chris North and, of course, Pete Lawrence.

And what we've done this time,

we'd split the marathon into two parts, so the first 25 objects

are naked eye and binocular, and the last 25 are for telescopic viewing.

You can see the full list at the website.

With that under way, we should get a move on,

and let's start with object number one - the Pleiades.

The Pleiades is a brilliant object to look at,

whatever your observing method. With naked eyes is beautiful.

It is sometimes called the Seven Sisters

because there are apparently seven stars

to be seen with the naked eye,

but reports vary greatly depending on your sky conditions and allsorts.

I've seen fewer and more than seven on different occasions.

-The trouble is, one of them is variable.

-Is it? Ah!

But there are many more in the cluster as well, Pete.

But there is some gas around the stars.

PETE LAWRENCE: That's right, there's a reflection nebula around them.

If you take a long-exposure photograph of that region,

you pick up this beautiful sort of blue misty cloud around it.

And that shines because of the light reflected off of the stars.

CHRIS LINTOTT: So the Pleiades are in Taurus.

The other cluster in Taurus, Patrick, is the Hyades.

The Hyades have several easy naked-eye stars.

It doesn't look too much like a cluster, Pete.

PETE: If you compare it with the Pleiades,

it looks completely different. It's got a very distinctive V-shape,

the V is on its side,

and that's supposed to represent the face of Taurus the Bull.

At the moment,

the stars of the Hyades have their own proper motions,

and they're going towards Aldebaran.

So it's actually drawing together over time?

They are. That means the longer you leave it to see the Hyades,

the better the view will be! THEY LAUGH

-You might have to wait a little while.

-And it'll be cloudy!

-Indeed.

From those two, I think object three is...

Well, it's a cluster of stars, but a much bigger one.

It is the Triangulum Galaxy.

It's the most distant object you can see with the naked eye.

It's about three million light years away.

This is actually harder than it seems to find. Is this a binocular object?

I think so.

I made the great mistake when I got into astronomy

looking for deep-sky objects with very powerful eyepieces,

and you do need a small telescope or binoculars for this sort of thing.

The main problem with it is it's a beautiful face

on the spiral galaxy, but it's got very low surface brightness.

With a spiral galaxy, like our Milky Way,

Patrick, you've often said

you can think of a spiral galaxy as two fried eggs back-to-back.

Exactly.

And, with M33,

we're looking straight down onto the white part and onto the yolk,

and so that the light gets spread out a lot across a high area.

So even though it's a bright object,

technically visible with the naked eye, it is difficult.

I have seen it with the naked eye.

I thought you might! The other week I went out, we had a lovely clear sky,

the first one for ages, and I deliberately looked for it.

But I can't see it when we get clear skies down here with direct vision.

You have to use a technique called averted vision,

which is something astronomers use quite a lot,

but basically, if you're looking for a faint object,

you don't look directly at it, you look to the side of it,

and that puts the faint light onto a more sensitive part of your eye.

It's a technique you can learn quite easily.

Just practise looking out the corner of your eye.

So I could look over here, but pay attention to you.

Do I look brighter?

You're certainly easier to see in faint light!

3.3 million light years away, so if you can see it with the naked eye, you're looking a LONG way back.

Yes, we're seeing it as it was three million years ago.

Let's come back to our own galaxy. Shall we go to a cluster next?

-Beehive Cluster, in Cancer - that's EASILY seen.

-Yes, it is.

It means a cluster of stars, and that's exactly what it is.

And a cluster of about three or four different names as well.

I've no idea why, but they call this particular cluster,

which looks like a faint misty patch up on the dome of the heavens,

it was called the Exhalation Of Piled Up Corpses!

So there's a cheerful thought for you on a winter's night.

Isn't that supposed to be due to the fact that, in mythology,

it was thought to be a portal for souls leaving this world and moving on?

Perhaps when they got there, they just left all the corpses behind.

And back in this world, it's easily a naked-eye object.

You can try the averted-vision technique again.

With binoculars, it's beautiful.

It is. It's one of these objects

that's really made for binoculars, I think.

As soon as you put any sort of power into a telescope,

a lot of the stars vanish out of the field of view,

and it loses its magic.

Why don't we come from what must be the easiest object of all,

and this is definitely your province and Patrick's - Jupiter.

We've got the red spot on the list separately,

but, Patrick, what about Jupiter with the naked eye and with binoculars?

Well, it's a very bright object.

Brighter than almost anything in the sky.

You can't mistake it. It's too red to be a star.

-And moons with binoculars?

-They should be easy with binoculars.

-Have you ever seen them with the naked eye?

-I personally haven't.

-I haven't either!

-Anyone? Pete?

No, I haven't.

But I think the one thing about Jupiter at the moment is that,

because it is nestled in Taurus, very close to the V-shaped Hyades cluster,

it looks absolutely dramatic.

I have been doing this over the last few weeks

whenever the sky has been clear, and it's just gorgeous.

The Pleiades, the Hyades, Aldebaran and Jupiter. It is a must-see thing.

What more can you ask for, huh?

Venus in there as well! And a fireball.

Moving on through the list,

we're coming to a whole list of open clusters.

Messier 36, 37 and 38.

Quite easily seen.

You can get them done in one go with binoculars. You just go...

-And you've got them all done!

-Object number 13

on the Moore Winter Marathon list, I confess I have never heard of.

Patrick, I don't know whether you have. It's the Celestial G.

Do you have any idea what this is?

Who invented that one, I do not know!

It was a chap called Graham(!)

It's on my list, even though I don't know what it is.

Pete, enlighten us.

The Celestial G is a good example of what is known as an asterism,

and it's a bit of fun in the night sky.

CHRIS: So, an asterism is a collection of stars.

PETE: It's an unofficial pattern of stars in the night sky.

This one's a bit of fun because it helps people locate or hunt down

some of the brighter stars in the winter night sky.

And to draw it, you have to join the dots, basically.

Where would you start?

I guess Orion is probably the most distinctive shape in that.

You find the belt with the two bright stars.

PETE: You can go from the belt backwards, or Aldebaran.

CHRIS: Shall we go to a more obscure constellation?

This is one of my favourite objects on the list, number 17,

which is known as Kemble's Cascade.

Before we get there, what on earth is Camelopardalis?

Oh, I wish you haven't asked me that because I don't know!

This is one of the fainter constellations.

-It's something I call the giraffe.

-Is it the giraffe?

Yes, Camelopardalis translates as giraffe, I think,

cos they thought it was a cross between a camel and a leopard.

I think it might be anything, frankly.

Where is this constellation, Pete?

PETE: Well, it's next to Perseus,

and what you're looking for with binoculars

is a bright star, or brightish star, the edge of naked-eye visibility,

but there's a line of about 20 fainter stars either side of it,

which covers quite a large distance, so the whole thing resembles

a beautiful waterfall of starlight, ending up in a splash pool.

They're all different colours as well,

and it's wonderful to see all these different-coloured stars.

-It is beautiful.

-Let's come back to familiar territory, Patrick.

-What about Orion and Orion's Sword?

-It's a lovely thing.

Below Orion's Sword, you see the Great Nebula.

-It's a real joy.

-It's lovely to see.

It is one of those things that even in light-polluted Leicester,

you can tell that it's not a star,

and that there's something misty there.

A little fuzziness. And binoculars bring it out very well.

A long time ago, our son was formed from a nebula like that.

Of all the things we've looked at on the list so far,

it's the youngest place where stars are forming,

cos stars are currently forming there right now.

So the stars in the centre of the Orion nebula

will eventually become a cluster of stars that will become

the Orion Open Cluster or something in a few million years!

For the moment, we see the diffuse gas around it. It's the nearest large region of space

where stars are forming to the sun.

There was something I didn't know

before looking at this list,

that there is more to be seen around here.

You've not just got the sword and the nebula,

but object 25 on the list,

the last of the naked-eye and binocular objects

is a cluster around Orion's Belt.

I never realised that was an actual cluster.

That's right, it's called Collinder 70.

Collinder is just a name given to another list of objects.

If you're looking at Orion's Belt, which is probably the most famous

straight line in the entire night sky,

you're looking at the heart of Collinder 70.

You can see other stars around it with the naked eye,

but with a pair of binoculars,

you see many, many more famous stars in that region.

So that is another true open cluster.

You can tick it off the list once you've seen it.

So if anybody does decide to image or draw any of these lovely objects,

in Orion or any of the objects we've discussed,

it'd be great if they could send them to our Flickr site

so we can all have a look

and you can find that on our Sky At Night website.

I think we need to take a breath here.

That's the end of the naked eye and binocular section

but before we move on to the telescopic objects,

we've got a report from Chris North,

who went to a star party in the wilds of the Brecon Beacons.

I've come to the Cwmdu campsite in South Wales

for the first Astro Camp of the Baker Street Irregular astronomers.

I'd like to catch a glimpse of galaxies, nebulae,

binary stars, and later on, the moon

and to share in some of the fun.

Some of the objects on the Moore Winter Marathon will be up later

and it would be good to get a few of those under my belt.

Their usual stomping ground is Regent's Park in Central London

with its eye-watering light pollution,

but for two nights only, they've swapped the city skyline

for lovely, dark skies here in the heart of the Brecon Beacons.

Right, you take one end.

I'm here for night two with my dad,

who got me into astronomy as a young lad. On our family camping holidays,

he would often point out stars and constellations to my brother and me

so this feels like old times.

My dad and I have brought with us a range of telescopes

for this star party, from the lower end of the price spectrum,

say £100-odd for a three-inch refractor

to a few hundred pounds for a slightly bigger refractor

with a go-to mount that will go wherever you ask to,

and then if you've got, say, £1,000 or so,

you get a bigger telescope that will let us see the deeper sky objects.

Paul, Ralph and Tom help run the Baker Street Irregular Astronomers.

We've had beginners, we've had seasoned imagers up there at the top.

There's a massive range

and some people who've come here don't have telescopes at all.

That might be a first, to come to a star party without a telescope

so yeah, we have a really, really broad range here.

Hopefully, you're going to have the nice, clear crisp skies

of the Brecon Beacons tonight.

What kind of objects do you hope to see that you couldn't normally?

You very rarely get to see things like M82.

We wouldn't be able to normally see the Veil Nebula without filters

and we're really looking forward to being able to see globular clusters

and a whole range of things.

And seeing the Milky Way,

it's something we don't even get a hint of in London,

and to be here and see the Milky Way

and the dust lane running through it

and just to see all that detail,

really looking forward to seeing that.

The Londoners have been joined by enthusiasts from all over -

from Bolton, from Lancashire, the Peak District

and even as far afield as Scotland, all sharing in the fun.

Well, it looks like we have a family outing going on here,

so where's everyone come from?

Well, we're from Tring in Hertfordshire.

OK, so you've come a fair way.

Yeah, about three-and-a-half hours in the car but hopefully worth it.

Do you get out observing very often, do you think?

Yeah, most of the time, when it's clear sky.

What kind of objects do you like to look at through the telescope?

-Milky Way.

-The Milky Way.

-And the Doughnut.

-And the Doughnut.

-They love the Doughnut, the Ring Nebula.

-The Ring Nebula!

It probably looks brilliant through a telescope this size.

Well, this is a nice, efficient setup you look to have here.

What objects are you hoping to see

with this tonight that you don't normally get to look at?

We usually look at double stars

and we like looking at Jupiter.

It's very good when you see all four moons,

but today, we're trying to learn how to see different deep sky objects

like nebulae and stuff, because we don't have a motor drive,

so we're going to try and do it manually tonight.

-Yeah, he's got a list of things we're going to try and find.

-Yeah.

So we'll go through that one by one.

A list of objects to find. That sounds like a great idea.

Someone should make a programme about that.

'Sounds like my dad and me many years ago.'

There are still a few hours to sunset

'so I've got some time to cook up some sausages and beans for tea.'

Dad, how do you fancy some slightly burnt sausages

and possibly overdone baked beans?

Sounds delightful, Chris.

I'm glad I left you to do the cooking.

Well, it's about 10pm. For an astronomer, that's early evening.

I'm really looking forward to tonight.

There's a real buzz about the place. The sky is clear, the sky is dark.

I can see the Milky Way overhead and the dust lanes through it.

I'm really looking forward to a view through not just my telescope

but lots of the other telescopes that are here as well.

Our camera has picked up The Plough,

that well-known asterism which is in our skies all year round,

and also Cassiopeia, the W,

which will be high in the winter sky.

And there's even a little satellite passing by.

Some call them celestial vermin

but I think they're good fun.

The astronomers have settled down to enjoy the pleasures of the night.

So this is a beast of a telescope you've got here.

Want to look through?

I've seen hundreds of pictures of the Veil Nebula

but I've never seen it with my own eyes.

That's actually quite amazing. That's brilliant.

Are you all seasoned astronomers?

-Yep.

-I'm...reasonably so.

I'm the wife that would rather be in bed!

-How's the night going so far?

-Yeah, brilliant.

-We managed to get the Doughnut fairly early on.

-Yeah.

And the Ring Nebula.

The Ring Nebula, M57,

or the Doughnut to its friends.

It's a star which has lost its outer layers

and to the naked eye looks like a wispy smoke ring

but long-exposure photographs

reveal the subtle colours in this beautiful object.

You can definitely see that's a ring.

It's odd, because it almost looks like an out-of-focus star

except every other star in the field of view is in focus,

so it's definitely tiny little ring

or a doughnut, I suppose.

Sometimes, I always say to my dad,

I just want to scoop it out of the sky and put it in a jar

and keep it with me.

It just looks like one of those cool things.

Yeah, it is a lovely object to look at.

As the night rolls on,

the sky above changes

and a whole new set of constellations come into view.

Right overhead, we have Cygnus, the swan,

a favourite in the summer skies

but which will soon fly away as winter approaches.

And rising in the east is Auriga, the charioteer,

which contains a few of the objects in the Moore Winter Marathon

but the naked eye is dominated by the brilliant star Capella.

As it arises through the thickest parts of the atmosphere,

the scattering of its light

causes Capella to flicker all the colours of the rainbow.

The telescope's moving, so it's obviously pointing

at something different. What are you aiming at now?

We're going to go onto M13, great globular cluster in Hercules.

-Oh, very nice.

-That's just about to finish slewing now.

It really is a nice view.

Oh, that's a gorgeous view.

These clusters can just look...

You sort of think they'll just be one round fuzzy ball

but there's so much structure in there.

There's tendrils of stars coming out.

We're trying to pick out as many individual stars as possible.

Yeah, you sort of imagine you can see the individual stars

so I wonder whether that is my imagination running wild.

-For now, I'll believe it.

-We can always bump up the magnification.

I'm having so much fun,

I'd forgotten Dad's still minding the telescopes.

'I wonder what he's been looking at.'

Right, Dad. How's the night going so far?

Hi, Chris.

Well, that, allegedly, is Uranus.

-Is there anything in there?

-Yes.

You can just see a faint disc through that scope.

-Yeah, looks like a disc.

-Yeah.

Some people say it's blue. I'm not sure that I believe them

but if that's Uranus, that's the first time I've seen it,

so I've ticked that one off.

-Whoa!

-You hear these shouts go up every now and then,

when a meteor or a fireball goes.

I seem to have missed every one tonight!

So that's a first for both Dad and me.

'He's seen Uranus and I've seen the Veil Nebula. Fantastic.'

You can see the colours as well, which is nice.

John, Jeni, you've got a pretty big telescope here.

-What have you been looking at so far?

-We've been looking at Albera.

We tried taking some photos so hopefully they'll come out

and we've got on the Ring Nebula now

and that's it so far.

Coming here to this event

has been a really good idea,

you know, it's given us a chance to talk to other people,

get lots of tips, you know,

and we've probably gained more information in this one event

than the past six months, trying to find out for ourselves,

so this kind of event is, you know,

if anybody is thinking of going to one, don't think about it, do it.

It's midnight, and the young astronomers have gone to bed.

But the die-hards still have a hit list of objects they want to see.

My daughter made a list just before we came out,

so we've had a few things.

Managed to get M 17, the Omega Nebula, earlier on,

and now I'm just waiting for the M1, Crab Nebula, to come up.

I might bottle it in a bit

and go to bed, I think.

Finally, I get to tick off four Moore Winter Marathon objects -

first, the Pleiades as it arises over the hill,

followed by the familiar V-shape of the Hyades

and in it, the double star Theta Tauri, number 16 in the list.

And hot on their heels is Jupiter,

which, through binoculars, is accompanied by a few of its moons,

one of the first things Dad showed me through his telescope

many years ago.

I'm quite happy to wind down now.

I think what I'll do, then, is pack up my telescope

and wait for the moon to rise, get a view of the moon,

and then possibly call it a night.

Yeah, that sounds like a good plan.

The moon is a lovely sight

but at 3am, it's time to call it a night and get into my sleeping bag.

It's been a great night and a great star party.

Well, Chris, you got clear skies, so that's most of the battle won

but Pete, what is on the telescopic list and how did you put it together?

What we wanted to do here was introduce people to some objects

which they may not have been able to see before.

We deliberately picked objects you can see with small telescopes,

so there's no need to be afraid of trying to find these objects,

and in fact, if you're worried about where to look,

there are lots and lots of charts etc available

in our guides, which are available

from the Sky At Night website.

Where shall we start? Let's start with a familiar object.

One of my favourites

is the nebula known as the Eskimo Nebula,

which is in Gemini, the twins.

Now, this is an amazing thing to look at and a lot of people, I know,

have never seen it through a telescope.

In fact, I only saw it myself for the first time last year

and I was amazed I hadn't looked at it before

because it is such a beautiful thing to look at

and this bit on the outside, which has lines of material

which are estimated to be

-about a light year in length in reality...

-Filaments.

They're like filaments moving away from the star.

They make the fur hood of the Eskimo,

so it fits the description really well.

And what's going on here is that

a planetary nebula is a dying sun-like star

that's shed its outer layers

and so all that structure is in the layers of the star

that have already been pushed off the surface of the star

and you only see a planetary nebula for a few tens of thousands of years,

so we're very lucky to see these things. Chris, which objects on the list caught your eye.?

There's one called the Flame Nebula

that also goes by the name The Flaming Star Nebula,

so if you look at that through a telescope,

which is something I'd very much like to do, I've not seen it

but the pictures I have seen look like flames coming out of a star

which is how it got its name, I assume, and this is gas

that's been lit up by the star at the base of the flame.

One really nice thing about this object is,

that star's a runaway star. It's moving very quickly across the sky

and if you trace it backwards,

you realise that a couple of million years ago,

it probably formed in that giant star-forming region in Orion

that we were talking about.

There's a couple of others as well.

-There's Mu Microscopium

-LAUGHTER

-and 53 Arietis.

-You always have to come out with the more obscure.

Also runaway stars, which were thrown out of that region too.

And if any of the viewers want to see Mu Microscopium,

they can write to you directly.

And send them to the Flickr site, so we can see them.

We also have the Crab Nebula,

which is one of my favourites,

which is a wonderful supernova remnant.

I've always found it interesting to look at, especially in a wide field,

you can actually see quite a lot of the structure.

I would agree with that. I think where the disappointment comes from

is that when you look at pictures of it

taken, for example, by the Hubble, it looks amazing.

It really does. And in the X-ray, it looks even better.

I have no x-ray eyes.

It's a fascinating thing

-to look at to a telescope.

-While we're talking about stars

that are dying or have died,

let's talk about one that's on its way out

and this is one of the objects on the list that I've never seen,

so this is on my to-do list.

This is number 34. Hind's Crimson Star.

-Have you heard of Hind's Crimson Star, Patrick?

-I know of it, yes.

It's R Leporis in Lepus, the hare

and it's beneath Orion, basically.

It is. It's actually right up

in the top left of the corner of Lepus, if you like,

and it's a very, very red Star.

It's what's called a carbon star.

It's beautiful red colouring, actually.

I want to see it because Hind, the discoverer, described it

as a drop of blood on a black field.

That's such a poetic description that if you've all...

Chris, have you seen Hind's Crimson Star?

I've never seen it, but as you say, it's on the list.

One for you and I.

Another one on the list - Caldwell 13, the owl cluster.

This is a lovely cluster to look at.

I know Paul's not keen on clusters.

-I don't hate them.

-But this one has a personality to it.

There are two stars there,

Phi-1 and Phi-2 Cassiopeiae,

and if you look at it through a telescope,

using a fairly wide field again, so a low-power eyepiece.

Those two stars look like the eyes of an owl,

or perhaps the eyes of an alien.

LAUGHTER

There's a line of stars...

This is getting increasingly desperate.

We let you have the Celestial G

-but two stars that look like the eyes of an alien?

-Stay with me.

You've got the two stars like that

and a line of stars underneath which makes it look he's got his arms...

I thought you were going to say a bicycle for a second there.

What will you be looking for particularly, Paul, from the list?

From the list?

I am actually going to go for something I've never seen before

and that is this difficult galaxy,

M74 in Pisces.

This is a face-on spiral galaxy,

probably one of the most difficult galaxies, difficult objects, even,

in the Messier catalogue, and I've always given it the brush-off.

I've never really bothered with it. I wouldn't mind trying to find that

because it's not in an easy part of the sky.

-There's a trick for this one. It's very important.

-I'm all ears.

If you use a low-power, you can see the core

then, if you look really carefully,

again, using that technique of averted vision,

you suddenly start to see sort of blotches in the spiral arms.

CHRIS: The blotches you see through your telescope, the bright blotches,

are these small regions where stars are currently forming.

You notice in the winter sky,

there's very few globular clusters around.

These big cities of stars.

Yeah, I rather like those, actually. Globular clusters are lovely.

One that does take my fancy is M79.

This is the globular cluster N Lepus.

Now, it's been on my list to find it

and see it, which is a fancy way of saying I've never seen it.

Is it terribly difficult to find?

No, not merely, because Lepus looks a bit like the number eight.

-That's the constellation.

-On its side.

-On its side

like an infinity symbol, if you like.

And where the crossover point is, there are two stars.

There's Alpha and Beta Leporis

and if you follow the line they make down

and extend it for the same distance again,

-that points exactly at M79.

-Very useful.

The other good thing about this cluster,

if you're interested in such things, is that it's not part of our galaxy.

It's one of the very few globulars that are bright

that actually, we've captured it

from a dwarf galaxy that the Milky Way is in the process of eating

and so this cluster has been stripped from that

and it's still about 41,000 light years away from us,

so it's distant and it's the remnant

-of our galaxy's previous meal.

-It's the breadcrumbs of the meal.

-Indeed!

That would explain why it's difficult to resolve, even with a high-power.

Because it's a long way away, 41,000 light years is a little much

-but you'll see it as a fuzzy patch in the telescope.

-Yes, definitely.

Well, that's a good overview of our telescopic challenge.

Of course, finder charts for all of those are on the website,

so you don't need to remember anything we've said.

bbc.co.uk/skyatnight.

And if you do get images of any of them,

you can submit them to our Flickr group via that URL as well.

Let's go around, let's see,

one object of the 50 you're particularly looking forward to?

-Paul?

-One object?

-One object.

Well, I'm going to change my mind. After all of that,

I'll go, because you made it sound so alluring, Chris,

-for M79, the after-dinner breadcrumb.

-Excellent.

I'm definitely going to try and find that.

Distant cluster. Chris?

I'm going to go and try and find NGC 2244 in Monoceros,

purely because I've never really found much in Monoceros before.

It's an obscure constellation. It sounds wonderful.

OK, the unicorn for you. Pete?

Kemble's Cascade again.

I've seen it in the past,

but it's such a beautiful thing to look at, so I'm going for that.

OK. Patrick, one object for the next few months?

M44.

-The Beehive.

-The Beehive.

Good choice.

Yeah, and I'm going for Jupiter,

not with the telescope, just with the naked eye,

watching Jupiter move as the seasons wear on.

I think cycling home, I'll keep an eye out for Jupiter most nights.

-And cars.

-And the cars! Definitely the cars.

if you want to take part in the Moore Winter Marathon,

then you can do so, of course. You can go to the website...

Remember, there are two lists

so you can take part even if you don't have a telescope.

We've tried to pick objects that everyone can have a go at seeing.

When you've done that, you can send them in on paper to us at...

Hopefully, there'll be one or two clear nights

between now and the end of January

so we'll make that the closing date

and we'll go through the best of the entries and of our observations

in March's Sky At Night.

Best of luck with it all, and until next month, goodnight.

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