Observing

On the morning of March 29, UK residents can witness a partial solar eclipse, weather permitting. Though less dramatic than a total eclipse, it’s a rare chance to see the Moon partially cover the Sun—the first such event visible from the UK in over 25 years!

Messier 108 (NGC 3556) and Messier 109 (NGC 3992) may not receive as much attention as the stunning Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 101) or the famous duo of Messier 81 and 82. However, this contrasting pair of spiral galaxies deserves more recognition.

NGC 2419 appears as a faint globular cluster in Lynx, though in reality it’s a massive and luminous object that’s a distant outlier of our Milky Way Galaxy.

The Horsehead Nebula is a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion. Resembling a horse’s head is located just to the south of Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orion’s Belt. Nearby, the Flame Nebula appears like its name in astrophotos.

Messier 67 is an ancient open cluster in the southern, equatorial half of Cancer. It was discovered by Johann Gottfried Koehler in 1779. It is a truly ancient cluster, with some astronomers calculating that it’s as old as five billion years!

The observing year comes to a close with a bang as brilliant Jupiter comes to opposition on 7 December. Across the whole of the month the dominant gas giant planet offers its best observing circumstances of the year.