Observing

The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on the night of 3/4 January and, as one of the recognised major meteor showers of the year, there’s a great chance to see at least dozens of shooting stars each hour, especially as the Moon will not interfere this year.

The peak of the Geminid meteor shower is predicted to take place on Monday night into Tuesday morning. Year on year, the Geminids have become the best and most reliable of the annual meteor showers.

As 2021 draws to a close, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are seen together soon after sunset in the south to south-western sky. This attractive and enticing spectacle is embellished when a waxing crescent Moon comes a-calling in early December.

Comet 2021 A1 (LEONARD) has broken out of the cometary pack to brighten up and shine close to naked-eye magnitude. All the indications look good for it at the very least to become a nice object through a pair of binoculars.

There’s a partial eclipse of the Moon on 18/19 November which is a favourable event for observers in North America. Lasting for 208.4 minutes (the deeper, umbral part of the eclipse) it is the longest since 1440.

The famous Leonid meteor shower returns this week, with its activity predicted to peak between 09h and 11h UT on November 17.

Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, visited by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe, is well placed for observation now; indeed, it’s been under constant scrutiny by amateur astronomers since late spring, when it shone feebly at nineteenth-magnitude in the pre-dawn sky from the UK.

Venus has been blazing brilliant as an ‘evening star’ since around late May. On 29 October Venus finally pulls out to greatest eastern elongation from the Sun, signalling a welcome gradual improvement in its visibility.

A major new sunspot has just rotated into view at the south-eastern limb area of the Sun’s photosphere. Officially designated sunspot AR2887, it was first seen peeping around the Sun’s limb on 22 October.