Observing

There’s a ‘new star’ – a classical nova – on show among the stars of the far-northern constellation of Cassiopeia. Nova Cas 2021 was discovered on 18 March shining at around magnitude +9.6, but it appears to have brightened rapidly to around magnitude +7.5 on 19 March.

Mars, the red planet, is putting on a good showing among the stars of Taurus, the Bull and lies not far from the splendid Pleiades open cluster.

Long-period comet 2020 R4 (ATLAS) is gracing our predawn skies this week and is well-worth a look through a pair of binoculars or a small telescope.

Mercury is visible this evening soon after sunset, having reached greatest elongation east (18.6 degrees) from the Sun.

Today Jupiter and Saturn lie closer together in the sky than at any time in almost the past 400 years, in a once-in-a-lifetime event that’s been termed the ‘Great conjunction’.

The countdown is on for the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. The two giant planets of the Solar System will lie a mere six arcminutes apart on 21 December.

The Geminid meteor shower peaks Sunday night (13 December), providing a great opportunity to witness the best meteor shower of the year.

Comet C/2020 M3 (ATLAS) is now in the late-evening sky among the bright stars of Orion and is bright enough to be viewed through a pair of binoculars from a dark-sky site.