Observing

On the morning of Thursday 10 June, there’s a partial eclipse of the Sun visible across the length and breadth of the UK. This special and spectacular event happens when the Moon appears to take a significant bite out of the Sun as it moves between us and the Sun, partially blocking the Sun’s disc from our view.

Mercury is visible now in the early evening sky, offering sky-watchers in the UK and at other mid-northern latitudes their best chance of the year to spot the innermost planet.

Nova Cas 2021, a ‘new star’ – a classical nova – discovered on 18 March 2021 in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia, has suddenly brightened in the past few days by around two magnitudes.

Over the course of the next two nights the annual April Lyrid meteor shower is predicted to reach its 2021 peak. Lyrid meteors appear to emanate from the direction of Lyra’s brilliant star Vega, hence the name.

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’.