I've mentioned that the Earth is tilted on its axis by 23.5 degrees before and this is what causes the seasons.  Well the gas giant Saturn also has a similar tilt.  This means that over a period of around 15 years, its famous rings of dust go from being nicely positioned for observation at an angle to being edge-on to us and difficult to see.

Saturn's tilt now means that you will no longer be able to see its largest moon Titan pass across the planet's surface.  If you aim your telescope towards the west south west around 8pm on the evening of Tuesday 10th, Saturn will be about to set below the horizon and you should be able to catch Titan appearing to pass immediately above Saturn's north pole instead.

While you have that telescope out of the cupboard, point it a little above and to the right of Saturn to try and find Neptune.  It is never possible to see Neptune with the naked eye and it currently has a magnitude of around +8.0

Remember that the magnitude scale works backwards, so the more positive the number is, the fainter the object.  You can see down to a magnitude of around +6.0 with the Mk1 eyeball from a dark location.  Anything dimmer than that requires binoculars or a telescope.

If you would prefer a morning activity, look towards the south at 6am on Wednesday 11th to see a 33%-lit waning crescent Moon occulting (or passing in front of) a magnitude +2.8 star in the constellation of Scorpius.  At the same time, the bright red giant star Antares will be visible above the Moon, shining at a magnitude of +1.7

We will have had a Full Moon on Sunday 1st, so over the following couple of weeks, its different phases will be referred to as "waning" or becoming less bright as it heads towards a New Moon, when the side facing us is not illuminated by sunlight at all.  By Tuesday 3rd, it will have become a 98%-lit gibbous shape.

If you look towards the east from around 8pm on Tuesday 3rd, you can catch the Moon rising above the horizon.

You will notice that if you concentrate on our celestial neighbour with the naked eye, it has a slightly bulbous shape and it is the left hand side of its surface that is illuminated by sunlight.  The extreme right is in shadow.

Whenever the Moon is waning, it is the left side that is visible.  When the Moon is "waxing" or becoming brighter as it heads from a New Moon to a Full Moon, then it is always the right hand side that shows up.  This effect is simply the result of the relative angles between us, the Moon and the Sun.  It is more noticeable with say, a quarter or crescent Moon.

Now if instead you observe the Moon in a telescope, everything I have just said will be the other way around because of the way light passes through the telescope - everything becomes reversed, so up is down and left is right!  Binoculars have an extra lens that corrects this because they are normally used to viewing terrestrial objects and your brain likes to see the sky at the top and ground at the bottom!  For astronomical observing, it really doesn't matter if something appears upside-down!

If you look towards the south west at 9pm on the evening of Tuesday 27th, a 68%-lit waxing gibbous Moon will appear to be passing in front of the Pleiades open cluster of stars.  To the left of this event, the constellation of Orion with its bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel will be easy to spot.

While you are looking in that direction, you can observe several more of the brightest stars in the night sky - Sirius, which is the brightest of all, Procyon and Capella.  Even brighter, between Procyon and Capella, you will find Jupiter.

The enormous gas giant planets of our Solar System always look much brighter than the background stars, because they are relatively close to us and you see them because sunlight is reflecting off their surface.  Stars are giving off their own light and that light is travelling much further to reach us.  This is also why planets never seem to "twinkle" because the light is so much brighter, but the weaker light from stars is more-noticeably distorted as it travels through our atmosphere.

If you repeat your observations at 9pm on Saturday 31st, looking towards the south, you will notice a 95%-lit waxing gibbous Moon very close to Jupiter.  The Moon appears to move differently to everything else in the night sky because it is orbiting around the Earth every month and we see different phases of it illuminated as, while it is going around us, we are both travelling around the Sun together and we rotate on our axis every twenty four hours.

Planets like Venus, that are closer to the Sun than us exhibit phases too, but the outer planets like Jupiter will always appear as pinpoints of light.

I'm going to take the opportunity to broadcast a blatant advert for my next "Stars Over Somerset" sessions at Ham Hill.  The dates for your diary are Friday 23rd January and Friday 20th February.

I run these evenings during the winter months and they are suitable for anyone with an interest in the night sky, adults or youngsters.

Each evening begins at 7pm with a talk about general astronomy, followed by a short refreshment break.  Then after 8pm, we venture outside to use the telescopes.  If the weather isn't co-operating, we run with Plan B which is another talk about what you would have seen, plus the chance to view our collection of meteorite samples.

The charge is £6 for adults and £3 for under-eighteens.  Places always fill quickly, so booking is essential and this can be done by emailing countryside@somerset.gov.uk

From the start of this year I am running these sessions at the fantastic new Ham Hill Visitor Centre, which is in the Lime Kiln car park, a bit further down the road from the old centre.  There is plenty of accessible parking close-by.

Ham Hill have kindly agreed to keep their superb new cafe open for the evenings, so visitors can sample their great selection of drinks and cakes in the warm!

The only things I would ask are that if you are attending, you wrap up warm as we will be spending time outside and that you bring clear skies with you!

We always see the same face of the Moon pointing towards us, as the time it takes our natural satellite to orbit around the Earth is exactly the same as its period of rotation.  We never see the "dark side of the Moon", however the Moon does exhibit a phenomenon known as "libration" which in plain English means that it slowly wobbles a bit during its orbit!

At the beginning of the coming week, its libration makes features towards the Moon's north west limb (or edge) better-placed for viewing.  If you want to take advantage of this, a waning crescent Moon will be rising above the south south east horizon a little before 6am on the morning of Tuesday 13th.

Remember that the different phases of the Moon are said to be "waxing" as it heads towards a Full Moon, when it is brightest and "waning" as it approaches a New Moon, when it is the dark side of the Moon pointing away from us that is illuminated by sunlight, so we can't actually see it.

The next New Moon occurs on Sunday 18th, so this would be an ideal opportunity to go hunting for those illusive faint deep sky objects with your telescope, as there will be no natural light pollution from our celestial neighbour to spoil the contrast.

Of course some deep sky objects can even be seen with the naked eye and a good example is the Great Orion Nebula (Messier 42) in the "belt" of Orion.  Around 9pm on Sunday 18th, the constellation of Orion will be found towards the south south east, with Jupiter and the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, nearby.

The coming week is a period of numerous "transits" where a planet's moon either passes in front of the planet or its shadow is cast on the planet's surface.....or both.  We are talking about the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, so you will need a telescope to be able to witness them.

On Tuesday 6th, Io begins to transit Jupiter, very close to its shadow from 2am.  Jupiter will be located towards the south west.

At the same time the following morning, from 2am on Wednesday 7th, it is Ganymede's turn to do the same trick.  Of course as it's only one day later, Jupiter will be located in near-enough the same bit of the night sky.

If 2am is too unsociable for that kind of activity, you could find Jupiter towards the east south east at 8.30pm on the evening of Wednesday 7th instead to catch Io repeating its stunt from the night before.

Aim your telescope towards the west south west at 8.30pm on Friday 9th and it should be possible to observe Titan transiting the surface of Saturn.  At the same time, several of Saturn's other moons should be visible near its famous rings of dust.

Finally, if you fancy a real challenge, aim towards Jupiter, close to the horizon in the west north west just as it's getting light around 7am on Saturday 10th to catch Callisto transiting in front of its shadow.

Remember that in space, nothing is a perfect circle.  Orbits are never perfectly round and this is particularly noticeable in the case of our own Moon.  The point in the Moon's orbit when it is closest to us is known as "perigee" and the furthest point is called "apogee".

On Saturday 3rd January we have the first Full Moon of the year and this particular one is referred to as being a "Supermoon" as it occurs very close to perigee.  The moon will appear 30% brighter and 14% larger than it does at apogee, when it is then known as a "Micromoon".

If you venture outside just as it's getting dark on 3rd, say around 5pm, the Moon will have risen above the horizon towards the north east and planet Jupiter will be just below it.  As it will be close to the horizon, the Moon will look artificially very large - this is nothing to do with it being at perigee, rather that optical effect known as "Moon illusion" where your brain plays a trick on you when viewing things close to the sky line.

You won't see many stars at dusk, but one of the brightest stars in the night sky called Capella should already be visible directly above the Moon.

Coincidentally, the Earth reaches perihelion on 3rd, which is the point when we are closest to the Sun during our orbit around it.  I assure you that it won't feel 30% warmer that day and the Sun won't appear 14% larger though as the distances are much further than our Moon unfortunately.

Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium

Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2026