"Keep Looking Up!"

[Recusant]

. . . The immortal phrase used by the late Jack Horkheimer to encourage people to explore the joys of the sky.

He of the unabashed toupee and irrepressible enthusiasm for astronomical observation, appearing for decades in brief vignettes on American public television. Not that I needed the encouragement, but he was good for keeping up with the dance of the planets etc.

In this instance a not particularly spectacular appearance by a recurrent nova on an eighty year cycle. Not sure if the Corona Borealis is visible in the Southern Hemisphere at this time of year, but that's the constellation in which T Coronae Borealis (T CrB, or the "Blaze Star") can be found.

"A nova explosion may soon be visible in the night sky. Here's where and when to look" | PBS

The stars aren't fixed and unchanging, unlike what many ancient people thought. Once in a while, a star appears where there wasn't one before, and then it fades away in a matter of days or weeks.

The earliest record of such a "guest star," named so by ancient Chinese astronomers, is a star that suddenly appeared in skies around the world on July 4, 1054. It quickly brightened, becoming visible even during the day for the next 23 days.

Astronomers in Japan, China and the Middle East observed this event, as did the Anasazi in what is now New Mexico.

In the second half of 2024, a nova explosion in the star system called T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB, will once again be visible to people on Earth. T CrB will appear 1,500 times brighter than usual, but it won't be as spectacular as the event in 1054.

I am a space scientist with a passion for teaching physics and astronomy. I love photographing the night sky and astronomical events, including eclipses, meteor showers and once-in-a-lifetime astronomical events such as the T CrB nova. T CrB will become, at best, the 50th brightest star in the night sky – brighter than only half the stars in the Big Dipper. It might take some effort to find, but if you have the time, you'll witness a rare event.

[Continues . . .]

Another article about the Blaze Star.

[T]his recurring nova is only one of five in our galaxy. This happens because Blaze Star is really two stars. It's a binary system with a white dwarf and red giant. The stars are close enough that as the red giant becomes unstable from its increasing temperature and pressure and begins ejecting its outer layers, the white dwarf collects that matter onto its surface. The shallow, dense atmosphere of the white dwarf eventually heats enough to cause a runaway thermonuclear reaction, which produces the nova we see from Earth.

[Continues . . .]

Star chart of Corona Borealis with red circle indicating location of star T CrB, or Blaze Star.
Image credit: IAU/ Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

[Dark Lightning]

I'd really like to see this flare first-hand. It'll depend on seeing conditions, and if I can see it during waking hours. I deprived myself of many years of sleep in my drive to make a living, and I treasure it now. Thanks for the reminder. I'll have to check it out.

[Icarus]

I was a fan of Horkheimer in days gone by. He was a fun guy who made astronomy interesting. Actually he cost me quite a few dollars in the long run. That's because I bought telescopes, various expensive eyepieces along with other gadgetry..  I never had a big telescope but I did have an eight inch reflector, which some folks might consider big. I still have a four inch refractor that I use more for bird watching than stargazing.

I gave up after a while because of light pollution in my city. I'd have had to drive 20 miles or more to find a darker place and I rarely did that.

[Recusant]

It's cool that he actually sparked a deep enough interest that you invested in equipment, Icarus. It was always a pleasure when I happened to catch one of his brief alerts on public television. I enjoyed his enthusiasm for the night sky--you have the right word: fun.

"Keep looking up" is excellent advice in the daytime as well. Interesting effects appear and most people never notice them, like sundogs and halos as well as striking cloud patterns.

Continuing in that spirit, though there's a good chance that it'll be completely overcast for days in my part of the world, I figured I should post this item for any who may have better luck with the atmosphere. My apologies that it's Northern Hemisphere centric. However it appears that the full alignment will only be visible from the Northern Hemisphere. ("Your 2025 guide to the southern sky" | Australian Geographic)

"A Rare Alignment of 7 Planets Is About to Take Place in The Sky" | Science Alert

A very rare treat is about to grace Earth's night skies.

On the evening of 28 February 2025, all seven of the other planets in the Solar System will appear in the night sky at the same time, with Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars all lining up in a neat row – a magnificent sky feast for the eyes known as a great planetary alignment.

But that's not all. Between now and then, on 21 January 2025, six of the seven other planets will appear in the sky at once in a large alignment – Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Venus, and Saturn, with the exception of Mercury.

Actually, it's not uncommon for a few planets to be on the same side of the Sun at the same time, but it's less common for most, or even all of the planets to align.

Any number of planets from three to eight constitutes an alignment. Five or six planets assembling is known as a large alignment, with five-planet alignments significantly more frequent than six.

Seven-planet great alignments are, of course, the rarest of all.

These alignments aren't the neat planetary queues you see in diagrams and illustrations of the Solar System. That's not a thing that actually happens in the real Universe, sadly.

[Continues . . .]

Only four of the planets will be visible to unaided eyeballs in January, but in February Mercury will join them at around magnitude -1, so there will be five to see. Neptune and Uranus need good binoculars at minimum. From the story above:


More details on the upcoming January planetary alignment. (StarWalk)


An illustration of the upcoming February planetary alignment as seen from the Northern Hemisphere.
(Star Walk) [Same link as above.]

[Icarus]

Too bad about the overcast.  Tank could use his new scope if it was clearer.