Supernova in M74. The supernova that was discovered in the spiral galaxy M74 last week had reached about magnitude 12.3 by August 2nd. M74 is in Pisces, well up in the eastern sky in the early-morning hours. See article with finder photo: Supernova Erupts in M74.
Friday, August 2
Saturday, August 3
Sunday, August 4
Monday, August 5
Tuesday, August 6
Wednesday, August 7
Thursday, August 8
Friday, Aug. 9
Saturday, Aug. 10
Want to become a better amateur astronomer? Learn your way around the constellations. They're the key to locating everything fainter and deeper to hunt with binoculars or a telescope.
This is an outdoor nature hobby. For an easy-to-use constellation guide covering the whole evening sky, use the big monthly map in the center of each issue of Sky & Telescope, the essential guide to astronomy. Or download our free Getting Started in Astronomy booklet (which only has bimonthly maps).
Once you get a telescope, to put it to good use you'll need a detailed, large-scale sky atlas (set of charts). The standards are the little Pocket Sky Atlas, which shows stars to magnitude 7.6; the larger and deeper Sky Atlas 2000.0 (stars to magnitude 8.5); and the even larger Uranometria 2000.0 (stars to magnitude 9.75). And read how to use sky charts with a telescope.
You'll also want a good deep-sky guidebook, such as Sue French's Deep-Sky Wonders collection (which includes its own charts), Sky Atlas 2000.0 Companion by Strong and Sinnott, the bigger Night Sky Observer's Guide by Kepple and Sanner, or the beloved if dated Burnham's Celestial Handbook.
Can a computerized telescope replace charts? Not for beginners, I don't think, and not on mounts and tripods that are less than top-quality mechanically (able to point with better than 0.2° repeatability, which means heavy and expensive). As Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer say in their invaluable Backyard Astronomer's Guide, "A full appreciation of the universe cannot come without developing the skills to find things in the sky and understanding how the sky works. This knowledge comes only by spending time under the stars with star maps in hand."
This Week's Planet Roundup
Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter shine in the east-northeast before and/or during dawn. Jupiter is the highest and brightest (magnitude –1.9). Look for faint Mars (magnitude +1.6) to Jupiter's lower left. Look lower left of Mars as dawn begins to brighten for Mercury (brightening from magnitude 0 to —1 this week, but sinking lower).
Castor and Pollux are to their left, and Orion is much farther to their right.
Venus (magnitude –3.9) shines brightly very low in the west in evening twilight. In a telescope Venus is still small (13 arcseconds) and gibbous (81% sunlit).
Saturn (magnitude +0.7, in Virgo) glows in the southwest as twilight fades, with Spica 12° to its lower right. As night grows darker look almost as far to Saturn's left for fainter Alpha Librae.
Uranus (magnitude 5.8, in Pisces) and Neptune (magnitude 7.8, in Aquarius) are nicely placed in the southeast to south after midnight. Finder charts for Uranus and Neptune.
All descriptions that relate to your horizon — including the words up, down, right, and left — are written for the world's mid-northern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on longitude (mainly Moon positions) are for North America. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) equals Universal Time (also known as UT, UTC, or GMT) minus 4 hours.
Like This Week's Sky at a Glance? Watch our SkyWeek TV short, also playing on PBS.
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