Astronomical attractions

There are many celestial sights that astronomers are willing to travel to see

The beautiful region of the Milky Way consisting of the star fields, bright clusters and nebulae around the spout of the Teapot asterism is low in UK skies in Sagittarius in the summer months. However, you don’t have to travel far south to get a better view of this patch of sky; even sites in southern Europe will elevate it enough above the murk of the horizon to make observation and photography much easier. The southern night sky is perhaps most famous for two things. First, there’s the bright band of the southern Milky Way which arcs high overhead at certain times of year, bursting with bright nebulae and dazzling stars. Second, there’s a pair of objects known as the ‘Large’ and ‘Small’ Magellanic Clouds. These are two irregular galaxies nearby to the Milky Way that appear like bright smudges of light hanging against the sparkling sky. When Earth’s magnetosphere is energised, charged particles can be fired along magnetic field lines into our atmosphere generating shimmering curtains of light – the aurora. The region where the energising is thought to occur connects with the magnetic field lines emanating from the polar regions of Earth. This is why places like Iceland, and the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and North America are great destinations for hunting the Northern Lights. A total solar eclipse – where the Moon fully obscures the Sun’s disc revealing the solar corona – is perhaps the quintessential bucket-list celestial sight. There are numerous companies all over the world who offer tours and holidays to see these awe-inspiring events, which are only visible from narrow strips of the Earth’s surface, which are different with each eclipse. The next total solar eclipse will be visible from parts of Chile and Argentina in 2019.