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See the Moon go red and the stars go green

The New Year couldn’t start much better for amateur astronomers, with an eagerly anticipated total lunar eclipse occurring on the morning of 21 January. Watching the full Moon turn from bright silver to deep grey to rich red is a captivating spectacle, and it will be fascinating to assess and record the shade of the Moon during totality since every eclipse is different. The entire event will be visible from the whole of the UK; make sure you don’t miss it by noting the timings on page 52, and turn to page 64 for our expert guide on how to get great photos of the event.

There’s a chance to experience colour of another kind with our feature on page 38, where you’ll find a guide to the most greentinged stars in the northern hemisphere. As our author is quick to point out, the stars in the guide merely give the impression of being green – many are doubles where the colour contrast lends one star in the pair a verdant appearance. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to see if you personally can detect an emerald hue, and whether other observers you know can as well. Let us know too!

While no star’s colour is truly, visibly green, they do emit green light as part of a broad spectrum. In this issue we take a look at DayStar’s new solar filter, which isolates this very wavelength and gives views of the Sun that are visibly green at the eyepiece. See what fascinating, new solar features the Magnesium I b2 filter reveals in the First Light review on page 98.

Enjoy the issue, and Happy New Year!