Hunter's Moon: Supermoon lights up West Midlands' sky
What is a supermoon and why is it so bright?
A supermoon is when the Moon appears bigger than usual.This occurs because the Moon's orbit around Earth is not a perfect circle - it is an elliptical or egg-shaped orbit.So sometimes the Moon is closer to Earth and so looks bigger, while appears smaller when it is further away.
Follow for more pictures on Instagram from BBC Birmingham, BBC Coventry & Warwickshire, BBC Hereford & Worcester, BBC Shropshire, BBC Stoke & Staffordshire and BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Edinburgh Reporter
10 hours ago
- Edinburgh Reporter
The astronomical sky over Edinburgh and Lothians in August
An invisible 'Black Moon' ghosts the sky in August plus Venus and Jupiter rise together. The Sun passes from Cancer (The Crab) on 10 August at 10:55 am and enters Leo (The Lion) but comes closer by 854,171 km. We emerge from perpetual astronomical twilight. Daylight shortens from 16:02 (16.038 hours) on 1 August to 13:54 (13.893 hours) on 31 August so we gain 2 hours and 9 minutes of night time, by the end of the month. The Moon begins the month in Virgo (The Maiden) and ends in Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer) but comes closer by 2,631 km. The first first quarter (sic) of the new Lunar cycle shows up on 1 August at 1:41 pm in Virgo (The Maiden). The first Lunar apogee (furthest from Earth) occurs on 1 August at 9:37 pm and takes the Moon to 404,201 km away from Earth—around 19,801 km further than average—subtending an angle of 29.6 arc-minutes. The full Sturgeon Moon makes an appearance on 9 August at 8:55 am in Capricornus (The Sea Goat). Lunar perigee (closest to Earth) on 14 August at 7:07 pm finds the Moon some 369,254 km away from Earth—around 15,146 km closer than average—subtending an angle of 32.4 arc-minutes. The Moon enters last quarter on 16 August at 6:12 am in Aries (The Ram). The new Moon appears on 23 August at 7:07 am in Leo (The Lion) beginning a new synodic (Lunar) month which will last 29 days, 13 hours and 48 minutes. This is an astronomical 'Black Moon' being defined as the 3rd new moon within the same astronomical season. The second Lunar apogee occurs on 29 August at 4:38 pm and takes the Moon to 404,585 km away from Earth—around 20,185 km further than average—subtending an angle of 29.5 arc-minutes. Finally, the second first quarter (sic) of the new Lunar cycle shows up on 31 August at 7:25 am in Scorpius (The Scorpion). For the inferior planets: Mercury begins the month in Cancer (The Crab) and ends in Leo (The Lion) but recedes by 93,949,967 km and, contrarily, increases in magnitude from 5.41 to -1.35 (509.25 times in brightness) over the month. Mercury's see-saw orbit sees it return to a prograde path from retrograde on 10 August and reach greatest western elongation on 19 August. The 'Swift Planet' closes out the month with another perihelion passage on 27 August. Meanwhile, Venus begins the month in Gemini (The Twins) and ends in Cancer (The Crab) but recedes by 28,990,238 km. Venus decreases in magnitude from -4.00 to -3.95 (1.05 times in brightness) over August. Between 6–18 August, Venus and Jupiter will rise side-by-side around 3 am in Gemini (The Twins). The optimum day will be 12 August when Venus will be 0.9 degrees south of Jupiter in the pre-dawn hours. For the superior planets: Mars remains in Virgo (The Maiden) all month but recedes by 21,598,312 km and maintains a steady brightness of 1.6 magnitudes. Jupiter remains in Gemini (The Twins) throughout August but comes closer by 43,919,235 km. The 'Red Giant' increases in magnitude from -1.92 to -1.99 (1.07 times in brightness) over the month. On 20 August, around 4:30 am, Jupiter, Venus and the waning crescent Moon will form a triangle in the eastern sky. Keen-eyed observers may also glimpse Mercury photo-bombing the event but much nearer the horizon! Turn around, roughly 140 degrees in azimuth, and, there, in Pisces (The Fishes) will be Saturn. Saturn remains in Pisces (The Fishes) but comes closer by 45,899,569 km and so increases in magnitude from 0.80 to 0.65 (1.15 times in brightness). Uranus remains in Taurus (The Bull) but comes closer by 77,262,177 km. Uranus maintains a brightness of 5.8 magnitudes and reaches western quadrature on 24 August. Neptune remains in Pisces (The Fishes) and comes closer by 46,820,627 km. Observing Neptune requires binoculars or a telescope but it will lurk very close to Saturn all month. Our skymap shows how close they are in the south-east. If you are still unsure of how to find the elusive 'Blue Planet', try using the waning gibbous Moon on 13 August at 1:30 am to find Saturn: Neptune will then be about 1 degree north. The Perseid (007 PER) meteor shower is one of the most active of the year and peak overnight on 12/13 August with up to 100 shooting stars per hour. The radiant point is close to the principal star, Mirfak. This year, however, the 82% illuminated waning gibbous Moon will hamper observing. The parent comet is 109P/Swift-Tuttle discovered in 1862 but last seeding the meteor shower in In the Catholic church they are called the 'Tears of Saint Lawrence' because mourners first saw these shooting stars when carrying the saint's body (after he had been martyred by roasting over hot coals). 10 August is also the saint's feast day. Within Perseus (The Hero) is the 3-solar radii star Algol—sometimes unfavorably named the 'Demon Star'—whose surface temperature is 12,500 Kelvin lying at some 90 light years. It was discovered to be variable in 1667 but the reason behind the variability was not explained until the late 19th century when it was discovered to be the first ever eclipsing binary. The companion star is slightly bigger but fainter and lies less than 10 million km away. As these 2 stars rotate around their barycentre, they eclipse each other with the larger occultation dimming the magnitude from 2.1 to 3.4 over a 10-hour period. This eclipse takes place every 2.867 days but the secondary eclipse is too faint for the naked eye. Today, we know that Algol is actually a triple star system but the third companion is much fainter and much further away from the 2 principal components. You may read about the newly discovered comet 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1) which is designated as an 'interstellar object' (ISO). It is the fastest ISO ever discovered and, being an interstellar object, it comes from another planetary system inside our galaxy. By studying this comet in detail in the coming months, astronomers will get a fix on the chemistry and physics in potential exoplanet systems. Although it is moving fast, around 68 km/s, it will not come anywhere near Earth but will fly-by tantalizingly close to Mars. It emanates from Sagittarius (The Archer) and appears as if he has aimed a 'free sample return mission' our way! At the time of our sky map, some constellations visible are Cepheus (The King) at zenith, Lynx (The Lynx) in the north, Andromeda (The Chained Maiden) in the east, Corona Borealis (The Northern Crown) in the west (which contains our, so far, elusive recurrent nova known as the Blaze star) and Microscopium (The Microscope) in the south. The ecliptic hosts Taurus (The Bull), Aries (The Ram), Pisces (The Fishes), Aquarius (The Water Bearer), Capricorn (The Sea Goat) and Sagittarius (The Archer). The 'Summer Triangle'—Vega in Lyra (The Lyre), Altair in Aquila (The Eagle) and Deneb in Cygnus (The Swan)—is prominent at high altitude in the south. Also, highly visible in the east is the great square of Pegasus (The Winged Horse) with the sentinel stars Scheat, Alpheratz, Algenib and Markab. Circumpolar constellations—always above the horizon—include Camelopardalis (The Giraffe), Cassiopeia (The Seated Queen), Draco (The Dragon) and Ursa Major (The Great Bear). Like this: Like Related
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
What we know about the search for ‘Planet Nine' in our solar system
Is there a massive undiscovered planet on the outer reaches of the Solar System? The idea has been around since before the discovery of Pluto in the 1930s. Labelled as planet X, prominent astronomers had put it forward as an explanation for Uranus 's orbit, which drifts from the path of orbital motion that physics would expect it to follow. The gravitational pull of an undiscovered planet, several times larger than Earth, was seen as a possible reason for the discrepancy. That mystery was ultimately explained by a recalculation of Neptune 's mass in the 1990s, but then a new theory of a potential Planet Nine was put forward in 2016 by astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown at Caltech (the California Institute of Technology). Their theory relates to the Kuiper Belt, a giant belt of dwarf planets, asteroids and other matter that lies beyond Neptune (and includes Pluto). Many Kuiper Belt objects – also referred to as trans-Neptunian objects – have been discovered orbiting the Sun, but like Uranus, they don't do so in a continuous expected direction. Batygin and Brown argued that something with a large gravitational pull must be affecting their orbit, and proposed Planet Nine as a potential explanation. This would be comparable to what happens with our own Moon. It orbits the Sun every 365.25 days, in line with what you would expect in view of their distance apart. However, the Earth's gravitational pull is such that the Moon also orbits the planet every 27 days. From the point of view of an outside observer, the Moon moves in a spiralling motion as a result. Similarly, many objects in the Kuiper Belt show signs of their orbits being affected by more than just the Sun's gravity. While astronomers and space scientists were initially sceptical about the Planet Nine theory, there has been mounting evidence, thanks to increasingly powerful observations, that the orbits of trans-Neptunian objects are indeed erratic. As Brown said in 2024, 'I think it is very unlikely that P9 does not exist. There are currently no other explanations for the effects that we see, nor for the myriad other P9-induced effects we see on the Solar System.' In 2018, for example, it was announced that there was a new candidate for a dwarf planet orbiting the Sun, known as 2017 OF201. This object measures around 700km across (Earth is roughly 18x bigger) and has a highly elliptical orbit. This lack of a roughly circular orbit around the Sun suggested either an impact early in its lifetime that put it on this path, or gravitational influence from Planet Nine. Problems with the theory On the other hand, if Planet Nine exists, why hasn't anyone found it yet? Some astronomers question whether there's enough orbital data from Kuiper objects to justify any conclusions about its existence, while alternative explanations get put forward for their motion, such as the effect of a ring of debris or the more fantastical idea of a small black hole. The biggest issue, however, is that the outer Solar System just hasn't been observed for long enough. For example, object 2017 OF201 has an orbital period of about 24,000 years. While an object's orbital path around the Sun can be found in a short number of years, any gravitational effects probably need four to five orbits to notice any subtle changes. New discoveries of objects in the Kuiper Belt have also presented challenges for the Planet Nine theory. The latest is known as 2023 KQ14, an object discovered by the Subaru telescope in Hawaii. It is known as a 'sednoid', meaning it spends most of its time far away from the Sun, though within the vast area in which the Sun has a gravitational pull (this area lies some 5,000AU or astronomical units away, where 1AU is the distance from the Earth to the Sun). The object's classification as a sednoid also means the gravitational influence of Neptune has little to no effect on it. 2023 KQ14's closest approach to the Sun is around 71AU away, while its furthest point is about 433AU. By comparison, Neptune is about 30AU away from the Sun. This new object is another with a very elliptical orbit, but it is more stable than 2017 OF201, which suggests that no large planet, including a hypothetical Planet Nine, is significantly affecting its path. If Planet Nine exists, it would therefore perhaps have to be farther than 500AU away from the Sun. To make matters worse for the Planet Nine theory, this is the fourth sednoid to be discovered. The other three also exhibit stable orbits, similarly suggesting that any Planet Nine would have to be very far away indeed. Nonetheless, the possibility remains that there could still be a massive planet affecting the orbits of bodies within the Kuiper Belt. But astronomers' ability to find any such planet remains somewhat limited by the restrictions of even unmanned space travel. It would take 118 years for a spacecraft to travel far enough away to find it, based on estimates from the speed of Nasa's New Horizons explorer. This means we'll have to continue to rely on ground- and space-based telescopes to detect anything. New asteroids and distant objects are being discovered all the time as our observing capabilities become more detailed, which should gradually shed more light on what might be out there. So watch this (very big) space, and let's see what emerges in the coming years. Ian Whittaker is a Senior Lecturer in Physics at Nottingham Trent University.
BBC News
3 days ago
- BBC News
Wolverhampton volunteers test water quality at nature reserve
Volunteers at a nature reserve in Wolverhampton have carried out a water quality check by surveying the number of aquatic invertebrates in the Valley Local Nature Reserve volunteers carry out several of these checks a year in the Smestow latest check was carried out by Kate Tobin of the Friends of Smestow Valley volunteer group, Waterside Care, and the reserve's conservation surveys look at a variety of aquatic invertebrates such as freshwater shrimp, water hog louse, blackfly larvae and leeches, which volunteers said were "all important biological indicators of the brook's ecological health". The volunteers carried out the invertebrate survey by conducting a manual kick sampling survey across a five-metre stretch of the brook, collecting three representative samples - using Environment Agency sample was analysed and used to indicate the quality of the water."These surveys are vital for tracking the long-term health of our freshwater ecosystems and ensuring the continued biodiversity of Smestow Brook," a spokesperson for the volunteer group Valley and rail network is a 4.5km (2.7miles) long site, which forms part of the Black Country UNESCO global creatures spotted at the reserve over the years include a beaver, as well as badgers, foxes, and muntjac deer. Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
