Yearbook of Astronomy 2023

By Brian Jones

Maintaining its appealing style and presentation, the Yearbook of Astronomy 2023 contains comprehensive jargon-free monthly sky notes and an authoritative set of sky charts to enable backyard astronomers and sky gazers everywhere to plan their viewing of the year’s eclipses, comets, meteor showers and minor planets as well as detailing the phases of the Moon and visibility and locations of the planets throughout the year. To supplement all this is a variety of entertaining and informative articles, a feature for which the Yearbook of Astronomy is known. Presenting the reader with information on a wide range of topics, the articles for the 2023 edition include, among others, The Incomparable Sir Patrick Moore; Shining a Light on Jupiter’s Atmosphere; A Brief History of the End of the Universe; The Closing of Historic Observatories; The Ability to Believe: Bizarre Worlds of Astronomical Antireality; Optical SETI at Harvard; The Future of Spaceflight; and Male Family Mentors for Women in Astronomy: Caroline and William Herschel. This iconic publication made its first appearance way back in 1962, shortly after the dawning of the Space Age. Now into its seventh decade of production, the Yearbook continues to be essential reading for anyone lured and fascinated by the magic of astronomy and who has a desire to extend their knowledge of the Universe and the wonders it plays host to. The Yearbook of Astronomy is indeed an inspiration to amateur and professional astronomers alike, and warrants a place on the bookshelf of all stargazers and watchers of the Universe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: May 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781399018456

Book preview

The Monthly Star Charts

Northern Hemisphere Star Charts

This chart shows stars lying at declinations between +45 and +90 degrees. These constellations are circumpolar for observers in Europe and North America.

Southern Hemisphere Star Charts

This chart shows stars lying at declinations between — 45 and — 90 degrees. These constellations are circumpolar for observers in Australia and New Zealand.

The Planets in 2023

Lynne Marie Stockman

Mercury rapidly flits between the evening and morning skies several times each year. Evening apparitions start at superior conjunction and begin bright, ending with Mercury at sixth-magnitude. This year, the best evening appearance of Mercury for observers in northern temperate latitudes begins in mid-March and lasts until the end of April. July through early September offers the best evening viewing opportunities for astronomers in the southern hemisphere. Morning appearances of the tiny planet start faint and steadily brighten as Mercury leaves inferior conjunction. The May–June morning apparition favours southern latitudes whilst those in the northern hemisphere have their best dawn views between September and mid-October. In 2023, Mercury is occulted once by the Moon and encounters each of the planets, meeting Mars twice toward the end of the year. In July, Mercury is only 0.1° from first-magnitude star Regulus (α Leonis). Apparition diagrams showing the position of Mercury above the eastern and western horizons can be found throughout the Monthly Sky Notes.

Venus is the evening star for the first half of the year. It is a fair apparition for everyone, perhaps favouring observers in the tropics, with greatest elongation east taking place in June. With inferior conjunction occurring in mid-August, Venus ends the year in the morning sky and is best viewed from the northern hemisphere. The morning star reaches greatest elongation west in late October. Venus is at its brightest in July and September and faintest at the beginning of the year. It is twice occulted by the Moon this year and is found in conjunction with every other planet except Mars. It also passes near by Regulus twice, in July and October. In addition, Venus moves past two famous open star clusters, M45 (Pleiades) in April and M44 (Beehive or Praesepe) two months later. Apparition diagrams showing the position of Venus above the western and eastern horizons can be found in the January and August Sky Notes