Almanac
New for 2024: Wondering what's going wrong with our UK seasons ? Take a look at an alternative approach to defining them. Download the Seasons.xlsm workbook from here and find out when Spring might really be expected to start where you live.
Update......Handy self-updating UK Bank Holiday Listings and Calendar for 2024 and beyond - see below this box...
Astronomer's Almanac
Ever wanted to find out exactly where the sun and moon will be in the sky where you're located at a particular time ?
Or perhaps wanted to know where to find one of the planets....or spot your own astrological star sign in the sky ?
Going on holiday and want sunrise & moon-rise times for your resort while you're there ?
In this ever more frenetic world of ours, sadly fewer and fewer of us find the time to stop and gaze heavenwards. When we are outdoors, the sky can occupy anything up to half of what we can see around us.
Even a brief look at the stars on a dark moonless night can instill a sense of wonder, and help put our busy lives and our existing worries and concerns into perspective. It can also help induce a feeling of calm, even if we're not looking for anything in particular in the sky.
Knowing what to look for, and where to look for it , is a must for anyone wanting to get the best out of the experience and 'make some sense' of the what they can see.
Now you can do this for yourself day or night at the touch of a few buttons...
And for anyone with more than a passing interest in looking heavenwards, there's also a more detailed guide to what influences the objects we can see in the sky, how we can predict what will be there at any given time....and even how the complex calculations involved are done.
Just download the file 'Almanac.xlsm' using this link.
The file contains a macro-enabled Excel workbook which does all the necessary calculations for you.
There are 6 pages to choose from:
1) A single summary-style worksheet containing useful info about the sun's and moon's visibility during a selected day, including sunrise, sunset, moon-rise, moon-set, twilight and civil lighting-up times, as well as the exact position in the sky of both sun and moon at a specific time of the day. It also provides a graphic indicator of the moon's phase on the day selected, and displays the current Earth-Moon distance to help you predict super-moon events. This page will also provide the date of the next Solar eclipse and give details, including visibility from your location. A built in calendar/date selector will also help you move between dates easily.
2) An Almanac-style table-generator for sunrise, sunset, time of solar noon and the maximum height of the sun and moon above the horizon for any range of dates. It will also generate the same data for the moon if required. You can generate up to a year's data at once and can specify any range of dates in the past or future up to this limit. The tables are configured such that they can easily be printed or stored as a .pdf for use on other devices.
3) A dedicated worksheet which finds the position of each of the major planets in the sky at your chosen location. This will also tell you how bright they are likely to appear. This sheet will also present you with a map of the positions of each planet relative to the sun at a given time, its phase and its distance from Earth.
There are three animations on this sheet which are both informative and educational in their own right. The first provides a 'birds eye' view of the whole solar system from various distances above its orbital plane and shows the location of the planets and earth's moon over any selected range of dates. The second chart shows the movement of the sun and planets as seen from earth in a 360 degree plot of the ecliptic against the constellations, and also shows the movement of the moon from day to day against the star background. The two plots update simultaneously when the date & time are changed.
If you have a pair of decent binoculars or a telescope, you can even follow the 4 major satellites of Jupiter from hour to hour as they perform their nightly 'dance' round their vast parent planet. (If you watch for more than about half an hour at a session you can actually see them changing position). The satellite simulator chart will also allow you to identify Europa, one of the 3 other places in the solar system with a large liquid water ocean below its icy crust where life is likely to have evolved...and may still be flourishing. Jupiter will be at opposition again this Autumn and is still well-placed for observation. Why not try your hand at spotting this mysterious and intriguing object for yourself ?
4) A sheet for finding the position in your sky of some of the brighter stars, star clusters and galaxies from a comprehensive list of night sky objects. This will also tell you how bright they are and what constellation they occupy. It will even let you know whether they are ever visible from your location, and if so, whether they are circumpolar (i.e always above the horizon). The sheet also has an all-sky star map showing the position of the object you select. You can now also see the position of all the major planets and earth's moon on this chart. The approximate position of the observer's horizon and zenith is also shown. This sheet now includes the major planets and the moon, and will pinpoint a particular object on the map via a dropdown list.
5) Meteors: This sheet includes a table in chronological order of the principal meteor showers visible throughout the year and shows you when and where to find them in your sky. The 'meteor rate' will also tell you how many you are likely to see while observing.
6) International Space Station (ISS): If you haven't ever caught a glimpse of this wonder of modern space technology, it's well worth a shot. It's an elusive object, though, so if you're interested, head over to the ISS worksheet to find out how to catch it as it whizzes across the sky at the rate of a jumbo jet - but without the noise!.
7) Eclipses: This page is dedicated to providing a searchable list of Solar and Lunar Eclipses predicted to happen over the next 5 years. Use it in conjunction with the Eclipses parameter on the Sun & Moon page.
How do I know what will be visible in the night sky where I am ?
What you see in the sky at a particular time & date will obviously depend on where you are on earth's surface. Before using any of the calculation worksheets to best effect, you need to specify your location.
A comprehensive list of world locations with their latitude, longitude and timezone values is provided to make life easier when identifying your own position. The list is searchable via a dynamic drop-down box, and you can add your own location and any other favourites not on the list. Use the green boxes below the main table. Once selected, the location and its coordinates/time zone will appear on all the other sheets which are location-dependent.
The Almanac workbook has a detailed User Guide and a Technical sheet for anyone interested in knowing how the calculations are done.
Last, but not least in these days of 'cloud' data mis-use, the Excel workbook is stand-alone and does not require an internet or phone network connection. (You will need internet to access the NASA ISS website links if you decide to use them for sighting predictions.)
If you are interested in delving more deeply into the formulas and VBA modules used, or would just like a brief guide to what to look for in the sky, head to the 'Technical' worksheet for more details.
You'll find the file on our Downloads page.....why not download the workbook and give it a whirl.....
New for 2024: UK Bank holiday list and weekly/monthly calendar - see box below.
Revised 15.6.24