Table Of ContentYearbook of
Astronomy 2021
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EDITED BY
Front Cover: Launched in 2011 and arriving at Jupiter in 2016, NASA’s JUNO spacecraft is currently in
a polar orbit that takes it out as far as 8 million kilometres before passing as close as 4,200 kilometres
to Jupiter’s cloud tops. It is visualised here passing over Jupiter’s south pole. More information on
the JUNO mission can be found in the articles Solar System Exploration in 2019 and Solar System
Exploration in 2020 in the corresponding editions of the Yearbook of Astronomy. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
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EDITED BY
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First published in Great Britain in 2020 by
WHITE OWL
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
Yorkshire – Philadelphia
Copyright © Brian Jones, 2020
ISBN 978 1 52677 187 2
The right of Brian Jones to be identified as Author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
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Contents
Editor’s Foreword 8
Preface 14
About Time 15
Using the Yearbook of Astronomy as an Observing Guide 17
The Monthly Star Charts
Northern Hemisphere Star Charts David Harper 27
Southern Hemisphere Star Charts David Harper 53
The Planets in 2021 Lynne Marie Stockman 78
Phases of the Moon in 2021 81
Eclipses in 2021 82
Some Events in 2021 83
Monthly Sky Notes and Articles 2021
January 89
Astronomical Illustrations of the Nuremberg Chronicle Richard H. Sanderson 92
February 99
2I/Borisov – Interstellar Comet Neil Norman 101
March 107
Alfred Fowler Jane Callaghan 109
April 113
Salyut 1: The First Space Station Neil Haggath 116
May 119
Thomas Henry Espinell Compton Espin: The Double Star Curate of
Tow Law John McCue 121
June 127
The Star That Was Older Than the Universe: The Mystery of
HD 140283 David Harper 129
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6 Yearbook of Astronomy 2021
July 135
Early Precariously Balanced Refractors Gary Yule 137
August 143
Spare a Thought for the Engineers Rod Hine 145
September 149
Burying the Sun Carolyn Kennett 152
October 156
Tinkering With Time: The British Standard Time Experiment at 50
David Harper 158
November 163
Your Name in Space Peter Rea 165
December 171
Tycho Brahe Paul Fellows 174
Comets in 2021 Neil Norman 179
Minor Planets in 2021 Neil Norman 185
Meteor Showers in 2021 Neil Norman 191
Article Section
Astronomy in 2020 Rod Hine 203
Solar System Exploration in 2020 Peter Rea 212
Anniversaries in 2021 Neil Haggath 223
Mission to Mars: Countdown to Building a Brave New World
Martin Braddock 232
Male Family Mentors for Women in Astronomy: En’hedu’anna to
Eimmart Mary McIntyre 240
Henrietta Swan Leavitt and Her Work David M. Harland 251
Solar Observing Peter Meadows 263
The Meteorite Age Carolyn Kennett 272
‘A Dignity That Insures Their Perpetuation’ John C. Barentine 280
Lunar Volcanism: The View 50 Years after Apollo Lionel Wilson 291
Pages From the Past: Collecting Vintage Astronomy Books
Richard H. Sanderson 300
The Chances of Anything Coming From Mars Jan Hardy 312
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Contents 7
Māori Astronomy in Aotearoa-New Zealand Pauline Harris, Hēmi
Whaanga and Rangi Matamua 322
Miscellaneous
Some Interesting Variable Stars Tracie Heywood 335
Some Interesting Double Stars Brian Jones 354
Some Interesting Nebulae, Star Clusters and Galaxies Brian Jones 357
Astronomical Organizations 359
Our Contributors 364
Glossary Brian Jones and David Harper 372
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Editor’s Foreword
The Yearbook of Astronomy 2021 is the latest edition of what has long been an
indispensable publication, the annual appearance of which has been eagerly
anticipated by astronomers, both amateur and professional, for nearly sixty years.
Approaching its Diamond Jubilee edition in 2022, the Yearbook of Astronomy is, as
ever, aimed at both the armchair astronomer and the active backyard observer.
Within its pages you will find a rich blend of information, star charts and guides
to the night sky coupled with an interesting mixture of articles which collectively
embrace a wide range of topics, ranging from the history of astronomy to the latest
results of astronomical research; space exploration to observational astronomy;
and our own celestial neighbourhood out to the farthest reaches of space.
The Monthly Star Charts have been compiled by David Harper and show the
night sky as seen throughout the year. Two sets of twelve charts have been
provided, one set for observers in the Northern Hemisphere and one for those
in the Southern Hemisphere. Between them, each pair of charts depicts the
entire sky as two semi-circular half-sky views, one looking north and the other
looking south.
Lists of Phases of the Moon in 2021 and Eclipses in 2021 are also provided,
together with general summaries of the observing conditions for each of the
planets in The Planets in 2021, and a calendar of significant Solar System events
occurring throughout the year in Some Events in 2021.
The ongoing process of improving and updating what the Yearbook of
Astronomy offers to its readers is continued in the 2021 edition with the
introduction of apparition charts for Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. All the planetary
apparition charts have been compiled by David Harper and the inclusion of the
three listed here ensures that charts are now supplied for all the major planetary
members of our Solar System. Further details of the planetary apparition charts
are given in Using the Yearbook of Astronomy as an Observing Guide.
As with The Planets in 2021 and Some Events in 2021, the Monthly Sky Notes have
been compiled by Lynne Marie Stockman and give details of the positions and
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Editor’s Foreword 9
visibility of the planets for each month throughout 2021. Each section of the
Monthly Sky Notes is accompanied by a short article, the range of which includes
items on a variety of astronomy-related topics such as Astronomical Illustrations
of the Nuremberg Chronicle by Richard Sanderson, 2I/Borosov: Interstellar Comet
by Neil Norman and Burying the Sun by Carolyn Kennett together with a trio
of biographical articles relating to astrophysicist Alfred Fowler, double star
observer Thomas Henry Espinell Compton Espin, and one of the best known
astronomers of all time, Tycho Brahe.
The Monthly Sky Notes and Articles section of the book concludes with a
trio of articles penned by Neil Norman, these being Comets in 2021, Minor Planets
in 2021 and Meteor Showers in 2021, all three titles being fairly self-explanatory
describing as they do the occurrence and visibility of examples of these three
classes of object during and throughout the year.
In his article Astronomy in 2020 Rod Hine covers a range of topics, including
taking a look at potential problems revealed by results gleaned from the Planck
Observatory, which operated from 2009 to 2013 and which provided extensive
data on Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. The problems that seem
to have arisen for cosmologists relating to the amount of dark matter in the
Universe are examined, and how this may (or may not) be resolved once the
Simons Observatory in Chile begins operations in the early-2020s.
This is followed by Solar System Exploration in 2020 in which Peter Rea
covers a wide range of ongoing space missions. These include the collection
and return to Earth of samples from the surfaces of two asteroids, one being
162173 Ryugu by the Japanese Hyabusa 2, and the other 101955 Bennu, which
has been the target of the American OSIRIS-Rex. The ambitious goals of both
these missions highlight the incredible advances that our exploration of other
planetary members of the Solar System has made in recent years.
In 2021 we celebrate the 450th anniversary of the birth of Johannes Kepler,
best known for his three Laws of Planetary Motion published between 1609 and
1618. Neil Haggath discusses some of Kepler’s work in his article Anniversaries
in 2021 as well as drawing to our attention the centenaries of the deaths of
several other notable astronomers. These include the 350th anniversary of
the death of Italian Jesuit astronomer Father Giovanni Battista Riccioli, who is
credited for introducing the system of lunar nomenclature still in use today; the
150th anniversary of the death of Sir John Herschel, son of the great observer
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