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Happy Seachtain na Gaeilge to you all, it is Ireland’s National Irish-language Week, which really lasts a fortnight. We are beginning by looking at the sky for the night of Saint Patrick’s Day. The attached video is in Irish and as it is Seachtain na Gaeilge, there will be more than one Irish language video this fortnight.

When the Sun goes down on Saint Patrick’s Day, the planet Venus will be bright, easy to see and the first object to come out, though it is hard to see when it’s the only object in the sky. We say “object” for a thing, any given thing, when we’re talking generally. Venus of course is a planet, but it is our before any other star as well. Sirius is the first of the stars to emerge, but not the first object. When the Sun goes down a little bit more, Venus will be going with it pretty very quickly, setting directly after the Sun. Venus won’t be up for much of the night and by the time the sky is truly dark Venus will be gone. Looking at the sky once it’s truly dark, at about 8 o’clock though to be honest, there’s still a little bit of light over in the west. However, it is close enough to true darkness at 8 o’clock. Almost exactly in the south we have Jupiter, the biggest planet though it is only the second brightest. Once Venus goes down, and as I said Venus goes down very early in the night, Jupiter will be the brightest thing left in the sky, the Moon won’t be up until later.

If we zoom in on Jupiter, it seems that Saint Patrick’s Day is not the best day to take a look at Jupiter, at least early in the night. Looking at Jupiter here, we’re only able to see two of the Galilean Moons, only to easily at least. If we zoom in much more, with a huge telescope, then Io and Callisto are visible right in front of Jupiter. The four moons are on our side of Jupiter, not hidden behind it, so in a way the four of the moons are visible, but they aren’t easy to see with a small telescope. They are much easier to see, for example, on the 19th, or if we push back into Seachtain na Gaeilge, even the day before Saint Patrick’s Day. Looking at 8 o’clock on the 16th of March, the four Galilean Moons are visible, even with a small telescope. They are close together but still they are visible as separate moons, and if we zoom in on Jupiter, the Great Red Spot is visible.

Saint Patrick’s Day isn’t, or at least the start of the night on Saint Patrick’s Day isn’t, the best time to look at Jupiter. If we push ahead in the night our view will change, but Jupiter won’t be up the whole night. We don’t have 10 hours or the like to look at Jupiter, more like 5 or 6. Jupiter is going to go down, it’s going to set, before the night ends, before the Sun rises. At 1:45 in the morning, Jupiter will be lower in the sky but still above the horizon. However, the four moons are visible. The four Galilean Moons at least, Jupiter has lots of moons, it has a lot more than 4. Also in view is the Great Red Spot. We weren’t able to see it when the night of the 17th began, but after pushing through to the morning of the 18th, Jupiter is after turning around. Not the whole way, but almost the whole way, more than half way around, enough that the Great Red Spot is visible. That’s one of the reasons it’s useful to look at the planets across the whole night or for a couple of hours in one night. Especially if you have the chance to look at Jupiter, or even at the sky in general, around 8 o’clock, when true night begins, and then again closer to morning time when the night is finishing , you’ll have the chance to see the different sides of Jupiter and different parts of the sky. That’s the only planet that’s up on the night of Saint Patrick’s Day, other than Venus and Venus is hard to see as I said. We won’t be able to see Mercury or Mars, and we won’t be able to see Uranus with our eyes, but that planet, Uranus, is up.

It’s a bit harder to see Uranus, but we can find it. Looking into the south, the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, is easily visible. Sirius will be the second brightest object that will be up at this time and at this date, directly under Jupiter and very bright as well. Right next to that is An Bodach or Orion, this is one of the most famous constellations. Orion’s Belt is particularly easy to see. If you move your gaze from Sirius and go through Orion’s Belt, it will lead you up to the red star, Aldebaran. If we push ahead a little bit more, we’ll come to the Seven Sisters or An Treidín (the herdlet). These stars are also known as the Pleiades or M45, there are a lot of names for this cluster of stars. It is an open cluster, and a fairly close one with its separate stars visible. Right underneath that group of stars is Uranus, also very close to the sort of V-shaped group of stars called the Hyades, below the sort of little box of stars that is the Pleiades.

If we zoom in on Uranus, Uranus isn’t turning around as quickly as Jupiter, it’s a little slower, but still fast enough compared to us with a day of just about 17 hours. With Uranus, it is a little strange as Uranus is rotating on its side. The ring that Uranus has is visible all around it, and its equator is sort of at the edge of what we can see of the planet. One of the poles is pointing almost in our direction, while the other is currently pointed away from us and the Sun. When Uranus is turning around, the Sun doesn’t go up or down for anyone who is close to the poles, and if you are at the other side of the equator, you’re in night for that half of the year. Uranus must orbit the Sun, with the pole pointing in the same direction the whole time, not relative to the Sun. As the planet orbits the Sun, it will rise across the equator, eventually swapping which pole is in the Sun and which is in darkness. The time of day changes mostly with the time of year rather than the turning of the planet as is normal. Uranus is there to be seen, but it is very hard to see. We can see plenty of moons, with the moons orbiting the equator of Uranus, like every moon around every planet. The planet is currently facing us with a pole, and for that reason the moons aren’t able to sort of “escape” behind the planet or in front of the planet, they’re always next to the planet and we can see that from our perspective here on Earth.

There are really two planets up for most of Seachtain na Gaeilge. There are certainly two planets up and visible to the naked eye for Saint Patrick’s Day any way. If we go back to the Sun setting, we’ll see Venus again, easy to see during the start of the night when the Sun is setting. If we push back into Seachtain na Gaeilge, earlier in March, Saturn is visible. Saturn, the planet with the ring, is above the sunset just it sets, just like Venus, but only early in the month. We could zoom in on Saturn, but with that amount of sunlight, in the real sky I can’t say that it is a good idea. Even with a good telescope it would be very hard to see anything due to the light coming from the Sun. With the Stellarium software we can zoom in and see Titan, the largest of Saturn’s Moons. You could see that with a real telescope, but due to the Sun light it would be very hard. Also visible in close up is Saturn’s Ring. If you go to the seaside, or up on a mountain, if you go somewhere without any trees or buildings or anything in your way, for example, if you are looking out over the ocean to the west, you will be able to see Saturn for longer before it sets. By then the sky is a little bit darker, so you have a slightly better chance to look at the moons and the ring. Firstly is Titan, easy to see. Iapetus is out here as well, another moon of Saturn’s. It does orbit Saturn further out than Titan, but it is much smaller and fainter. Iapetus is one object I don’t know to name the right way to say that in Irish, it’s hard to change the Greek to Irish.

Even waiting until a bit later, Saturn still has a very orange appearance, due to the light of the Sun. While Saturn is in the sky, there is still a little of that light interfering with us and interfering with our view. If we remove the atmosphere, if there wasn’t any air around us to spread out that light, then we would see closer to the real colour that would be on the ringed planet. It’s a cooler colour without the sunlight, the planet has a very sort of warmed appearance when the light of the Sun is still helping, but Saturn isn’t that orange in real colour. Saturn is the other planet visible to the naked eye any way, but Neptune is there as well. You won’t be able to see Neptune without a telescope, and a much larger telescope than the telescope you must use to look at Uranus, Neptune is very hard to spot.

That’s a couple of things you are able to look at in the sky during Seachtain na Gaeilge and especially on the night of Saint Patrick’s Day, and the night before as well, there’s plenty there to look at. There will be another piece in Irish this fortnight during Irish Week, as Irish Week lasts for a fortnight, that’s the way it is. If you enjoyed this article then make sure that you push the button that says you liked it and if you enjoy this topic, if you’re interested in space and in Irish, make sure that you subscribe to this website and my YouTube channel. Thank you very much for reading this piece and I’m sure I’ll see you back here again.