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ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Hello Wild
Tales listener, Rosie here. This

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week we're doing something a bit
different. I'm sharing another

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podcast I thought you might
like. Nature Fix brings you

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sumptuous stories of outdoor
adventure inspiration. In this

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episode you'll discover the
magic of the night sky on an

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urban stargazing walk and I'll
be back next time for more Wild

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Tales.

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CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Hello and
welcome to Nature Fix with me

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Claire Hickenbotham. Each month
we take you with us to meet the

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people whose lives have been
changed by the outdoors and join

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them in a place that most
inspires them. Today we're

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joining astronomer and adventure
lover Nazanin Jahanshahi in the

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middle of Manchester.

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Naz shows us how the city centre
might look an unlikely place for

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a celestial tour, but look up
and you'll be amazed at what you

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might see. And this winter's
evening we're in for a treat.

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We're looking at stars, a rare
planetary parade and getting

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tips on hunting for the northern
lights. So let's wrap up warm

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for an awe-inspiring city
stargazing voyage.

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NAZANIN JAHANSHAHI: We're
actually in Manchester city

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centre right now and there is a
lot of traffic, lots of people,

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lots of light pollution which
would seem like a pretty unusual

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place to talk about the night
sky. But I think there's a lot

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up there that people can still
see. So we're going to go for a

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little walk and see what we can
see.

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I'm Naz. My love of the skies
kind of began when I was around

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seven years old. My granddad
used to ask me to point out the

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moon in the sky. Then when it
came to high school and actually

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studying, you know, sciences,
physics ended up being my

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favourite subject.

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And when it came to studying
something at university I chose

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physics with astrophysics. I've
gone on to work at Kielder

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Observatory. Other hobbies have
come into that now, so I'm a

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climber. We love to go
everywhere in the country. So

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I'm still very much an outdoorsy
person.

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I spend a lot of time outside
but I still do try and find time

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to look up and look at the
skies. Even On my journey to and

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from work I will always be
looking up. It's not always the

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the safest thing to do as I do
ride a motorbike and yeah all of

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that has come into it but that's
essentially me.

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This is Deansgate around rush
hour and the skies are just

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starting to completely darken.

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So we've ventured off the main
road and we're just walking

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through Castlefield.

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There's still lots and lots of
lights around, but there's just

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a little quiet area. There's no
lights directly above us and

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that's allowed us to see a
little bit more of the sky.

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CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Anyone can
enjoy the stars just by looking

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up on a clear night, and on this
particular evening there's a lot

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to see up in space. But if you
want to understand more about

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what you're looking at, Naz says
there are some great books or

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apps to get you started.

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NAZANIN JAHANSHAHI: The most
commonly used app is called

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Stellarium and it's free and
it's got all of the information

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you could possibly need about
the night sky so it's one of the

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best tools that you can take out
with you for the first time.

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We are looking at an incredibly
clear winter night at the moment

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and it's still darkening a
little bit it's just past sort

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of six o'clock so we're still
waiting for the skies to get

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completely dark but the
brightest objects have at this

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point kind of revealed
themselves.

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Looking at the sky in, like I
say, Manchester city centre, the

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brightest objects that we can
actually see after the sun and

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the moon are the planets, when
they are in the sky. And at the

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moment we do have the planetary
parade going on. Immediately

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after sunset we do have quite a
few of the planets in the sky,

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and the brightest of those is
Venus. After the sun and the

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moon, Venus is the brightest
object in the sky.

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So I can see that that is not
twinkling, it's not moving, and

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there are no flashing lights. So
I'm definitely looking at a

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planet, and that is the planet
Venus. Interesting fact about

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Venus is that it is incredibly
close to our planet in terms of

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size. Some people think of it as
our sister planet, but it is

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very different in composition.
The atmosphere of Venus is

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incredibly toxic.

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It has sulfur in its atmosphere,
lots of cloud. It's very, very

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hot. It's actually the hottest
planet in our solar system. Even

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though it isn't the closest
planet to the sun, it is the

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hottest because of that cloudy
atmosphere that traps all of

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that heat. So... not necessarily
a planet that we would ever

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really want to spend a lot of
time on.

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Moving over towards the sort of
darker part of the night sky

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away from the sunset, we can see
another bright object. And that

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bright object is the planet
Jupiter, the biggest planet in

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our solar system. It's
absolutely massive. So even

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though it is on the other side
of the asteroid belt, it is

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incredibly far away from us.

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It is still very, very bright in
the night sky. It is a gas giant

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planet, so it is mainly composed
of gas, and that gas is whipping

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around the planet at incredibly
high speeds. One feature that

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can be spotted on Jupiter if you
have a very, very good

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telescope, and if you are in
darker skies, better conditions,

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you can see Jupiter's great red
spots

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which is essentially a massive
storm, kind of like a tornado or

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a hurricane happening on Jupiter
that is just swirling around and

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it creates this red spot within
that gas that's spinning around

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the planet. That has changed
shape and changed size

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throughout our lifetimes and
it's really interesting watching

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it evolve and we can learn lots
about what's going on on that

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planet. But that great red spot
is about two or three times the

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size of our planet. It is
absolutely huge. The next bright

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objects that we can see is the
planet Mars. And you can very

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evidently again in the centre of
Manchester with all of this

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light pollution around you can
still see the orange colour in

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that planet.

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So Mars has its red colour
because of the iron that exists

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on the surface so a lot of
people call it the red planet

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and people aren't always sure
what that red colour comes from.

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There's a lot of iron on that
planet. And it has oxidised, so

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it essentially is covered with
rust.

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So it's very bright in the sky,
it's very orange. We have rovers

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on Mars, we've sent missions to
Mars to bring back Martian soil.

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So we are learning lots about
Mars and we perhaps might see

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people on Mars within our
lifetimes.

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So we're going to move on from
this location, we're going to

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move on to Castlefield Bowl
which is a sort of a hot spot

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that people go and sit around
but we're going to continue

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looking up at the sky and see
what we can see.

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We're currently walking past
Castlefield Viaduct. I think

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Manchester in general does have
quite a lot of really lovely

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viaducts and they really add to
the the sort of infrastructure

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of the whole place and keeps it
at its roots I think.

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When I want to get away from the
light pollution and I really

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want to do some serious
observing, whether it's with a

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telescope or a pair of
binoculars. Or simply if there

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is a meteor shower happening and
I want to be somewhere dark so I

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could catch even the the
smallest of shooting stars

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leasing across the sky, I will
venture further out and my go-to

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place around Manchester is the
Peak District.

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There's lots and lots of areas
that you can go to and there's

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plenty of resources that we can
use as well to discover the

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darker skies a little bit closer
to us.

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So if you go onto Google and you
type in dark sky maps, the sky

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darkness is essentially measured
and plotted on maps. So we can

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see exactly where where it might
be darker around our area. And

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even if it's only marginally
darker than where you live it

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still makes a huge difference.
But light pollution is a massive

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problem for not only researchers
trying to do research on space

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and what's out there. But also
just general human life and

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nature as well. Our circadian
rhythms can be massively

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affected by artificial light and
we are absolutely surrounded by

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it at this point. There's no
getting away from it unless you

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go to incredibly isolated
places.

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And personally, I think it
causes us to lose touch with our

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surroundings, the nature around
us. I think it's also really

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profound being able to look up
at the night sky and think about

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what's out there. Think about
the true scale of what's out

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there

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and how incredibly unlikely it
is that we've come into

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existence and consider all of
these things and our place in

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the universe. And I think when
we can't see the night sky, you

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kind of start to lose touch with
that. You lose touch of what it

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really means to spend time on
planet Earth.

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CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: Naz reaches
Castlefield Bowl, Manchester's

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famous open-air music venue. It
gives big views of the darkening

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sky. And Naz takes a front row
seat for the stars putting on

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their celestial show.

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NAZANIN JAHANSHAHI: We've
arrived at Castlefield Bowl and

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we've got quite a nice view of
the sky. We can see quite a big

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patch of it. And we're going to
have a little sit down and talk

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about some of the other
celestial bodies and then go on

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to aurora hunting.

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So looking up at the skies.
Usually the first place that I

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would recommend kind of
beginning your journey around

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the night sky is by looking for
the north star. And the way that

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we find the North Star is by
looking for the Big Dipper. And

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there are seven stars that make
up the shape of a pan. And once

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you've spotted the Big Dipper,
from there it becomes quite easy

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to navigate your way around the
sky.

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So the way that we find the
North Star is by finding the two

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stars that make up the sort of
the pan edge, so the opposite

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side to the pan handle, those
two stars, you draw a line

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between those two stars and then
you keep on drawing that line

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through the sky up away from the
pan and the next bright star

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that you get to or the next
brighter star that you get to,

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that star there, is the north
star.

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A common mistake that people
make is that the north star is

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the brightest star in the sky.
It's not. It's actually

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somewhere around the sort of
50th brightest in the sky. It's

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not a particularly bright star
at all.

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But again, from the centre of
Manchester, I can still see it.

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That is a star that will not
move no matter what season we're

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in, no matter what time of the
day it is. It will always remain

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in the exact same spot. So it's
a really good place to sort of

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anchor yourself in the sky. And
from there, you can work your

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way out to the other
constellations immediately

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around it.

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So there are some nights where
we can't see the moon or we see

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it a little bit later on. When
the moon is at its fullest

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phase, it is essentially on the
opposite side of the sun in

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where it appears in the sky.

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So as the sun sets is when that
full moon will rise on the

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opposite side. But we're
currently in the time of the

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month where the moon is reaching
its new moon phase. And the sun

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is essentially behind it. All of
the sunlight is being reflected

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off the dark side, the other
side of the moon and the side

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that we cannot see.

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But we're currently in that new
moon phase, which actually so

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happens to be the best time of
the month to actually do some

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stargazing because the moon
itself is its own light

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pollution.

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When the moon is in the sky, it
can actually be a massive

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hindrance to what you can see up
there. And all of the sort of

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fainter stars completely fade
into the sky. And it's yeah,

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it's an incredibly bright object
when it's up in the sky.

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CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: A short
walk through the city has

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revealed some stunning secrets
of the night sky. But there's

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one phenomenon that tops a lot
of people's bucket lists. The

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aurora borealis, or the northern
lights, which appear as ethereal

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rippling strips of colour. The
aurora borealis happens when the

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sun sends out massive flares of
energy

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called coronal mass ejections.
These flares travel through

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space on solar wind before they
penetrate the Earth's magnetic

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field and are funneled to the
North and South Poles. The Sun's

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energy reacts with particles in
the Earth's atmosphere to

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release light, and different
elements release different

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colours like greens and reds.

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This light display is what we
see as the aurora. And Naz has

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seen this celestial showstopper
right here. In Manchester.

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NAZANIN JAHANSHAHI: So I have
seen the northern lights quite a

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few times. I've seen them in
several locations around the

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world. I've seen them in
Scandinavia and Finland. I've

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seen them in Iceland. I've also
seen them in the UK, in Scotland

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and also right here in
Manchester.

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On this evening where it was
predicted to happen, I'd had

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word that the sun had had one of
these coronal mass ejections and

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this ejection of energy was
absolutely massive. So it had

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the potential of being an
incredible show and everybody

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got very excited about it.

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On this particular evening I was
on my way to climb at an indoor

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climbing centre and I got there
with my partner, with my

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boyfriend, and as soon as I got
there I was looking at my phone

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and I thought tonight's the
night. It's going to happen. So

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I actually left him at the
climbing centre and headed out

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into a slightly darker part of
Manchester on a hill that we

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call Werneth Low.

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So I got up to this hill and
there was people everywhere. And

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that excitement was really,
really nice to see. And I

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interacted with people whilst we
were waiting, and it was very

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cold. Everyone was really cold,
waiting, shivering. But we stood

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there and we waited a few hours.
We started to see a very bright

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red appearing.

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And something that a lot of
people don't expect about the

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aurora, especially when you see
all of these pictures of the

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Aurora, is that when you see it
with your own eyes, you don't

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see the colours that vibrantly.
And that's purely because

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cameras can capture that light
in a way that your eyes cannot.

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That doesn't take away from the
spectacle of it, that doesn't

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take away from the ribbons of
light, the whip across the sky.

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But on this particular night,
waiting for it in Manchester,

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the first instance of it that we
saw was very obviously red to

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our own eyes. And I have never
in my life seen as much colour

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in the aurora as I did that
night.

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00:16:00,324 --> 00:16:05,007
The skies were filled with reds,
with pinks, with greens,

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purples, and I could see it all
with my own eyes. And it was

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absolutely incredible. And I was
out for an hour, an hour and a

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half, trying to capture all of
this, trying to take pictures of

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it. And the fact that I was able
to take pictures like that, so

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close to the centre of
Manchester, surrounded by all

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this light pollution, was
really, really spectacular for

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me.

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And will possibly be my most
memorable experience of the

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00:16:33,741 --> 00:16:37,722
aurora. It is really like
watching magic appear right

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above your head. Because, you
know, it's not like you've

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switched it on or off. It's
something that has naturally

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occurred in the sky. And I think
the elusive nature of it as well

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makes it all that more special.

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There's a lot that we can see
out there if we just look up.

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There is so much that you
wouldn't expect, so much that

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you wouldn't even know about
that happens on a daily basis,

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that if you just look up and you
question what you see up there,

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you'll see things that not
everyone sees.

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00:17:20,667 --> 00:17:22,089
CLAIRE HICKINBOTHAM: I hope
you've enjoyed this month's

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Nature Fix. For inspiration and
guides to night sky watching.

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00:17:26,232 --> 00:17:29,495
Head to our episode show notes.
And wherever you are, don't

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00:17:29,535 --> 00:17:34,019
forget to look up. If you love
nature, why not try out Wild

277
00:17:34,059 --> 00:17:37,202
Tales podcast for weird and
wonderful stories about our

278
00:17:37,222 --> 00:17:40,505
incredible world. Or join the
fun with Ranger Ray and the

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00:17:40,525 --> 00:17:44,009
Wildlifeers podcast for little
ones. See you next time.