In many parts of Europe and North America we rarely get to see the beauty of the night sky. Well now you are in luck, for the clear skies of Morocco provide a great chance to wonder at the vastness of the galaxies and other worlds out there.
VIEWING TIMES
In December the sun sets around 1825 in the eastern part of the country (Merzouga) and at around 1845 in the western part (Tafraoute). The night sky gradually gets dark over the next half hour or so and viewing can then begin. In June the sun sets around 2020 in Merzouga, 2040 in Tafraoute.
(Although Morocco is on GMT +1 time zone all year round, during the holy month of Ramadan the clocks go back one hour to aid those fasting. Ramadan falls approximately 10Mar24 to 8April24, then 28Feb25 to 29Mar25, then 18Feb26 to 19Mar26, and so on.)
VIEWING CRITERIA
The four criteria to an ideal viewing experience are
1. Location: minimal light pollution (no nearby street or hotel lights)
2. Location: unrestricted 360º view of the horizon (no mountains or dunes)
3. Weather: cloudless sky (happens about 300 days per year)
4. Lunar cycle: you don’t want moonshine overwhelming faint light from distant sources
I don't think I need to expand on the top three items on the list other than to say Morocco has thousands of good viewing spots around the country where there’s minimal light pollution. The Oukaimeden Observatory located at 2,700m in the High Atlas south of Marrakech has a remotely controlled 20-in scope, but of more interest to amateur observers is the Sahara Sky Observatory. This is a few miles south of Zagora next to Erg Tinfou and has 16-in Schmidt-Cassegrain computer controlled telescopes together with accommodation for visitors, see http://www.saharasky.com/saharasky/
(I have a smaller 10-in Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope at our cave in the ‘dark skies’ of the Spanish Altiplano.)
The fourth criterion above (lunar cycle) needs some explanation. As the relative positioning of the sun, earth and moon changes, this affects how much of the sunlit moon is visible from the earth. During Full Moon the strong moonshine will tend to wash out the faint light from stars so it’s a really bad time to try to stargaze. The opposite situation is New Moon when the moon isn’t visible at all and the skies are really dark. This website provides information on lunar phases along with moonrise and moonset times: https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/@2542443?month=7&year=2023
If you are camping in sand dune or open countrysides, an interesting moon phase is what’s called Third Quarter or Last Quarter when, in the early evening, the moon isn’t visible giving great stargazing, but then it rises some time later and illuminates the dunes with a warm moonshine. This magic period runs from four to seven days after Full Moon.
WHAT EQUIPMENT IS NEEDED?
The easy answer is practically none other than warm clothes in winter. The most comfortable viewing position is often flat on your back, so something to lie on would be useful. You definitely don’t need a telescope, the most you could find useful would be a small pair of binoculars. If you are interested in identifying specific planets, stars or constellations then there are several smartphone apps that will help.
MAN MADE ITEMS
You won’t get to see the fixed-position geostationary satellites used for GPS navigation as these are over 35,000 km up in the sky, however you will see Low Earth Orbital (LEO) satellites whizzing about the sky as they are only between 500 and 2000 km above the earth. Lie on your back, open eyes wide and look for a moving light source that doesn’t have the flashing lights of an aeroplane. These LEO satellites are used primarily to handle data communications and what you are actually seeing is the sunlight reflecting off the massive solar panels, so you will only see these for a couple of hours after sunset or before sunrise. As of May 2023, Space X has launched over 4,000 LEO satellites as part of its planned 12,000-satellite StarLink operation.
The biggest man-made LEO out there is the International Space Station (ISS) which is 400 km up and a real sight to see. The ISS usually appears over the western horizon and disappears over the eastern horizon in a matter of a few minutes. There are various tracker applications on laptops and smartphone to predict the ISS appearance.
METEOR SHOWERS
These are caused by small amounts of matter burning up in the atmosphere as the earth passes through the debris left from past comets. Meteors can be observed at any time of the year but the main clusters are the Perseid shower which peaks on 12 August, the Leonid shower around 17 November and the Geminids shower around 13 December. A useful calendar of upcoming activities: https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/
PLANETS AND STARS
Whilst the stars for practical purposes seem fixed in place against each other, the planets of our solar system appear to wander all over the place, even appearing to change direction from one night to another, hence the Greek name planetes or ‘wanderers’. Our nearest planet, Venus, is known as Morganstern or Morning Star as it’s often seen low against the horizon in the morning before dawn, or just after sunset. To get the best from your star and planet observations I would recommend the smartphone app ‘Sky Guide’.
One simple thing you might learn with Sky Guide is to find the cluster of what in the UK we call ‘The Plough’ or in North America ‘The Big Dipper’ which is composed of seven stars of Ursa Major. Follow the last two upwards and the star you come to is Polaris. During the night the whole sky revolves around Polaris and its position remains unchanged, for this is the North Star, used for navigation for centuries.
Our solar system is part of a huge galaxy called the Milk Way which is a spiral with loose spurs, one of which we are on. Viewed from earth the galaxy is a disk on its side and you can see some of the billions of stars in the Milky Way stretching across your head.
VIEWING TIMES
In December the sun sets around 1825 in the eastern part of the country (Merzouga) and at around 1845 in the western part (Tafraoute). The night sky gradually gets dark over the next half hour or so and viewing can then begin. In June the sun sets around 2020 in Merzouga, 2040 in Tafraoute.
(Although Morocco is on GMT +1 time zone all year round, during the holy month of Ramadan the clocks go back one hour to aid those fasting. Ramadan falls approximately 10Mar24 to 8April24, then 28Feb25 to 29Mar25, then 18Feb26 to 19Mar26, and so on.)
VIEWING CRITERIA
The four criteria to an ideal viewing experience are
1. Location: minimal light pollution (no nearby street or hotel lights)
2. Location: unrestricted 360º view of the horizon (no mountains or dunes)
3. Weather: cloudless sky (happens about 300 days per year)
4. Lunar cycle: you don’t want moonshine overwhelming faint light from distant sources
I don't think I need to expand on the top three items on the list other than to say Morocco has thousands of good viewing spots around the country where there’s minimal light pollution. The Oukaimeden Observatory located at 2,700m in the High Atlas south of Marrakech has a remotely controlled 20-in scope, but of more interest to amateur observers is the Sahara Sky Observatory. This is a few miles south of Zagora next to Erg Tinfou and has 16-in Schmidt-Cassegrain computer controlled telescopes together with accommodation for visitors, see http://www.saharasky.com/saharasky/
(I have a smaller 10-in Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope at our cave in the ‘dark skies’ of the Spanish Altiplano.)
The fourth criterion above (lunar cycle) needs some explanation. As the relative positioning of the sun, earth and moon changes, this affects how much of the sunlit moon is visible from the earth. During Full Moon the strong moonshine will tend to wash out the faint light from stars so it’s a really bad time to try to stargaze. The opposite situation is New Moon when the moon isn’t visible at all and the skies are really dark. This website provides information on lunar phases along with moonrise and moonset times: https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/@2542443?month=7&year=2023
If you are camping in sand dune or open countrysides, an interesting moon phase is what’s called Third Quarter or Last Quarter when, in the early evening, the moon isn’t visible giving great stargazing, but then it rises some time later and illuminates the dunes with a warm moonshine. This magic period runs from four to seven days after Full Moon.
WHAT EQUIPMENT IS NEEDED?
The easy answer is practically none other than warm clothes in winter. The most comfortable viewing position is often flat on your back, so something to lie on would be useful. You definitely don’t need a telescope, the most you could find useful would be a small pair of binoculars. If you are interested in identifying specific planets, stars or constellations then there are several smartphone apps that will help.
MAN MADE ITEMS
You won’t get to see the fixed-position geostationary satellites used for GPS navigation as these are over 35,000 km up in the sky, however you will see Low Earth Orbital (LEO) satellites whizzing about the sky as they are only between 500 and 2000 km above the earth. Lie on your back, open eyes wide and look for a moving light source that doesn’t have the flashing lights of an aeroplane. These LEO satellites are used primarily to handle data communications and what you are actually seeing is the sunlight reflecting off the massive solar panels, so you will only see these for a couple of hours after sunset or before sunrise. As of May 2023, Space X has launched over 4,000 LEO satellites as part of its planned 12,000-satellite StarLink operation.
The biggest man-made LEO out there is the International Space Station (ISS) which is 400 km up and a real sight to see. The ISS usually appears over the western horizon and disappears over the eastern horizon in a matter of a few minutes. There are various tracker applications on laptops and smartphone to predict the ISS appearance.
METEOR SHOWERS
These are caused by small amounts of matter burning up in the atmosphere as the earth passes through the debris left from past comets. Meteors can be observed at any time of the year but the main clusters are the Perseid shower which peaks on 12 August, the Leonid shower around 17 November and the Geminids shower around 13 December. A useful calendar of upcoming activities: https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/
PLANETS AND STARS
Whilst the stars for practical purposes seem fixed in place against each other, the planets of our solar system appear to wander all over the place, even appearing to change direction from one night to another, hence the Greek name planetes or ‘wanderers’. Our nearest planet, Venus, is known as Morganstern or Morning Star as it’s often seen low against the horizon in the morning before dawn, or just after sunset. To get the best from your star and planet observations I would recommend the smartphone app ‘Sky Guide’.
One simple thing you might learn with Sky Guide is to find the cluster of what in the UK we call ‘The Plough’ or in North America ‘The Big Dipper’ which is composed of seven stars of Ursa Major. Follow the last two upwards and the star you come to is Polaris. During the night the whole sky revolves around Polaris and its position remains unchanged, for this is the North Star, used for navigation for centuries.
Our solar system is part of a huge galaxy called the Milk Way which is a spiral with loose spurs, one of which we are on. Viewed from earth the galaxy is a disk on its side and you can see some of the billions of stars in the Milky Way stretching across your head.
