The Andalucia astronomy calendar page

Best times to view and what's in the sky at Cuevas del Negro

Sky darkness for the month in Andalucia   Want the whole year? download it here The year for some other cities: London, Paris, Bonn, Rome

Major meteor showers visible in Europe Name Duration Peak Quadrantids Early January 3 Jan Lyrids late April 22 Apr Eta Aquarids early May 6 May Bootids late June 28 June Perseids mid-August 12 Aug Orionids all October 21 Oct Leonids mid-November 17 Nov Geminids mid-December 14 Dec How to read the Sky Darkness chart There's one row for each day of the month. Starting at 12:00 noon, so that the chart is centred on midnight. Clock midnight is shown by a light green vertical line and is labelled "00:00". Each row shows daylight in yellow, twilight fading to dark and various shades of grey, depending on what the phase of the moon is that night. The closer the moon is to new, the darker the shade - reflecting the darker skies when less of the moon is shining. The phase of the moon is shown on the right, the new moon is symbolised as a hollow circle and the full moon with a red background. It appears that the sunset is late so that evenings are short. This isn't a mistake. Although Spain is further west than most of Europe, it still maintains Central European Time.

The new and full moon are shown on the calendar below. Remember that around a new moon, the moon sets in the evening sky and when it's near to full, it rises in the evening

Planets and Stars of interest

Object Vis  Mag.  Rises Transits meridian Sets Universal time - add 1 hour for Spanish time, and 1 more for daylight saving  Mirfak  1.8  20:26:36  7:01:00  17:35:24   Rigel  0.1  3:14:07  8:50:39  14:27:12   Capella  0.1  23:16:03  8:53:04  18:30:05   Sirius  -1.5  5:12:17  10:20:58  15:29:39   Procyon  0.4  4:57:09  11:15:04  17:32:59   Spica  1.0  11:37:03  17:03:58  22:30:52   Vega  0.0  13:38:23  22:14:41  6:50:59   Altair  0.8  16:58:56  23:28:29  5:58:02   Fomalhaut  1.2  22:15:34  2:34:54  6:54:14  Reading the Planets chart Planetary motion is clockwise. The rise-time is shown by the coloured circle and set-time is the other end of the arc.

Sky maps for the next month in Andalucia.

The month is divided into three parts: early, middle and late. There are 2 maps
available for each part: an evening map showing the sky at around 10 p.m.
and a morning map showing the sky at 3 a.m.
The maps appear in a separate window (so you must enable popups for this site
to view them. There are no advertisements - I promise!

The current evening map and next month's and the following month
The current morning map and next month's and the following month