Category Archives: Astrophotography

It’s time to take the telescope out. 

On Monday night (Jan. 30), the moon will eclipse Mars in what’s known as an occultation, during which the moon will pass in front of Mars from the perspective of Earth.

Hoy vamos a hablar sobre uno de los objetos celestes más apasionantes y maravillosos de nuestro sistema solar: los cometas.

¿Qué es un cometa? Un cometa es un cuerpo celeste, de un tamaño entre uno y varios kilómetros, compuesto principalmente de hielo, roca y polvo que orbita alrededor del Sol siguiendo habitualmente una órbita elíptica de gran excentricidad.

A diferencia de los asteroides los cometas desarrollan una pequeña atmósfera o coma que rodea su núcleo sólido. Algunos cometas extintos, que han perdido su atmósfera, pueden llegar a ser confundidos con asteroides aunque su naturaleza y origen es diferente.

En su órbita los cometas se encuentran la mayoría del tiempo en el sistema solar exterior pero a medida que el cometa se acerca al Sol el hielo se sublima (pasa de estado sólido a gaseoso sin pasar por estado líquido) y deja una cola de polvo que se extiende en dirección opuesta al Sol. También se suele producir una segunda cola de gas a medida que el viento solar alcanza la coma que rodea el núcleo del cometa e ioniza las partículas de ésta. Esa es la razón por la que los cometas son conocidos por sus colas impresionantes.

¿De dónde vienen los cometas?

Los cometas que hemos descubierto llegan principalmente desde dos regiones del Sistema Solar. Los cometas de largo periodo proceden habitualmente de la nube de Oort, que está entre 50.000 y 100.000 unidades astronómicas del Sol mientras que los cometas de corto periodo suelen proceder del cinturón de Kuiper, que está un poco más allá de la órbita de Neptuno. No obstante, al adentrarse en la zona interior del sistema solar la órbita de los cometas puede verse modificada por la gravedad de los grandes planetas como Júpiter o Saturno.

¿Cómo se pone nombre a los cometas?

Seguramente te habrá llamado la atención que los cometas tienen unos nombres bastante peculiares compuestos por letras y números. Todo tiene su explicación y este tipo de nomenclatura nos da algo de información del cometa.

En primer lugar se indica el tipo de cometa con una letra. Los cometas periódicos son los que se ha observado su paso por el perihelio (punto de la órbita más cercano al Sol) al menos dos veces o bien tienen un periodo orbital de menos de 200 años. El nombre de estos cometas empieza siempre por P mientras que los no periódicos empiezan por C. Si un cometa se cree destruido o extinto comenzará por D mientras que los que empiezan por X son los que todavía no se conoce su naturaleza. Recientemente se ha añadido la letra I para identificar a los cometas de naturaleza interestelar.

Después de la letra se indica el año de descubrimiento y tras éste encontraremos una letra y un dígito. La letra indica la quincena del año en que fue descubierto. Así un cometa que empiece por A habrá sido descubierto en la primera quincena, B en la segunda y así sucesivamente. El número indica el orden de descubrimiento en esa quincena.

Así, por ejemplo el cometa C/2022 E3 es un cometa no periódico, descubierto en la primera quincena de marzo de 2022 y fue el tercer cometa descubierto esa quincena.

Tras esta nomenclatura ya se bautiza el cometa con el nombre del descubridor o del observatorio o survey desde el que fue descubierto. El C/2022 E3 fue descubierto por el survey ZTF y por eso se añaden estas siglas al nombre.

¿Cómo ver un cometa?

Aunque los cometas son difíciles de predecir con precisión, hay algunos que son visibles a simple vista desde la Tierra cada cierto tiempo. Si tienes suerte, puedes ver uno con tus propios ojos.

Para encontrar un cometa te puedes ayudar de un programa o planetario digital como Stellarium o Cartes du Ciel para PC o aplicaciones como SkySafari para Android que tienen una opción para mostrar cometas. También puedes consultar la página heavens-above en la sección de cometas visibles.

Para observar un cometa, lo mejor es usar prismáticos o un telescopio pequeño si éste es muy brillante. Con prismáticos, podrás apreciar una pequeña bolita difusa de color grisáceo, parecido a un cúmulo globular. Con un telescopio podrás ver detalles más sutiles como la diferencia entre el núcleo y la coma o estructuras en la cola.

La mayoría de los cometas no son muy brillantes porque no pasan muy cerca de la Tierra y entonces solo los apreciamos como pequeñas nebulosas a través del telescopio. De hecho el catálogo Messier se creó para no confundir estos objetos de cielo profundo con cometas.

Es importante tener en cuenta que los cometas son objetos celestes muy débiles, por lo que es mejor observarlos en un lugar oscuro lejos de la luz de la ciudad. También es importante esperar a que el cielo esté despejado, sin Luna y tener paciencia, ya que puede tomar un tiempo encontrarlo. ¡Los cometas no se ven brillantes y fugaces en el cielo ni presentan movimientos rápidos! Si has visto algo así seguramente se trate de un meteoro o estrella fugaz, no de un cometa.

Los cometas son una maravillosa oportunidad para explorar el universo y ver algo increíblemente especial con nuestros propios ojos. Con un poco de paciencia y un equipo adecuado, cualquier aficionado puede tener la oportunidad de ver un cometa y experimentar la emoción de observar algo nuevo y emocionante en el cielo nocturno.

A 1-kilometre-wide comet will make its closest pass to Earth on Monday night, January 30, giving Australians a small chance of catching a glimpse of what’s being referred to as the “green comet”.

Here’s what you need to know.

What is the ‘green comet’?

The green comet, or Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), was discovered by astronomers using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility in California in early March 2022.

The comet was closest to the Sun on January 12 and it will be the closest to Earth – 41.8 million km — on February 2.

Back in December, NASA said that, while the brightness of comets is notoriously unpredictable, C/2022 E3 (ZTF) could become only just visible to the eye in dark night skies at its closest point to earth.

According to The Planetary Society, the comet has a solar orbit of roughly 50,000 years, which means it hasn’t been seen in the night sky since Neanderthal times.

How can I see the ‘green comet’ in Australia?

You’ll have your best chance at night between February 1 and 2.

However, while NASA has said the comet might be slightly visible to the naked eye, amateur star searchers should not expect a bright-green light show.

“It won’t be green to the naked eye, maybe with a substantial telescope, but it will mostly be through astrophotography,” UQ astrophysicist Dr Ben Pope told ABC News.

“Nearly everything in astronomy is basically white to the naked eye except, like, red giant stars and Mars appears a little red, Jupiter is quite noticeably yellow.”

Thanks to light pollution, even seeing the comet with the naked eye could be a problem, unless you’re in a very dark part of the country.

“Basically, they’re very faint, you get a lot of people who go outside and wait and wait, and say, ‘I didn’t see anything’, but that’s because you’re in the inner suburbs, even outer suburbs it’ll be hard,” Dr Pope said.

“It’s very hard to see unless you’re in a very dark space.”

Where C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will shine is through astrophotography. Some US experts have already been able to capture its brilliant, green glow as it passed by the Northern Hemisphere earlier this month.

So keep your eyes peeled for some beautiful pictures in the days after the comet’s passing.

Why is the comet green?

Comets are made of a mixture of rocky materials, similar to what’s in the Earth’s mantle: dust and ices, not just water-ice but also components such as dry ice, methane, ammonia and carbon monoxide.

According to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the green glow from some comets comes from the breakdown of a reactive molecule called dicarbon (C2).

To prove their theory, researchers isolated the C2 molecule and blasted it with high-intensity light. What they found was that two light photons push the C2 molecule into an energy-rich, unstable configuration.

From there, the molecule decays and radiates a green light photon — just like what we see with some comets.

Holiday decorations may have come down already on Earth, but a nebula located 7,000 light-years away is keeping the festive spirit alive.

The Hubble Space Telescope captured a stunning image of a small region of Westerhout 5, also known as the Soul Nebula, glowing red. The suffusion of red light is caused by H-alpha emission, which happens when very energetic electrons within hydrogen atoms lose energy, causing the release of this distinctive red light, Hubble representatives wrote in a description of the image.

What’s in the night sky of the week of 30 January to 5 February 2023 in our weekly stargazing guide.

Chris Bramley Hello and welcome to Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine. You can subscribe to the print edition of the magazine by visiting skyatnightmagazing.com or to our digital edition by visiting on iTunes or Google Play.

Ezzy Pearson Greetings listeners and welcome to Star Diary, a weekly guide to the best things to see in the Northern Hemisphere’s night sky. As we are based here in the UK, all times are in GMT. In this episode will be covering the coming week from the 30th January to 5 February. I am Ezzy Pearson, the magazine’s features editor, and unfortunately this week Paul Money, our reviews editor who normally joins me on the podcast, can’t be with us this week, but I’m here to run you through all of the best things to see in the night sky this week. So hopefully you shouldn’t miss out on anything. So this month we’re going to start off on the 30th of January, right in the morning. Throughout the night, the Moon is going to be about five degrees away from the Pleiades. The Moon is going to be a waxing gibbous Moon, so it’s going to be about 64% lit. And the Pleiades is always a beautiful thing to see. And the two together do make for a really brilliant sight in the night sky. Five degrees is nice enough to get them both in a good shot, if you’re looking for some astrophotography inspiration. The moon’s going to be setting about 3:00 in the morning, so you’ll probably be able to get it throughout the night before that. That is the latest time that you’re really going to be able to see it.

But if you’re up and about in the early mornings of the 30 January, you might also want to keep an eye out for Mercury, which is going to be reaching its greatest Western elongation from the Sun in the morning. So that means the point at which it has its largest angular separation from the Sun, about 25 degrees on the sky. And what that means is it’s away from the Sun. So it should hopefully be up for a little bit longer, should be very distinct and clear to see. But you obviously want to be careful. You want to make sure that you’re only observing it long before the Sun is going to rise. Always make sure if you are observing the inner planets, Mercury or Venus, that you make a note of the time that sun sets or particularly sun rises. If you’re watching it early in the morning and give yourselves a good 20 minutes leeway to make sure you don’t accidentally end up looking at the Sun and hurting your eyes. We don’t want anybody to get hurt whilst looking at these beautiful planets. But I did say it’s going to be at greatest Western elongation and this is basically the point at which mercury appears furthest away from the sun in the night sky. Some people think that maybe this is happening at the time when Mercury and the Sun sort of form a right angle triangle, but it’s not actually the case when Mercury’s a bit further round. So if you imagine the the Sun is the centre of a clock, Earth is going to be about 6 o’clock and then Mercury’s about 4 o’clock. That’s where we’re going to be in our orbits. And that’s when you see this greatest Western elongation on the night sky. And then it happens again in a couple of months time on the other side, which is the greatest Eastern elongation. And that’s what happens in the evening sky. So lots of things to see in the morning of 30 January for all of our early birds.

Then going forward on to the next night on the 31 January, we’ve got bright Mars is going to be up in the night sky. It’s going to be magnitude about -0.3. So that’s going to be one of the brighter things in the night sky. You definitely not going to miss it and it’s going to be up about one degree from the Moon again at about 4:15 in the morning. So another early one for you. But if you want to see Mars next to the bright moon on 31 January is the date for you. Skipping forward a couple of days we go to 5 February and this is when we’re going to have a full Moon. And this full Moon’s actually going to be a little bit special. It’s going to be what’s called a micromoon. So some of you might be familiar with the term supermoon. This is the opposite of that. So supermoons happen because the moon’s orbit around Earth isn’t perfectly circular. It’s slightly elliptical, slightly egg shaped. And what that means is that sometimes when the Moon’s full, when the sun and moon are all in a line to make it full, it’s slightly closer in its orbit. And that’s when we see it as a supermoon. And it bears slightly bigger and brighter in the night sky. But a micromoon is the opposite of that. It’s when it’s slightly further away in its orbit and that means it’s slightly dimmer and smaller in the night sky. But just because it’s smaller doesn’t mean it’s not any less beautiful to look at. You really wouldn’t be able to notice the difference unless you’re sitting there and taking pictures and comparing them. And in fact, if you are one of those people who likes to get out and take pictures every supermoon, why not get one this micromoon. Compare the size and see how much of a difference it does actually make. But there’s lots of things that you can do on a night when there’s a Full Moon. It’s always beautiful to watch it rise up over the horizon. That one probably requires a bit of planning. You need to make sure that you know when the Moon is going to rise exactly in your location because it does change depending on where you are in the UK, sometimes by as much as about half an hour. So make sure that you’ve got that down. And try to find a nice horizon. Maybe one filled with some winter trees there, some absolutely brilliant photographs out there. So again, if you want to try some astrophotography it’s great, but it’s also a really great thing to just just go out and see. If you’ve got some kids with you that you want to take out. It’s a nice thing that anybody can sort of get to grips with is watching the Moon rise.

If you’re looking for something a bit more challenging, you might want to try and see if you can see the ray ejecta. So this is going to require a telescope to be able to see. But the Moon is covered in craters, and because the Moon doesn’t have any atmosphere and it doesn’t have… it has quite low gravity, it means that when a meteor slams into it and kicks up this cloud of dust and debris, that dust and debris can really travel. It can go hundreds and hundreds of kilometres and create absolutely massive tracks across the surface. And we can still see some of those today. There’s particularly good ray ejecta systems around the creators of Copernicus and Tycho. So try and see if you can see those on the surface of the Moon. It’s another great opportunity for that. And also we’ve talked a bit about astrophotography here today. The moon is not best loved by most deep sky astronomers and astrophotographers because it’s bright and it tends to wash out the dimmer lights of these beautiful things. It also it’s up all night, which most of the time there’s at least a couple of hours somewhere where the moon won’t have risen or is set already. But on a full moon, it’s up all night. But with it being the micro moon, if you are going to try and challenge yourself to get some astrophotography done, now is the perfect chance. And we actually have a whole guide about how to do astrophotography whilst there’s a Full Moon up in the sky over on our website www.skyatnightmagazine.com, which… take a look there. Maybe you can find something if you fancy giving yourself a little bit of an unusual challenge.

And also if you are out on the 5th of February, you might want to take a look out for Mars and to Alpha Tauri otherwise known as Aldebaran, which are going to be in conjunction on that night. And what that means is that they are going to have the same right ascension. Normally when we talk about conjunctions, they tend to be pretty close when they’ve also got the same right ascension. But this time they are actually going to be quite far apart. They’re going to be 8.2 degrees apart, but still close enough that it is still a conjunction. It is still worth a look at.

Now, while all of this is going on. There will be another visitor to our night skies, a visitor that many of you have probably been tracking over the last couple of weeks. And that is Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF, better known as Comet E3, and it’s actually going to be reaching probably its brightest this week. At least that’s when it’s estimated to and it’s going to start off about +4.8 at the start of the week, which means it could be naked eye visible around about then. Whether it will it will need a very dark sky siteand some pretty good eyesight and a bit of luck. And also comets are notoriously unreliable and unpredictable. So it could be that it could be much brighter. It could end up being much weaker. So we’ll just have to see how it is at the time. But on the 1 February, it’s going to be entering into the constellation of – and I always have to be careful about pronouncing this one – Camelopardalis, which means the giraffe, literally, it means the camel leopard, which that’s the Latin word for giraffe, in case you didn’t know. And Camelopardalis is not a particularly well known constellation because it’s not a very bright constellation. It’s not one of the easiest ones to find, particularly under slightly light polluted skies, which most of us now have to deal with. But this might be a chance to take a look at this unloved constellation out there in the night sky. And at midnight on the 1st of February, the comet is going to be about two degrees south of the top star of the giraffe’s head, which is HIP 33694. Snappy title, as these stars always have. And that star is actually going to be a magnitude +4.6 mag. So it’s going to be a fairly dim star. It’s about the same brightness as the comet itself. So I think those two will be quite interesting to sort of compare and contrast between what a bright comet looks like and what a star looks like when they’re about the same brightness. So perhaps that’s a good one to take a look at on the 1 February. Then moving forward onto the next night, on 2 February, the comet is going to be moving about five degrees southeast of Collider 464 which is a magnitude plus 4.2 open cluster again in Camelopardalis. So about the same brightness as the comet itself so nice one to compare to. But that one rather than a point source. So that’s what we call stars that point sources because they look like a point of light on the night sky, whereas things like comets and nebulae in this case and open cluster, they’re a bit more diffuse, there’s a bit more, more things happening in it. So interesting time to compare and contrast. And finally, on the night of t 5 to 6 February, the comet is going to start passing into Auriga the charioteer, so the next constellation over. And it’s also going to start fading away as it travels away from the sun and away from Earth and it begins to dim in our night skies. But on the night of 5 to 6 February, it’ll be positioned about one degree to the northwest of Capella or Alpha Auriga. So that’ll be another one as it’s starting to fade away… Just because it’s not at its best anymore, that doesn’t mean you don’t want to keep an eye on it. As I said, we never know what’s going to happen with comets. They’re very unpredictable, so it’s always worthwhile trying to keep track of it as it’s fading away from view.

So that’s it from us this week. I hope you enjoyed the podcast and managed to find some things to look at in the night sky this month. If you want to be here again next week, make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss any more episodes. And if you really like the show, why not leave us a review? It really does help us to reach more people so that they can enjoy the wonders of the night sky.

But to give a quick summary of what’s going on in the night sky this week, on 30 January in the morning, we have the moon next to the Pleiades, as well as Mercury reaching its point of greatest Western elongation. Then on 31 January, we have bright Mars and the Moon. On 1 February, Comet E3 is going to enter Camelopardalis travelling through the dim constellation on about 5 to 6th is when it’s going to journey into Auriga and begin its slow fade away as it moves away from us. And finally, also on 5 February we are going to have the Full Moon, which is also going to be a micro moon as well as Mars and Aldebaran in conjunction. So lots to see in the night sky and I hope you manage to get out there and see some excellent observations. If you want to find out even more spectacular sites that will be gracing the night sky throughout the month, be sure to pick up a copy of BBC Sky at Night magazine, where we have a 16 page pull out sky guide with a full overview of everything worth looking out for. Whether you like to look at the moon, the planets, or the deep sky, whether you use binoculars, telescopes on either our sky guide has got you covered with the detailed star charts to help you track your way across the night sky. From all of us here at BBC Sky and Night Magazine. Goodbye.

Chris Bramley Thank you for listening to this episode of the Star Diary podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night magazine. For more of our podcasts, visit our website at www.skyatnightmagazine.com or head to aCast, iTunes or Spotify.

With it’s ultra-wide 114-degree field of view on full-frame cameras, the Sony FE 14mm F1.8 G Master is designed to let you see the bigger picture. It’s eminently suitable for capturing sweeping vistas in landscape photography, cityscapes, architectural interiors and more besides. The fast aperture rating also makes it ideal for astrophotography and the lens is engineered to suit both stills and video capture. A notable competitor is the Sigma 14mm F1.8 DG HSM Art lens, which costs about the same price. However, the Sony is more compact and much lighter in weight, at 460g compared with the Sigma’s 1,170g, as well as boasting additional handling exotica.

Specifications

Mount: Sony E (FE)
Sony product number: SEL14F18GM
Full-frame: Yes
Autofocus: Yes
Stabilization: No
Lens construction: 14 elements in 11 groups
Angle of view: 114 degrees
Diaphragm blades: 9
Minimum aperture: f/16
Minimum focusing distance: 0.25m
Maximum magnification ratio: 0.1x
Filter attachment: Rear gel slot
Dimensions: 83x100mm
Weight: 460g

Key features

Top of the features list is the expansive viewing angle. Not just for shoehorning more of a scene into the image frame, it also enables creative expression, as you can get in close to subjects and exaggerate the perspective between foreground and background elements. The f/1.8 aperture makes it a fast lens, and it’s also super-speedy in terms of autofocus, utilizing dual XD (eXtreme Dynamic) linear stepping motors. Typical of the breed, the autofocus system is also virtually silent in operation, as well as enabling smooth transitions during video capture.

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Despite its lightweight build, the lens packs 14 optical elements. Specialist glass includes two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements, one Super ED element and two high-precision XA (eXtreme Aspherical) elements, plus a regular aspherical element. The mix intends to maximize sharpness, contrast and clarity while keeping aberrations to a minimum. Nano AR Coating II is also applied to minimize ghosting and flare.

Typical of ultra-wide-angle lenses, the petal shaped hood is an integral part of the barrel and can’t be removed. This helps to give physical protection to the bulbous front element, with the usual downside that there’s no front filter attachment thread. This can be a drawback for landscape photography, where you might want to use ND Grad or high-density neutral filters. We wouldn’t advise using circular polarizing filters with such a wide-angle lens anyway, as the polarizing effect will vary across the image frame.

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Build and handling

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Handling is sublime. The electronically-coupled manual focus ring has a smooth and precise action with a linear response that’s well suited to both stills and video shooting. A further bonus for the latter is that the manual aperture ring can be de-clicked via a switch located on the right hand side of the barrel. For stills, one-third f/stop click steps are available. On the left of the barrel, there’s an AF-MF focus mode switch and a function button which is nominally for AF Hold, although its action can be customized via in-camera menus.

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Performance

Well, it seems like this is the time for incremental upgrades on phones, and after Apple, it is now Samsung’s turn to unveil its new flagship phone that looks suspiciously similar to the company’s previous offering.

Still, although incremental, some of the upgrades and improvements coming to the Galaxy S23 Ultra will likely be nice to have and therefore appreciated. However, there’s a “but”, which is there because (I don’t know about you), but I’m not willing to pay $1,200 for a phone that’s likely to turn out being 80-90% similar to what we already know and love about the Galaxy S22 Ultra…

Despite the fact the Galaxy S23 Ultra is shaping up as one of the most comprehensive, feature-rich and capable smartphones of 2023, that doesn’t mean it will exist in a vacuum, which is the key point I’ll be making here.

If you do want to pick up the new Galaxy S23 Ultra, you can pre-order it now! Here’s a quick list of improvements the S23 Ultra is expected to bring over its predecessors (based on leaks):

• First and foremost – the S23 Ultra will ship with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip in all regions of the world now, meaning the days of Exynos injustice are over – not something to overlook if you have a Galaxy running on Exynos…

• New 200MP primary camera, and upgraded ultra-wide-angle and selfie sensor; the star of the S23 Ultra show is expected to be that 200MP sensor, which is said to preserve more detail (duh!), but also improve low-light photography and videography (looking forward to those camera comparisons!)

• 256GB storage for the cheapest variant of the S23 Ultra model (makes you wonder why the Galaxy S22 Ultra started at 128GB in the first place); bizarrely, the S23 Ultra is getting 8GB of RAM for the base variant, which isn’t a great look – cheaper phones like the Pixel 7 Pro and OnePlus 11 start at 12GB RAM, which is never a bad idea when it comes to Android

Surprisingly (or not), that’s where (at least according to the leaked information), the more meaningful upgrades with the Galaxy S23 Ultra seem to end…

Of course, the greatest reason to go with the Galaxy S23 Ultra over a Galaxy S22 Ultra is if you live in a place where you absolutely can’t get your hands on a Galaxy S22 Ultra powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip. Also, if your carrier comes in with that amazing offer, I’m not going to blame you for choosing the newer phone…

For everyone else, a discounted, refurbished, or even used Galaxy S22 Ultra might be the best $650 investment you’ve made in years…

• The Galaxy S22 Ultra will have one of the very best displays even in 2023 – super-bright, colorful, and high-refresh-rate; leaks say the new Ultra should be able to reach the same brightness as the old one

• Considering you aren’t buying a Galaxy S22 Ultra with the Exynos 2200 chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 version of the phone will be more than powerful enough to serve you well for years to come; again, don’t forget the extended software support that gets you three new versions of Android and four years of security patches

• The Galaxy S22 Ultra might very well be the second-best camera phone of 2023 when it comes to versatility; the zoom ceiling of Samsung’s 2022 flagship is still unmatched by any other Android phone/iPhone and it generally takes excellent photos and videos in all lighting conditions 

• While not being the absolute best, the Galaxy S22 Ultra still boasts great battery life and charges reasonably fast; the new Galaxy S23 Ultra isn’t expected to bring a bigger battery or faster charging

According to a recent price leak, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is expected to start at a mind-spinning €1,400 in Europe, giving European buyers an even better reason to look elsewhere. Although I’ve been critical when it comes to the Galaxy S22 Ultra before, a price tag of $650-700 gives this phone a whole different level of appeal!

Galaxy S23 Ultra isn’t the phone for those with Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S21 flagships – it’s meant for people with other phones

You can find a Galaxy S22 Ultra in good-excellent condition for about half the price of the new Galaxy S23 Ultra. Similar offers are available on Amazon UK and in many European countries, where the new Galaxy S23 Ultra will be far more expensive (€1,400).

Don’t forget – we’re talking about multi-million businesses here, which have one major goal – to sell more phones (act surprised!). Therefore, setting the pace of hardware upgrades and innovating to “just the right level” is pivotal for the success of Samsung as a company (an exception to the rule might be Sony, which seems to make phones for fun).

But, but, but!Do wait for our Galaxy S23 Ultra review, which will give you a better perspective on whether Samsung’s 2023 premium flagship is worth your attention. Perhaps I’m underestimating the new 200MP camera, which will blow everyone away, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor will fly like… a dragon!

Once the puns get to that level – that’s when I know to wrap things up… So, that’s a wrap!

On Saturday, Jan. 28, skywatchers will be able to see the year’s first first quarter moon, when the moon appears to be half-lit from the perspective of Earth.

Across the United States, the moon will rise in the late morning and be visible until it sets around midnight some 13 or 14 hours later, depending on your specific location. In New York City, the moon will rise at 10:53 a.m. EST (1553 GMT) and set at 12:40 a.m. EST (0540 GMT) on Jan. 29, according to skywatching site In-the-sky.org (opens in new tab).