The Sky This Week for January 11-15
A comet, longer days, and other exciting things to look for in the sky this week.
By Richard Talcott
Wednesday, January 11
Full Moon officially arrives at 6:34 a.m. EST tomorrow morning, but it looks completely illuminated all night. You can find it rising in the east just before sunset and peaking high in the south around midnight. It dips low in the west by the time morning twilight starts to brighten the sky. The Moon lies in southern Gemini the whole night through.
Thursday, January 12
Venus appears brilliant in the western sky starting within a half-hour after sunset. It reaches greatest elongation today, when it lies 47° east of the Sun, but the planet will remain the evening sky’s brightest point of light through late March. It currently shines at magnitude –4.6, some 10 times brighter than the second-brightest object, Jupiter. Venus stands about one-third to the zenith 30 minutes after the Sun goes down and doesn’t set until nearly 9 p.m. local time. When viewed through a telescope this evening, Venus appears 25″ across and half-lit. You also might glimpse its outer solar system neighbor, 8th-magnitude Neptune, which stands 0.4° south of Venus this evening.
Friday, January 13
If you look to the lower left of Saturn before dawn this week, you can catch a nice view of Mercury. This morning, the inner planet lies 10° above the southeastern horizon 30 minutes before sunrise. Shining at magnitude –0.1, it shows up nicely through the twilight glow. (If you don’t spot it right away, binoculars will bring it into view.) A telescope reveals Mercury’s 7.5″-diameter disk, which appears about half-lit.
Saturday, January 14
The waning gibbous Moon appears in the company of 1st-magnitude Regulus tonight. The pair rises in the east around 8 p.m. local time and climbs high in the south after midnight. Just 1° — twice the Moon’s apparent diameter — separates the two.
Sunday, January 15
Jupiter dominates the morning sky in early January. The giant planet rises shortly after midnight local time and climbs halfway to the zenith in the southern sky by the time twilight begins. Jupiter shines brilliantly at magnitude –2.0 and shows a disk that spans 37″ when viewed through a telescope. A small scope also reveals the planet’s four bright moons, though you may have to hunt for one of them this morning. The shadow of volcanically active Io starts to transit Jupiter at 1:45 a.m. EST, and the moon itself begins to cross the planet’s disk at 2:59 a.m. Both transits last a little more than two hours.
Source
Astronomy Magazine
Wednesday, January 11
Witches Of The Craft® 