Whitby & District Astronomical Society

In this month's Sky Notes:

• Planetary Skylights
• Meteors
• Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
• Earth reaches Perihelion
• January 2020 Sky Charts

Planetary Skylights

The New Year commences with just two naked eye planets visible, Venus in the evening twilight sky and Mars in the dawn sky.

Venus is gradually drawing away from the SW horizon growing in presence as it does so and dominating the early evening sky.  Through a telescope Venus exhibits a phase, which throughout January will be a waning gibbous.  Other than that there is little to see, the now permanent duvet of cloud blanketing the planet, hiding the surface from scrutiny.

If conditions are clear on the 27^th, aim your telescope (low/medium power) towards Venus around 05:50-18:00h and you will also spot the outer planet Neptune, a tiny blue grey disk visible close by.  The crescent Moon blunders onto the scene the following evening; the 28th.

Mercury commences its best evening apparition of 2020 at the very end of January; however most of the apparition will occur during February, so we shall leave it until then.

Uranus resides in Aries, well placed high to the south during the evening.  Although technically visible to the naked eye at Mag. +5.9, in reality binoculars, or better still, a telescope are required to spot it.  Uranus resides just within the borders of Aries quite some distance below the ‘crooked line’ asterism of the Ram.  If you have a constellation chart or App etc, use Mesarthim and iota Aries as pointers to locate Uranus, which resides 3 times the distance between these stars and a tad to the right, below them.  Through a telescope Uranus resembles a very small disk of subtle grey/green hue.

Mars is the solitary naked planet in the dawn sky moving quite rapidly against the backdrop of three constellations over the course of January: - Libra, Scorpius and Ophuichus.  Look for it in the SSE around 07:15h not too far above the horizon.  Currently not a brilliant object, Mars resembles a first magnitude amber hued star.  Do not however mistake it for Antares, chief star in Scorpius, which is also orange in hue and above which Mars resides around midmonth.  The Moon lies close to Mars on the 21^st.

Meteors

One of the more prolific annual meteor showers is active during the first week in January, the Quadrantids (Jan1st-6^th) peaking over the night of the 3/4^th.

The Moon is at first quarter on the evening of the 3^rd, so ideally if you can wait until after midnight – into the early morning hours of the 4^th the moon will have set by then.  The peak can sometimes yield in excess of 100 meteors per hour and with the radiant of this now defunct constellation located high up (circumpolar) to the north, observed numbers of shooting stars could be as high as 50 per hour.

The Quadrantids appear to radiate from the now defunct constellation of Quadrans Muralis, which was removed from sky charts in 1922, but used to lie at the junction between Hercules, Bootes and Ursa Major.  This position in the sky is located low to the North at the time of the peak, so do not concentrate on this aspect when viewing.

If conditions are clear, wrap up warm, prepare a flask and enjoy!

Lunar Eclipse

There is a penumbral eclipse of the Full Moon on the 10^th, however don’t get too excited as only some very slight dimming of the moon will be noticeable during the evening.  Not one for the scrap books really!

Looking North Mid-January - 20:00h	Looking South Mid-January - 20:00h
Looking East Mid-January - 20:00h	Looking West Mid-January - 20:00h
Northern Aspect Mid-January - 20:00h	Southern Aspect Mid-January - 20:00h
Looking North (Early) Mid-January - 06:45h	Looking South (Early) Mid-January - 06:45h