| Observatory |
What's Up...
Some observing hilights
to look forward to...
The following tips on current and upcoming astronomical events
have been assembled for our Okanagan region by Dave Gamble
with the objective of giving OC RASC members a heads-up on
special personal astro-experiences to look forward to.
Thurs. Jan. 1 – To mark the new year, Algol, the ‘Devil Star’, will perform one of its blinks… this time with the two hour time period centered at 3.32am with late New Years revelers in mind. Its regular brightness with neighbouring stars in Perseus will continue until around 2.30am before it dims for the following two hours. Thought we’d mention this in case someone might think they were seeing things, or wonder what was in that last New Years drink.
Fri. Jan. 2 – The Quadrantid meteor shower will peak early tomorrow morning. The almost Full Moon will not help things, however it will be dropping to the western horizon in the hours before dawn while the radiant point in the Ursa Major area will be located very high overhead. The Quadrantids carry an interesting story since they are produced by leftovers from several sources including Comet 96P/Machholz and asteroid 2003 EH1. The debris stream is narrow which is why this shower doesn’t last very long.
Sat. Jan. 3 – This is Full Moon night and Luna is checking out the start of a new calendar year from high in the sky among illustrious company. To her upper right will be Castor and Pollux while brilliant Jupiter to the lower right will make the asterism a capital ‘L’.
Sat. Jan. 3 – Temperatures may be on the cold side right now, but we can take some consolation from the fact that today the Earth is at perihelion, the point in its orbit when it is closest to the Sun. Not that it makes much difference… we’re only 3% closer to the Sun than we were last July. For the record, the closest point will be reached at 9am our time.
Sun. Jan. 4 – Tonight brilliant Luna will cozy up to M44 the Beehive Cluster in Cancer. The swarm of faint bees will be just to the upper right of our neighbour.
Mon. Jan. 5 – Luna, now in waning gibbous phase, will be reminding us that spring is only months away by posing near Regulus and Leo’s reverse question mark asterism.
Fri. Jan. 9 – While Saturn and Jupiter are doing their best to keep our planetary family in mind in the night sky, they are filling in for our two neighbours… Venus reached superior conjunction between the Earth and the Sun last Tuesday, while Mars will reach conjunction on the far side of the Sun early this morning.
Sat. Jan. 10 – Speaking of Jupiter, the brilliant gas giant will reach its opposition in the night sky at 1am this morning. If it’s clear, this would be an appropriate time to get it in the sights of your telescope to catch it and its planet retinue at their largest size on this special night.
Sat. Jan. 10 – This is Last Quarter Moon morning with the half lit disk of our neighbour rising in the early morning hours, depending on how low your eastern horizon is, low in the southeast just above right from bright Spica in Virgo.
Wed. Jan. 14 – We mention the thin waning crescent Luna rising just before dawn low in the southeast sky today only because it’s located in the vicinity of Antares in Scorpius. Thought you’d appreciate hearing about a summer constellation at this time of the year.
Sun. Jan. 18 – This is New Moon night, the heart of the dark moon period. Wouldn’t it be great if we get some clear skies sometime this week!
Wed. Jan. 21 – We mentioned Venus’ and Mars’ conjunctions earlier this month. This morning fleet Mercury will take its turn arriving between the Earth and the Sun marking its superior conjunction.
Fri. Jan. 23 – Sorry about this, but there’s another conjunction this morning. This time it’s Pluto and it will be ducking behind the Sun.
Fri. Jan. 23 – Luna is in its waxing crescent phase and this evening it will be perched low in the southwest sky above Saturn. Less noticeable, but still interesting, is the fact that the outer ice giant Neptune will again appear on a line between the two, located a bit inward from Saturn.
Sun. Jan 25 – This is First Quarter Moon night. Luna will celebrate it from among the faint stars of Pisces. Later in the evening the spectacular winter sky will dominate, but into the wee hours Arcturus and the other stars of Bootes will remind us that spring is not too far away.
Tues. Jan. 27 – Luna, now in waxing gibbous phase, will get together with the Pleiades open star cluster tonight. The beautiful tight asterism will be just to the right of our neighbour.
Fri. Jan. 30 – Tonight the almost full Moon will take part in a brilliant gathering high among the stars of Gemini. Also taking part will be Jupiter to her lower left while the twins, Castor and Pollux, will be almost equidistant to the upper left.