Skylights featured three times on Earth Science
Picture of the Day: 1
, 2
, 3
, 4
.
Photo of the Week.. Another view of the northern
lights display of November 7, 2004 reveals beautiful contrasting
colors.
Astronomy news for the week starting Friday, January 7, 2005.
The Moon fades in its waning
crescent phase early in the week, passing new on Monday,
January 10th, just as the Sun rises in the southeast. Look for the
thin waxing crescent in the
southwest the night of Tuesday the 11th in twilight just after
sundown. Only two hours before "new," the Moon passes perigee,
where it is closest to the Earth. That combination coupled with
our recent closest passage with the Sun (perihelion) on New Year's
Day will make for some of the highest ocean
tides of the year.
The morning of Saturday the 8th, the waning crescent will present
a fine -- though somewhat difficult -- sight directly to the right
of close-knit Venus
and
Mercury, the three visible just above the southeastern horizon
in morning twilight. Up and to the right is Antares of Scorpius. Later in the week, the waxing crescent
passes south of
Neptune in Capricornus the
evening of Tuesday the 11th and south of Uranus
in Aquarius the following
night.
Last December 29, Mercury and Venus passed conjunction with each
other, and only a bit over two weeks later, on Thursday the 13th,
they do it again (separated by but a third of a degree), Venus once
again resuming its position to the west of its smaller neighbor.
At that moment, the ancient planets once again also resume their
natural outward progression from the Sun, first Mercury and
Venus, followed by Mars
(above Antares),
Jupiter (to the south at dawn, and now rising before midnight),
and Saturn
(in Gemini). You can also
add Uranus and Neptune to the ordered list. Saturn, which
has been encroaching steadily on the evening sky, passes
opposition with the Sun on Thursday the 13th, when it
rises at sundown, crosses the
meridian to the south at midnight (as Jupiter rises), and sets at
sunrise. At that moment it will also have its greatest retrograde angular speed (westerly relative to the
background stars).
Try catching Comet Machholz as it passes by the
Pleiades in Taurus early in the week on
its way north. Binoculars will help.
Orion remains the night sky's
commanding figure, crossing the meridian to the south shortly
before midnight. Surrounding it are some of the sky's most beloved
constellations: Taurus, Auriga, Gemini, Canis Minor, Canis Major. But fainter ones are
there for your enjoyment as well. To the east of the Hunter is a
large patch of fainter stars that represent modern Monoceros, the Unicorn. Below him is
the boxlike ancient figure of Lepus, the Hare. Farther down yet, reaching closer to
the southern horizon, is a fairly prominent flat triangle that
marks the flight of Columba, the
Dove. Way WAY down, visible only from the far southern US and
points south, is Pictor, the Easel,
which lies directly west of the sky's second brightest star, Canopus.
