Skylights featured twice on Earth Science Picture of
the Day: 1
, 2
Photo of the Week.. A giant cloud floats on an
invisible ocean of dense air.
Astronomy news for the week starting Friday, January 10, 2003.
We begin the week with the
first quarter Moon, which takes place on Friday the 10th. The
rest of the week sees the Moon waxing to full, this phase passed
the following Saturday, the 18th. Less than a day after first
quarter our companion passes apogee,
where it is farthest from the Earth (at a typical distance of
405,500 kilometers, or 252,000 miles, six percent greater than
average). Though angularly smaller than usual, with no ready
reference the effect is not visible to the eye.
The night of Wednesday the 15th, the Moon will present itself just
to the east of Saturn,
which is passing just above Zeta
Tauri, the star that makes Taurus's southern horn. The ringed
planet, a spectacular sight in a telescope, now crosses the
meridian to the south around 10 PM. Much brighter Jupiter
is now also making a major impact on the evening sky. Well to the
east of Saturn, it rises shortly before 7 PM, making a fine sight
as it lofts itself above the eastern horizon.
The focus this week, however, is really on the two inner planets.
Mercury
invisibly passes inferior conjunction with the Sun
(between us and the Sun) on Saturday, the 11th. In stark contrast,
Venus
passes its point of GREATEST visibility, reaching
greatest western elongation relative to the Sun the day before,
on Friday the 10th. At that time it will be a full 47 degrees to
the west of the Sun. Rising just before 4 AM, the planet shines
with amazing brightness in the pre-dawn sky. At elongation we look
at half the daytime side of the planet and half the nighttime side.
As a result, Venus then looks like a quarter Moon as seen through
the telescope. (That Venus goes through a full cycle of phases
provided Galileo with
proof that the Earth really does go about the Sun.) The same day
that the Moon passes Saturn, on Wednesday the 15th, Venus passes 8
degrees north of the bright star Antares in
Scorpius, Antares' reddish color contrasting nicely
with Venus's creamy white. The morning of Wednesday the 15th the
planet will be north and a bit west of the star, the following
morning north and a bit east.
Just up and to the right of Rigel,
the lower right star in Orion's
spectacular figure, lies Cursa,
"Orion's Footstool," the star that begins the great meandering
celestial river, Eridanus. The
River winds far to the west of the great Hunter and then (for most
of the US and all of Canada) plunges down across the southern
horizon, ending finally in first magnitude Achernar, which is readily visible
only from south of 30 degrees north latitude. A line drawn from
Cursa through Rigel points southerly to Lepus, the Hare, Orion's small prey.
