Astronomy news for the THREE WEEK period starting Friday,
January 13, 2012.
Our triple week begins with the Moon in its
late waning gibbous phase, our companion
then passing third quarter the morning of
Monday, January 16 well after Moonrise, allowing you to see the
phase to perfection. It then goes to the waning crescent, which diminishes in the
morning sky until our Moon goes through new on Monday the 23rd,
whence it switches to the evening waxing
crescent, which holds forth, growing, until it hits first quarter the night of Monday the 30th.
Our triplet then ends with a bit of the waxing gibbous.
Many are the pairings. The night of Friday the 13th the Moon
passes 9 degrees south of Mars, the rather
large separation due to the tilts of the two orbits. Then the
night of Sunday the 15th (the morning of the 16th, when it goes
through third quarter), the Moon will lie to the southwest of Saturn, the
following night to the southeast. Don't confuse Saturn with Spica, which sits to the southwest of
the planet. Then watch the morning of Thursday the 19th to see the
moon glide north of Antares in Scorpius. Switching to the evening
sky, the Moon will make nice pairings with Venus, appearing
down and to the right of the planet the night of Wednesday the
25th, then up and a bit to the right the following evening. The
fattening crescent then takes on Jupiter, lying
to the right of the giant planet the night of Sunday the 29th then
up and to the left the following night. Two days later, on the
night of Wednesday, February 1, the just-past-quarter will sit
right between the Pleiades and
Hyades of Taurus. Finally, if anyone
actually cares, the Moon respectively goes by Neptune and Uranus on
Wednesday the 25th and Friday the 27th. Really finally, our period
is long enough to span perigee (Moon
closest to Earth) on Tuesday the 17th and apogee (farthest) on
Monday the 30th.
Two great lights dominate the evening sky. Venus glows brilliantly
and unmistakably in the west-southwest, not setting until after 8
PM, well after the end of twilight. Then swing higher to the south
to see great Jupiter, which is with us until after midnight. On
the other side of the sky, Mars rises shortly after Venus sets,
still stuck in southeastern Leo. It's
now moving slowly, as it has been near the point where it reverses
direction as a result of the Earth catching up with it. Then on
Tuesday the 24th, it actually does, when it begins its
retrograde motion (westerly against the stars). Look to see it
transit the meridian to the south
between 3 and 4 AM. To complete the planetary sky, Saturn then
rises, paired with Spica (the star to the southwest), not long
after midnight, only a half-hour before Jupiter sets. It
disappears into dawn's light near the time it transits the
merdian. Altogether, Leo's Regulus, Mars,
Spica, and Saturn make a lovely sight in the pre-dawn sky.
Don't forget to celebrate the astronomical holiday that lies midway
between the first days of winter and spring: Groundhog Day
on Thursday, February 2. one of
the four similar "cross-quarter" days.
As Venus and Jupiter rule the planetary sky, so great Orion (seen to the south in mid
evening) lords the winter constellations, benignly leading us to
others of the "Winter Six": Auriga the Charioteer directly above him, Gemini and Taurus respectively up and to the left and right, then
his Hunting Dogs Canis Minor and Canis Major directly to the left and
down and to the left, the latter shining with Sirius. To the southwest of the
Hunter runs Eridanus, the celestial
River.
