Last Quarter 6th 00:00
-- 12:01
New 13th 08:03
-- 16:14
First Quarter 20th 11:43 -- 00:00
Full 28th 16:24 -- 10:21
First Quarter 20th 11:43 -- 00:00
Full 28th 16:24 -- 10:21
Getting colder with every
month's passing. We had our first sub-zero night of the winter on the 29th of
November, and it didn't look to be trying, so there are lower temperatures to
come. Dress warmly for long observing nights.
Planets
Mercury will be a morning
planet. It will rise on the 1st at 6am, under 2 hours before the
Sun, so can be sought safely with care. This will remain so for the first week,
but then it starts to move behind the Sun and by the 20th it will be
within an hour of sunrise and by the 22nd it will be too close to be
observed with safety with optical instruments.
Venus will be visible in
the mornings this month rising on the 1st at 5:30am, a large 12
arcsec disc of –4.0 mag. Unmistakably bright at that time in the morning with
dimmer Saturn a couple of degrees above. By the end of the month it will have
moved rapidly towards a position behind the Sun so that it will be more
difficult to see in the much brighter dawn. It will also be a little fainter at
mag –3.9 and smaller at 11 arcsec.
Mars will be an evening
object, setting about 2 hours after the Sun, but at 4 arcsec and mag 1.2 will
take some effort to see and show little detail on the disc. By the end of the
month it will be in very much the same position, setting 2 hours after the sun
and still too small to show detail so close to the horizon.
Jupiter will rise on the
1st at 4pm, at 48 arcsec and mag –2.8, and set at 8am, with us all
night. On the 31st it will rise at 1:45pm and set at 5:45am. So will
be with us all night all month, only reducing in size to 47 arcsec. Another
very good month for Jupiter.
Saturn will rise on the 1st
at 4:45am, at mag 0.6 and 16 arcsec so will be available for an hour and a half
before the Sun interrupts things. By the end of the month it will have moved
into Libra from Virgo, and will rise at 3am giving us a couple of hours to
observe.
Uranus will rise due east
on the 1st, at 1:30pm and set at 1:30am and on the 31st,
it will rise at 11:30am, again due east, and will set at 11:45pm, due west.
Neptune will rise on the
1st at 12:45pm, a small 2 arcsec disc at mag 7.9. It will set at
10:45pm. At month’s end it will rise at 11am and will set at 8:30pm.
Meteor Showers
This is the month of the
Geminids. Better than most other showers and generally more reliable too. Slow
meteors and about 120 per hour at the top of the sky can be hoped for. The peak
is on the 13th and wonder of wonders, it’s a new Moon, so it won’t
be in the way. It radiates from Gemini, but can be seen all over the sky as
with all other showers. Perhaps worth a meteor watch, after the Annual Dinner?
Comets
None to speak of. But you can look for
yourselves on the Minor Planets site. http://minorplanetcenter.org/iau/Ephemerides/Comets/index.html
The latest from a few
years ago, are listed there. Click on one for the ephemeris. If you like it,
download it as a KML file by clicking on the KML file link. Then click on it on
your desktop, which is where it’ll land when it gets to your machine. Click on
it there and it will ask you to run google earth then to change it to google
sky and the path of the comet will be drawn across the google sky for you.
Don’t bother with any that show a mag number larger than 7 or 8. Most on the
list are more than 15, which is very faint and suitable for photography only.
For details of satellites
check http://www.heavens-above.com and for sky charts call me at observatory@donastro.org.uk
.