Monthly Night Sky Report: January 2021

    It's hard to believe that another year has passed by already!  Perhaps that's a good thing since 2020 was such a bad year for many people.  As far as astronomy was concerned, 2020 was a fantastic year.  We were able to see Comet NEOWISE, which some people are calling the "comet of the century."  I'm hopeful that we will be able to see a more spectacular comet, similar to Hale-Bopp in 1996.  A fortunate few people were able to witness a total solar eclipse this year.  The opposition of Mars offered many people great views of the red planet.  At the end of the year, many people were able to witness the close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.  I was unable to get any pictures through my telescope to share, but the views were amazing!  Many images can be found online by searching for "great conjunction of 2020."  

    

    This new year will bring the return of your favorite summer night sky objects.  A few of my favorites include the Beehive Cluster, the Hercules Cluster, and the Ring Nebula.  Perhaps this new year will bring a never-before-seen, naked-eye comet!  Two major events taking place this year include Perseverance landing on Mars in February, and hopefully the launch and deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope near the end of the year.  

    The astronomy forecast for January shows the return of the Quadrantid Meteor Shower, a close pairing of Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, and the Moon during the early part of the month, and a conjunction with Saturn and the Sun, followed by yet another conjunction of Jupiter and the Sun near the end of the month.  These conjunctions will not be as exciting as the one between Jupiter and Saturn in December.       

    

Mercury

   Mercury will be a hard target during the first week of the month since it quickly gets lost in the evening glow of sunset.  As Mercury moves further from the Sun from our vantage point, it will become easier to see as it moves closer to Saturn and Jupiter.  These three planets will change places with each passing day.  On the 7th, Mercury can be found below Saturn, by the 10th, the innermost world will be about halfway between the gas giants and to the east (left) creating a planetary triangle.  Two sunsets later, Mercury will be the last of this trio to sink below the western horizon.  On the 13th, the 1% lit Moon will join these planets, but will be hugging tight to the horizon after sunset.  The following night, the Moon can be found higher in sky, be 4% illuminated, and will follow the curve that Saturn, Jupiter, and Mercury seem to create in the evening sky.  On the 23rd, Mercury will reach its greatest eastern elongation, meaning it will be be as high in the sky that it will get during its current orbit around the Sun.  If you continuously observe Mercury at the same time throughout the month, you will notice it climbing higher in the sky until the 23rd were it reaches its maximum altitude.  The following night, Mercury will begin to fall closer to the Sun.            

  

Venus

  Our sister planet, Venus, will rise approximately an hour and ten minutes before the Sun as the month begins.  As we march through the first month of the year, Venus will appear to move closer to the Sun, rising a little bit later with each passing day.  By the end of the month, Venus rises about 30 minutes before the Sun and may be hard to spot in the bright sunrise.  In early February, Venus will be too close to the Sun for Earthbound observers to view.  Currently, Venus is located on the far side of the Sun from the Earth, meaning that observers using binoculars or a telescope will be able to see a nearly "full" phase of Venus, at 98%, on the 31st.  On the 11th, a thin crescent Moon will be found near Venus.  This crescent Moon will have about 3% of the lunar surface lit by the Sun from our vantage point.

    

Mars

    The distance between the Earth and Mars will continue to increase.  If you have a large telescope, you should still be able to pick up some Martian detail, although it won't be as clear and prominent as it was in October when Mars was at opposition.  The red planet will still be easy to detect with unaided eyes due to its brightness and contrast to the surrounding stars.  The fourth planet from the Sun will be found in the constellation of Aries for the majority of the month, which can be found nearly overhead after sunset.       

Jupiter

Saturn

    Jupiter and Saturn did not disappoint observers in December with their conjunction.  Unfortunately, they will not stay above the western horizon for long after sunset, meaning you will want to get your telescope set up before sunset to observe this pair of planets.  As mentioned, the pair will be joined by Mercury, creating an excellent shot for those into astrophotography.  If you want to view these two gas giants, you will want to do so in the early part of the month, as they appear to be rapidly approaching the Sun.  

    Jupiter will likely be the first point of light to be seen after sunset.  With each passing sunset, this gas giant will be found closer and closer to the western horizon as it approaches its conjunction date with the Sun on the 28th.  By the third week of the month, Jupiter will be hard to spot in the brightness of sunset.

    Saturn will have a similar demise as Jupiter, which will happen earlier in the month.  The ringed world, which shines less brightly and is found closer to the Sun from our point of view, will likely be lost in the sunset by the second week of the month.  The conjunction between Saturn and the Sun will occur on the 23rd.         

   

Neptune

Uranus

    The outer two planets are best viewed through a telescope but can still be seen through a pair of binoculars.  Uranus can be found to the left (east) of Mars as the month begins.  The eastward motion of Mars in our night sky will bring it closer to Uranus until the 20th, when Uranus can be found almost directly below the red planet.  On this date, the Moon can be found to lower right of Uranus.  Neptune will continue to be found in the constellation of Aquarius throughout the month.  On the 16th, the Moon can be found directly below the most distant planet in our solar system.

Meteor Shower

   The Quadrantid Meteor Shower returns this month!  Under Moon-free conditions, an observer can expect to see up to 120 meteors/hour.  Unfortunately, this year brings an 80% lit Moon in the sky, which will drown out all but the brightest of meteors.  If you want to brave the cold for this shower, head away from city lights on the 3rd of the month and look towards the constellation of Bootes (contains the bright star Arcturus) around 5 in the morning.  By this time, the constellation will be nearly overhead, placing it in an ideal location for viewing.   

Spot Me....🕵️  

    I've had you try to spot quite a few different objects in the night sky, most of which require a telescope. During the cold month of January, I won't encourage you to stay outside for long or suggest objects that require a telescope.  As the two gas giants move closer to the Sun for their respective conjunctions, I do urge you to give them a glance this month before they disappear from our evening sky.  They will reappear in the morning sky around the middle of February, however.  I also urge you to look at the Moon this month.  The amount of craters that you can see on its surface changes daily as the amount of sunlight reflecting off of the lunar surface changes.  If you are the type of person that wants to get out your telescope so you can see as much surface detail as possible or you received a new moon filter that you are itching to try out, be sure to dress warm!

  

    As always, leave a comment to let us know what you see!

Monthly Breakdown

    January 03:  Quadrantid Meteor Shower Peaks

    January 06:  Last Quarter Moon 🌗

    January 11:  Moon passes within 2° of Venus

    January 11:  Mercury and Jupiter pass within 2°

    January 13:  New Moon 🌑

    January 14:  Moon passes within 2° of Mercury

    January 17:  Moon passes within 4° of Neptune

    January 20:  First Quarter Moon 🌓

    January 21:  Moon passes within 5° of Mars and Uranus

    January 21:  Mars and Uranus pass within 2°

    January 23:  Mercury reaches greatest eastern elongation

    January 23:  Saturn and Sun conjunction

    January 28:  Jupiter and Sun conjunction

    January 28:  Full Moon 🌕 

    

Think About This....💡

   

    During the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on the 21st, I was able to take out my telescope to witness this great event.  I was also able to share it with many others that joined me during the evening.  As mentioned, I was unable to get a good image through my telescope, but my niece was able to capture one that same night that she has allowed me to share!  I was able to get a shot of the Moon through my telescope with my phone, so I will also share that with you as well.  

    While viewing the conjunction, I heard many people (not in my group!) complain that the two planets weren't brighter during conjunction.  I took that to mean that they were expecting the shine from both planets to be combined, making them brighter.  I think these people forgot that Saturn is further out from the Sun than Jupiter is.  Since this is the case, if Jupiter and Saturn were perfectly aligned to the Earth, we would only be able to see Jupiter since it would block the view of Saturn!

Jupiter and Saturn conjunction taken by my niece.  

    

Moon through telescope.

Great Conjunction taken by Damian Peach and submitted to Astronomy Picture of the Day.

    The above image is similar to what I was able to see through my telescope.  Notice the 4 Galilean Moons of Jupiter spanning the top portion of the image, and Saturn's moon, Titan near the bottom center.  If you look closely, you can also see the Great Red Spot at the top left of Jupiter.  

     

    Stay tuned for more exciting news and events!  

Now get outside and look up!

Planet images taken by NASA.

Andrew vs. the Cosmos taken by Jeff Greenland.

    

Midmonth Check-In: December 2020

     I hope this mid month check-in post finds all of you doing well, staying safe, and keeping warm!  Within the past month or so, there have been a couple more asteroids that came close to Earth and a few fireballs seen above various countries due to larger meteors burning up in the atmosphere.  There have also been two rocket launches to the ISS, one carrying new crew and the other carrying supplies for those staying on the ISS.  I was also able to watch the launch of Sentinel-6 on NASA TV whose purpose is to monitor global sea levels.  Construction has also begun on the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at NASA which is designed to take humans back to the Moon and potentially to Mars.  

    There will be some exciting events from NASA taking place in 2021 with the latest Mars mission due to arrive at the red planet in February.  Later in the year, there is also the chance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) being launched.  This mission has been pushed back several times due to budget cuts and other missions taking precedence over it.  The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) consists of one mirror that is slightly taller than an average human.  The HST primarily looks at objects in the visual and UV range of the electromagnetic spectrum.  The JWST will consist of 18 mirrors which are approximately the same size as the single mirror in the HST!  This telescope will be able to see even more detail than HST due to its much larger size.  It will primarily study objects using the visual and the infrared end of the spectrum.  The JWST will be placed at about 1.5 million kilometers (approximately 930,000 miles) from the Earth in a location known as L2 or Lagrange Point 2.  This is an area in space where the gravity of the Earth and Sun cancel each other out so the telescope can "float" in place with minimal adjustments to its orbit.  Hubble is a mere 570 kilometers (approximately 350 miles) above the surface of the Earth.  

    While on the topic of telescopes, many of you may have likely heard about the failure of the main telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.  Due to hurricanes and a limited budget, the main telescope was destroyed, which was the largest telescope of its kind.  You may be familiar with a reflecting telescope, like mine pictured below, which uses a large mirror (primary mirror) to collect light, and a smaller mirror (secondary mirror) to direct the light to your eyepiece.  In my telescope, the primary mirror is located at the bottom of the telescope (near the red chair on the right) while the secondary mirror is located just behind the focuser (protruding part near the top on the otherwise smooth "cannon"), near the top of the telescope.    

My telescope, as well as most other amateur telescopes, allows the user to see objects in the visible part of the EM spectrum.  Instead of collecting visible light, the Arecibo telescope collects radio waves into a large dish consisting of nearly 40,000 panels made of aluminum.  These panels then reflect the radio waves to a single point which focuses them before they are analyzed by computers.  Just as creating a larger mirror will collect more light and be able to show fainter objects in the visual range, a large radio telescope can collect fainter radio signals to be analyzed.  Unlike optical telescopes, several radio telescopes can be built and set up in arrays to act as a single large telescope instead of many smaller instruments.  

    Objects in the universe emit many different wavelengths of light.  These include the visible range which humans are most familiar with as well as several others which you have likely heard of, such as infrared, microwaves, X-rays, and ultraviolet rays.  The visible range makes up a tiny part of the spectrum of light waves.  Radio waves also make up a small section of the EM spectrum, which radio telescopes are able to pick up.  These are the same type of waves that radio antennas pick up so that you can listen to the radio in your car or home.  Radio waves in the universe can be emitted by stars, galaxies, and black holes, among other things.  Arecibo was used to detect these faint waves and was also used by SETI to potentially detect radio waves from other civilizations.  Below is an image of Arecibo taken by the National Science Foundation before it was damaged.

The radio waves would be collected by the large dish and focused to a single point above the center of the dish which is just below the scaffolding in the image.  Once the data is focused, it is sent to a computer where the data can be analyzed.  The cables that can be seen connecting the three towers to the central scaffolding failed, causing the central area to collapse onto the dish below.  As of this post, there are no plans to reconstruct this telescope but hopefully some group will take interest and be able to make Arecibo operational once again.

The following image is of the Very Large Array Observatory in New Mexico.  This image was also taken by the NSF and was featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day.  As you can see, this observatory is made up of many smaller radio telescopes which when used together, act as a much larger telescope.  Optical telescopes are best used away from interfering light caused by city lights and other nearby light sources.  Similarly, radio telescopes work best when they are far away from radio wave sources such as cities, cell phone towers, and the like.  

Currently, the world's largest and fully steerable radio telescope is located at Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia.  Since this telescope is steerable, it is able to be aimed at any part of the sky to detect radio waves.  The dish of this telescope measures about 300 feet, which is larger than a football field!  This telescope is so sensitive that no radio signals of any kind are allowed within 50 miles of it.  This includes cordless phones, cell phones, wi-fi and even gas-powered cars!  Visiting this area is like stepping back into the 1950's.  Below is an image of the Green Bank Telescope taken by the NSF.  

    We have just passed the peak date of the Geminid Meteor Shower.  If you were unable to view them on that date, you should still be able to see quite a few meteors as the Earth continues to plow through the ice and dust that contributes to this shower.  

Over the past few weeks, I have been watching Jupiter and Saturn moving closer together.  The great conjunction between these planets is just around the corner!  This will occur on the 21st and will feature both Jupiter and Saturn in a single field of view with a pair of binoculars or by using an eyepiece with a wide field of view in a telescope.  This conjunction can be viewed as soon as you are able to see Jupiter with the unaided eye.  Be sure to dress warmly!  The winter solstice will occur on the same day as the conjunction, meaning that we will now have more daylight in the northern hemisphere as the tilt of the Earth's axis slowly wobbles towards the Sun.  

As we begin a new year, you can again look at the wonders of the night sky, such as star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies, that you viewed in 2020 or perhaps you will find a new favorite object.  Stay warm and stay safe for the remainder of the year and don't forget to get outside and look up!           

Now get outside and look up!