Welcome to SkyEye, your guide to this month's celestial events. All dates are based on Universal Time (UT).
There is a penumbral lunar eclipse on 31 January. It is visible from Asia and Australia. In addition, observers on Pacific islands and in Alaska will see the beginning of the eclipse while the end of the eclipse can be seen from India, the Middle East, eastern Europe, and eastern parts of Africa.
As seen from the Earth, the Sun is moving from the constellation Sagittarius to the constellation Capricornus. The Earth reaches perihelion on 3 January.
The phases of the Moon are
| Full : |
1 January
|
| Last Quarter : |
9 January
|
| New : |
17 January
|
| First Quarter : |
24 January
|
| Full : |
31 January
|
The Moon is at apogee on 11 January and at perigee on 26 January. The second Full Moon this month is sometimes called a Blue Moon.
The Moon occults two first-magnitude stars this month. At 15 UT on 5 January, observers in parts of the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii, can watch Regulus disappear behind the limb of the nearly Full Moon. Near the end of the month, at 6 UT on 27 January, parts of the north Pacific and the west coast of Canada and the USA will see bright Aldebaran sliding behind the Moon's disk. Both of these events occur during night-time hours.
The word planet is derived from the Greek word for "wanderer." Unlike the background stars, planets seem to move around the sky, keeping mostly to a narrow track called the ecliptic, the path of the Sun across the stars.
- Mercury
- Mercury glides past Neptune on 27 January. The closest planet to the Sun appears just before sunrise in the constellations Ophiuchus, Sagittarius, and Capricornus. It is getting lower in the sky as the month progresses and is most easily seen from the southern hemisphere.
- Venus
- Venus is the "evening star" seen very low in the western sky after sunset. It is climbing higher in the sky, quickly for northern hemisphere viewers but only slowly for the southern half of the planet. It can be found close to Neptune on 5 January and Uranus eight days later. Look for Venus in the constellations Sagittarius, Capricornus, and Aquarius.
- Mars
- The red planet reaches west quadrature on 16 January. Seen through a telescope, Mars appears slightly gibbous. It rises just after midnight in the constellation Virgo.
- Jupiter
- Jupiter sets just before midnight in the constellations Aquarius and Pisces.
- Saturn
- The ringed planet reaches east quadrature on 17 January, making this month a good time to observe Saturn through a telescope in order to see shadows cast by the planet on the rings. It can be observed until midnight in the constellation Pisces, retiring from view just as Mars appears in the east.
- Uranus
- Uranus has a close encounter with Venus on 13 January. At best just on the edge of naked-eye visibility, it is too close to the Sun to be seen in the constellation Capricornus.
- Neptune
- Neptune is falling behind Uranus after their triple conjunction in 1993. It passes close to bright Venus on 5 January and then to Mercury on 27 January. Neptune is at conjunction with the Sun on 22 January in the constellation Capricornus so it is not visible this month.
- Pluto
- Pluto is currently closer to the Sun than Neptune but because it is so small and faint, a rather large telescope is always needed to see it. This smallest of the planets is in the constellation Ophiuchus, but is difficult to view this month because of its proximity to the Sun. On 2 January, Pluto passes close by the third magnitude star zeta Ophiuchi, an event occuring in the early morning just before sunrise.
- Minor Planets
- A number of interesting minor planets populate the solar system.
- Comets
- There are no naked-eye comets visible this month.
- Meteors
- This is a bad year for the Quadrantids meteor shower. Peaking on 3 January, the light of the nearly Full Moon will drown it out.
Constellations are patterns of stars in the sky. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recognizes 88 different constellations. The brightest stars as seen from the Earth are easy to spot but do you know their proper names? With a set of binoculars you can look for fainter objects such as nebulae and galaxies or some of the closest stars to the Sun.
Descriptions of the sky for observers in both the northern and southern hemispheres are available for the following times this month. Subtract one hour from your local time if daylight savings time is in effect.
Northern Hemisphere : 45° N
- 1730 hours (1830 hours daylight savings)
- 1930 hours (2030 hours daylight savings)
- 2130 hours (2230 hours daylight savings)
- 2330 hours (0030 hours daylight savings)
- 0130 hours (0230 hours daylight savings)
- 0330 hours (0430 hours daylight savings)
- 0530 hours (0630 hours daylight savings)
Southern Hemisphere : 30° S
- 1730 hours (1830 hours daylight savings)
- 1930 hours (2030 hours daylight savings)
- 2130 hours (2230 hours daylight savings)
- 2330 hours (0030 hours daylight savings)
- 0130 hours (0230 hours daylight savings)
- 0330 hours (0430 hours daylight savings)
- 0530 hours (0630 hours daylight savings)
Blue moons, eclipses, the dates of Easter and much more can be found at the Interactive Astronomy Pages. For more information about the objects and events described in SkyEye, visit these astronomy-related sites.
Credits
Much of this information can be found in this month's issue of Sky & Telescope and in other fine amateur astronomy magazines available in your local bookshop. Another excellent source is the current edition of the Astronomical Calendar by Guy Ottewell and published by the Universal Workshop at Furman University.
The image of the Sun in the SkyEye banner is courtesy of the SOHO/EIT consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
Copyright 1995-99 by David Harper and L.M. Stockman
All Rights Reserved
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Obliquity
Last modified on 31 December 1998
https://www.obliquity.com/skyeye/archive/1999/jan1999.html