{"id":871,"date":"2012-12-30T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2012-12-30T00:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/?p=871"},"modified":"2012-12-28T01:37:07","modified_gmt":"2012-12-28T01:37:07","slug":"astronomy-events-of-january-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/30\/astronomy-events-of-january-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomy events of January 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u00a1SkyCaramba! Weekly astronomy blog for the week ending January 5, 2013<\/em><\/p>\n<p>January evenings start with Mars hanging low over the western horizon at sunset. It will seem to stay in the same place at the same time evening after evening while the stars slide downward. For people in the northern <a href=\"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/30\/astronomy-events-of-january-2013\/mars-west\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-874\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-874\" title=\"Mars west\" src=\"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Mars-west.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"362\" height=\"396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Mars-west.jpg 362w, https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Mars-west-274x300.jpg 274w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 362px) 100vw, 362px\" \/><\/a>hemisphere, the sky will be a little brighter each night as the sun sets a little later. You\u2019ll see the red planet below Capricornus. Mars gets a visit from the moon on the 12<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>The Great Square of Pegasus and Pisces close to the meridian around sunset at the start of the month. Orion is rising with Taurus above it. Jupiter stays near the Hyades V in Taurus all month. The moon passes Jupiter on the 22<sup>nd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>Leo rises in late evening. Virgo and Bo\u00f6tes follow it. Saturn is in Libra and rises after midnight. The moon will be near it on the 6<sup>th<\/sup> and 7<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>Venus remains low on the eastern horizon before sunrise. The moon will be next to it on the 10<sup>th<\/sup>. The best views for this will be at low latitudes.<\/p>\n<p>Earth will be its closest to the sun all year on the 2<sup>nd<\/sup>. The earth-sun distance doesn\u2019t change much during the planet\u2019s orbit. At 147,000,000 km (91.4 million mi), Earth will be 98% of its average distance from the sun on that day. Mars will be at its closest to the sun on the 24<sup>th<\/sup>. Its distance is 207,000,000 kilometers or 128,000,000 miles from the sun.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/30\/astronomy-events-of-january-2013\/orion-rising\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-877\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-877\" title=\"Orion rising\" src=\"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Orion-rising.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"477\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Orion-rising.jpg 477w, https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Orion-rising-214x300.jpg 214w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 477px) 100vw, 477px\" \/><\/a>Mercury will be at its farthest from the sun on the 4<sup>th<\/sup>. You may be able to see Mercury in the morning during the first week or so of the month. It\u2019s getting closer to the sun, so it will be a challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Some people in the Indian Ocean and western Australia will see the moon pass in front of the bright star Spica on the 5<sup>th<\/sup>. The moon will pass in front of Jupiter on the 22<sup>nd<\/sup>. That occultation will be visible from part of South America and part of the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks January 3<sup>rd<\/sup> and 4<sup>th<\/sup>. This is a morning shower for the northern hemisphere. The origin is near the Big Dipper. You may see only the brighter meteors though with a waning gibbous moon in the sky.<\/p>\n<p>The moon will cross the equator going south on the 3<sup>rd<\/sup>, reach its southernmost point on the 9<sup>th<\/sup>, cross the equator again going northward on the 15<sup>th<\/sup>, reach its northernmost point on the 23<sup>rd<\/sup>, and head south across the equator again on the 30<sup>th<\/sup>. Last quarter will be on the 5<sup>th<\/sup>, the new moon on the 11<sup>th<\/sup>, first quarter on the 18<sup>th<\/sup>, and full moon on the 27<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earth and Mars at their closest to the sun, Mercury at its farthest from the sun, Venus dazzling us in the mornings, an early morning meteor shower for northern hemisphere watchers, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[150,5,25,4,18,152,240,614,78,17],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":879,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871\/revisions\/879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}