{"id":353,"date":"2018-12-27T00:00:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T00:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=353"},"modified":"2025-01-20T17:18:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T17:18:45","slug":"january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/january\/","title":{"rendered":"January 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our new year starts with Mars on the meridian at sunset while Orion is rising. Venus is a morning object in Libra. Jupiter rises a little later below it. Mercury rises later still closer to sunrise. Saturn is too close to the sun to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mars
Mars in January and the first part of February 2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mars starts 2019 below the head of the\nsouthwest fish in Pisces. The moon passes by it on January 12. By the\nstart of February, the red planet has moved into the region between\nthe two fish close to where they’re tied. When the moon passes by\nagain on February 10, Mars is crossing the northeastern fish. During\nthe rest of the month and into the middle of March, it will move\nbetween Cetus and Aries. The moon visits Mars again on March 11. The\nred planet’s motion eastward continues. By the end of March, you can\nsee it’s poised to pass east of the Pleiades in early April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new year starts with a Venus-moon\npairing. The thin, waning crescent is in the Libra diamond with the\ngoddess planet on the 1st<\/sup>. On the second morning of the\nyear, the moon is clearing away from Libra while Venus is passing\njust south of Zuben Elakrab. Around the 11th<\/sup>, it’s passing\nnorth of Akrab in Scorpio and it’s clear there’ll soon be a\nrendezvous with Jupiter. Look for the two planets to be close around\nJanuary 21st<\/sup>, 22nd<\/sup>, and 23rd<\/sup>. The\nmoon passes by Jupiter and then Venus on the 31st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Morning
Morning view of planets January to early February 2019. Shown are Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury with constellations that include Sagittarius and Scorpius.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As February starts, Venus is moving\neastward toward the teapot lid of Sagittarius. Another rendezvous is\nimminent. After passing by Polis on the 6th<\/sup>, Venus passes\nby Saturn and the star Albaldah on the 18th<\/sup> and 19th<\/sup>.\nThen, Venus leaves the ringed planet behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 1, a waning crescent moon\npasses by Saturn. The next morning, it’s near Venus and still close\n(but on the other side) on the 3rd<\/sup>. Passing through\nCapricornus, Venus keeps moving toward Aquarius in the late part of\nthe month. By this time, northern hemisphere observers are having to\nwatch not long before sunset to spot Venus. Some may notice that\nMercury is in the morning sky, almost ready for pairing with Venus in\nApril.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More about Jupiter’s movement during\nthe quarter: The big planet and Antares make a nice pair before dawn\nas 2019 begins. It makes it to the base of Ophiuchus below the star\nSabik by mid-February. At the end of March, Jupiter is approaching\nSagittarius from the west. Saturn is plainly visible on the other\nside of the constellation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Sagittarius and Saturn spend a\ncouple weeks at the beginning of the year not visible because they\nrise with the sun. It’ll be easier to spot Mercury when a very thin,\nwaning, crescent moon passes by it on the morning of January 4th<\/sup>.\nThe messenger planet is moving sunward, so it’s not easily seen much\nafter that. That’s okay. Saturn replaces it in the dawn in the second\nhalf of January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Saturn slowly moves eastward, it\nstays just east of the archer constellation in February and March. On\nFebruary 1st<\/sup> and 2nd<\/sup>, the moon is in the\nneighborhood. The aforementioned pairing with Venus happens around\nthe 18th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then March begins for Saturn with\nanother visit by the moon which will pass Saturn again on the 28th<\/sup>\nand 29th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mercury
Mercury mid-February to mid-March 2019 animation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mercury penetrates the evening sky in\nmid and late February when it’s by the head of the western fish in\nPisces. Mercury is returning to the morning sky at the end of March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some meteor showers to watch for during\nthe quarter: the Quadrantids around January 4, the Alpha Centaurids\naround February 8, and the Gamma Normids around March 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be a partial solar eclipse\non January 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Visibility
Visibility map for the partial solar eclipse of January 6, 2019. East Asia and southwest Alaska are in the visibility region.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There’ll be a total lunar eclipse on\nJanuary 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Visibility
Visibility map for the total lunar eclipse of January 21, 2019. Times are in UT. At many locations, the date will be January 20.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The March equinox will be on the 20th<\/sup>\nat 21:59. Mars will have its northward equinox just days later on the\n23rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moon phases during the quarter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tNew\t\t\tFirst Quarter\t\tFull Moon\t\tLast\nQuarter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tJan. 6 at 01:29\t\tJan. 14 at 06:46\tJan.\n21\tat 05:17\tJan. 27 at 21:11<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tFeb. 4 at 21:04\tFeb. 12 at 22:27\tFeb.\n19 at 15:54\tFeb. 26 at 11:28<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tMar. 6\tat 16:05\tMar. 14 at 10:28\tMar.\n21 at 01:43\tMar. 28 at 04:10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunar positions during the quarter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tSouthern lunistice\tNorthward\nCrossing\tNorthern Lunistice\tSouthward Crossing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tJan. 5\t\t\tJan. 13\t\t\tJan. 19\t\t\tJan. 26<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tFeb. 2\t\t\tFeb. 9\t\t\tFeb. 16\t\tFeb. 22<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tMar. 1\t\t\tMar. 8\t\t\tMar. 15\t\tMar. 21<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tMar. 28<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunar perigee and apogee during the\nquarter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apogee & Perigee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan. 9 at 406,200 km<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan. 21 at 357,400 km
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb. 5 at 406,600 km<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb. 19 at 356,800 km<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mar. 4 at 406,300 km<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mar. 19 at 359,300 km<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earth is at perihelion on January 3. It\nis about 147 million km from the sun. Mercury is at aphelion on\nJanuary 12 at adistance of 69.9 million km. Mercury’s perihelion\noccurs on February 25 at 45.9 million km.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venus is at greatest elongation, 47.0\ndegrees west of the sun in the morning sky on January 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercury is at greatest elongation, 18.1\ndegrees east of the sun in the evening sky on February 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our new year starts with Mars on the meridian at sunset while Orion is rising. Venus is a morning object in Libra. Jupiter rises a little later below it. Mercury rises later still closer to sunrise. Saturn is too close to the sun to see. Mars starts 2019 below the head of the southwest fish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":367,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions\/367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}