{"id":600,"date":"2020-12-29T00:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T00:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=600"},"modified":"2021-01-29T02:27:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T02:27:31","slug":"january-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/january-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"January 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Planet\nwatching is likely to be frustrating this month. And last month’s\nsuper close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is hard to beat. But\nmaybe we can come close. The two planets remain close together next\nto Capricornus at the beginning of January. As Jupiter leaves Saturn\nbehind, both are heading into the sunset. Mercury is showing up to\njoin them about a week into the new month and new year. The messenger\nplanet passes Saturn first and then Jupiter from the 9th<\/sup>\nto the 11th<\/sup>.\nThen it keeps going. The trouble with seeing this close cluster is it\nthe planets set so soon after the sun. The best view will be from\nclose to the equator where the planets will set about 55 minutes\nafter sunset. To see them so close to the horizon, it is absolutely\nnecessary to have no obstructions on the horizon. Hills, buildings,\ntrees, and distant clouds can all spoil the view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jupiter,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On\nthe 13th<\/sup>,\na thin crescent moon joins the party. The next evening, it has passed\nall three planets already. The moon, Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn\nline up nicely on the 14th<\/sup>.\nSeeing them will likely require binoculars to pick out the planets\nfrom the orange dusk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nJupiter and Saturn head toward conjunction with the sun, Mercury\nheads toward greatest elongation on the 24th<\/sup>.\nIt is 18.6\u00b0 east of the sun. Saturn’s conjunction with the sun\nhappens on the same day and Jupiter’s on the 29th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mars<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mars\nhas crossed to the easternmost fish of Pisces at the start of the\nmonth. On the 20th<\/sup>,\nbetween Aries and the head of Cetus, the red planet is closest to\nUranus. They are 1.6\u00b0 apart. Unfortunately, the first quarter moon\nis nearby casting a dreadful amount of light into the view. But you\ncan see Uranus several nights before the moon interferes. Uranus is\nnearly stationary, so you’ll need to observe carefully with\nbinoculars or a telescope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mars<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

January is the\nmonth when it’s obvious why Orion is known as a winter constellation\nin the northern hemisphere. It’s risen already when the sun sets and\nit’s up nearly all night. Look north of it and see Gemini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe dawn close to sunrise, see Venus close to the horizon. A thin\nwaning crescent moon is right of it on the 11th<\/sup>.\nBy the end of the month, it’s rising so close before sunrise, you may\nnot find it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Venus<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Earth\nis at perihelion on the 2nd<\/sup>\nat 0.983 astronomical units from the sun. Mercury’s perihelion occurs\non the 29th<\/sup>\nat 0.307 a.u.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon’s phases this month: last quarter on the 6th<\/sup>,\nnew on the 13th<\/sup>,\nfirst quarter on the 20th<\/sup>,\nand full on the 28th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon’s other circumstances: on the equator going south on the 6th<\/sup>,\nperigee at 367,400 km away on the 9th<\/sup>,\nsouthern lunistice on the 12th<\/sup>\nat 24.9\u00b0, on the equator going north on the 19th<\/sup>,\napogee on the 21st<\/sup>\nat 404,400 km, and northern lunistice on the 26th<\/sup>\nat 24.9\u00b0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nQuadrantid meteor shower’s possible peak time is on the 3rd<\/sup>\nat 14 hours UT. A waning gibbous moon causes some trouble viewing it.\nThis is a northern hemisphere shower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Wide<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One thing you can\ndo is get to know some of the constellations. Orion and Gemini are up\nall night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Orion is the\nconstellation known as the hunter. You won’t see Orion and Scorpius\nup at the same time. They’re on opposite sides of the sky. The old\nlegends say that’s so the two can’t harm each other. Orion is the\nbrightest of the constellations because it has so many bright stars\nin it. Get a star map of Orion and see them all for yourself. Most of\nthe stars are hundreds of light years away. The middle star in\nOrion’s belt is almost 2,000 light years away. The star at the bottom\nof his dagger is more than 2,300 light years away!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gemini are twins\nwho had many adventures together. The ancient Greek story is that\nthey had the same mother but different fathers. One was immortal\nbecause his father was a god. The other had a human father. And, that\none died in a battle. The immortal one begged his father, Zeus, for\nhelp. Zeus’ solution: bring the mortal one back and let them both be\ntogether forever as a constellation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Planet watching is likely to be frustrating this month. And last month’s super close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is hard to beat. But maybe we can come close. The two planets remain close together next to Capricornus at the beginning of January. As Jupiter leaves Saturn behind, both are heading into the sunset. Mercury […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-60"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600","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=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":614,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions\/614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}