Overview

Posted on 2007 January 01 @ 00:01 - filed under Astronomy.

The Southern Sky Almanack is a monthly overview of the southern skies, showing interesting daily events, times of Sun rise & set, and the visibility of the Moon, planets and bright stars. Lunar phases, the movements of planets, comets and asteroids, occurrence of meteor showers, and the circumstances of eclipses, are tabulated. Lunar occultations of stars and planets brighter than 3.5 magnitude are listed. All minor planets reaching opposition during the year, and that are brighter than 9th magnitude, are listed. Astronomical anniversaries and South African public & school holidays, are also marked on the monthly calendar pages.

The Moon spends most of the year in the zodiac, though it frequently pops into Auriga and Ophiuchus for brief periods.

Mercury is in Cetus (Apr 15 - Apr 17), Orion (July 02 - July 17) and Ophiuchus (Dec 07 - Dec 18).

Venus is in Cetus for Feb 27-28, in Sextans from July 30 to August 16, then in Hydra from Aug 17 to August 23.

Mars in south of the equator in the first quarter of the year, crossing the equator in mid-May. By September it is north of declination +20°. It is in Ophiuchus from Jan 01 to January 11, and in Cetus from May 25 to May 29.

Jupiter remains south of declination –20° throughout the year. It is in Ophiuchus from January 01 to December 02; from December 03 until year's end it is in Sagittarius. There are no mutual events of Jupiter's Galilean moons visible in 2007. However, close approaches are indicated, listing all events for which 2 moons approach to within 4 arcseconds of each other. For 2007, all close approaches are between Io and Europa.

Saturn remains north of declination +10° throughout the year, located in Leo the entire time.

Uranus is in Aquarius the entire year, Neptune stays in Capricorn, and Pluto is in Sagittarius.

Calendrically speaking, 2007 has a Dominical Letter = G, Epact = 11, Golden Number (Lunar Cycle) XIII, Julian Period (year of) 6720, Roman Indiction = 15 and Solar Cycle = 28.

Visibility of the planets

In mid-March, Mars (rising) and Saturn (setting) are opposite each other in the sky. Early May, Venus (setting) and Jupiter (rising) are opposite each other. In mid-August, Saturn, Venus and Mercury are setting together, while Mars (rising) and Jupiter (setting) are opposite each other. In mid-October, Venus and Saturn (rising) are together in the sky.

Month	Mercury	Venus	Mars	Jupiter	Saturn
Feb	01-17: evening	evening	morning	morning	01-10: morning 10-28: evening
Mar	02-30: morning	evening	morning	morning	evening
Apr	01-25: morning	evening	morning	morning	evening
May	11-31: evening	evening	morning	morning	evening
Jun	01-19: evening	evening	morning	01-05: morning 05-31: evening	evening
Jul	08-31: morning	evening	morning	evening	evening
Aug	01-08: morning 25-31: evening	01-13: evening 22-31: morning	morning	evening	01-04: evening 05-31: not visible
Sep	evening	morning	morning	evening	01-09: not visible 09-31: morning
Oct	01-18: evening	morning	morning	evening	morning
Nov	morning	morning	morning	evening	morning
Dec	morning	morning	01-24: morning 24-31: evening	01-10: evening 10+: too near the Sun	morning

Seeing Venus in daylight

Venus is bright enough to be seen in full daylight, provided you know exactly where to look. Now and then, the Moon lies near Venus and acts as a handy visual anchor. The table below gives the dates when, at 12:00, Venus and the Moon are near each other.

Date	Venus and the Moon
March 21	Venus 4° from the Moon (looking NE; altitude 26° Cape Town, 37° Johannesburg).
March 22	Venus 14° from the Moon (looking NE; altitude 26° Cape Town, 37° Johannesburg).
April 20	Venus 4.5° from the Moon (looking NE; altitude 14° Cape Town, 26° Johannesburg).
May 19	Venus 8° from the Moon (looking NE; altitude 8° Cape Town, 20° Johannesburg).
May 20	Venus 5.5° from the Moon (looking NE; altitude 8° Cape Town, 20° Johannesburg).
June 18	Venus 2.5° from the Moon (looking NE; altitude 12° Cape Town, 23° Johannesburg).
June 19	Venus 10° from the Moon (looking NE; altitude 12° Cape Town, 23° Johannesburg).
July 17	Venus 3.5° from the Moon (looking NE; altitude 26° Cape Town, 38° Johannesburg).
July 18	Venus 12° from the Moon (looking NE; altitude 27° Cape Town, 38° Johannesburg).
September 09	Venus 10° from the Moon (looking NW; altitude 43° Cape Town, 45° Johannesburg).
October 06	Venus 11° from the Moon (looking NW; altitude 36° Cape Town, 35° Johannesburg).
October 07	Venus 3.5° from the Moon (looking NW; altitude 36° Cape Town, 35° Johannesburg).
November 05	Venus 4.5° from the Moon (looking NW; altitude 40° Cape Town, 38° Johannesburg).
November 06	Venus 8° from the Moon (looking NW; altitude 41° Cape Town, 38° Johannesburg).
December 05	Venus 8° from the Moon (looking WNW; altitude 51° Cape Town, 45° Johannesburg).
December 06	Venus 9° from the Moon (looking WNW; altitude 51° Cape Town, 45° Johannesburg).

Lunar occultations of bright stars

The Moon occults Antares in May, and El Nath (beta Tau) twice: first in May and then in November.

Occultation of Antares, May 04

Place	Time	Comments
Harare	19:08:43	Reappear, altitude 2°
Jhb	19:16:44	Reappear, altitude 5°
Pretoria	19:18:26	Reappear, altitude 4°
Bloem	19:18:53	Reappear, altitude 5°
Durban	19:19:09	Reappear, altitude 9°
CapeTown	19:20:52	Reappear, altitude 2°

Antares disappears behind the Moon while below the horison. The almost-full Moon rises with Antares still occulted. The star reappears, shortly after moonrise, "on top of" the Moon.

Occultation of El Nath, May 18

Place	Time	Comments
Windhoek	18: 17: 36	Disappears, Sun not set
Jhb	18: 21: 46	Disappears, altitude 5°
Pretoria	18: 21: 57	Disappears, altitude 5°
Durban	18: 22: 18	Disappears, altitude 1°
Bloem	18: 22: 19	Disappears, altitude 45°
Harare	18: 24: 56	Disappears, altitude 65°
CapeTown	18: 39: 06	Mid-eclipse, altitude 4°
Windhoek	19: 13: 20	Reappears, altitude 6°

Around the time of sunset, the setting young Moon occults El Nath. The reappearance is only visible from Windhoek shortly before the pair set.

Occultation of El Nath, November 26

Place	Time	Comments
Windhoek	00: 07: 36	Disappears
CapeTown	00: 22: 36	Disappears
Pretoria	00: 33: 26	Disappears
Bloem	00: 35: 44	Disappears
Jhb	00: 37: 27	Disappears
Harare	00: 40: 27	Disappears
Durban	00: 48: 37	Disappears
CapeTown	01: 25: 11	Reappears
Windhoek	01: 30: 20	Reappears
Pretoria	01: 46: 59	Reappears
Bloem	01: 47: 13	Reappears
Jhb	01: 55: 00	Reappears
Durban	01: 57: 54	Reappears
Harare	02: 09: 04	Reappears

Throughout southern Africa, El Nath disappears behind the Moon after midnight. Some 80 minutes later, the star reappears.

Keywords: Astronomy, Southern Sky Almanack, 2007, monthly sky review, Southern Sky Talk podcast

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