Southern Sky News for 2009 January

The year kicks off with a partial solar eclipse, the biggest Full Moon, and glorious Saturn with its rings turned almost edge-on.

The Full Moon on January 11 will be special – it will be the biggest Full Moon we'll see this year. Some 18 hours before the moment of the Full phase, the Moon was at its nearest point to Earth in its orbit around our planet.

Conversely, the smallest Full Moon will be on July 7, when the Moon is near the maximum Earth distance when its phase is Full.

Here's a cool experiment you can do: on the evening of the 11th, take a photo of the Moon using your digital camera. I'd recommend using the maximum zoom you have. Then, six months later, on July 7, take another photo of the Full Moon, using the same zoom setting. Now, you can compare the two photos side-by-side, to see just how much the sizes differ. For guidelines on photographing the Moon with a simple digital camera, take a look at the comprehensive tutorial on basic lunar photography.

Also make a note to look for the almost Full Moon low on the horizon around sunset on Saturday the 10th, when it will loom large on the horizon as if its posing for a dramatic photograph.

The January New Moon, on the 26th, brings a special surprise, because early that morning, the Sun, Earth, and Moon will be in line, resulting in a solar eclipse. Seen from a special vantage point on Earth, the Moon will cover the Sun, blotting out its light. South Africa won't be THAT special, because we won't quite be in line with the Moon and Sun – we will only see a part of the Sun's disk covered by the Moon.

Cape Town will see the best show, but the entire southern African region can enjoy this beautiful view. It's an early-Monday-morning event, around 8 o'clock, so if you're at work at that time you could show your colleagues.

Remember to NEVER look directly at the Sun – the bright light will certainly cause eye damage. You could project an image of the Sun through a pair of binoculars and look at the projected image. Or, you could get a special pair of eclipse sunglasses. Its also cool to look at the shadows that a tree casts on the ground or against a wall – the little gaps between the leaves will make crescent-shaped shadows on the ground.

More eclipse info (and eventually a gallery of your images!) can be found in the "2009 January 26 partial solar eclipse" article.

Two planets are on display this month – Venus and Saturn.

Venus is by far the most obvious, visible in the west soon after sunset as the bright Evening Star. A telescope will show its phase quite nicely.

If you're watching Venus on January 21, 22 or 23 with binoculars, you may notice a moderately bright star just to its top-left. In a telescope, this star will have a clear blue colour – and at high power, a disc may be seen. This is Uranus, one of the giant gas planets far out in our solar system. It is easy to spot with binoculars, appearing exactly like a star. There's a finder chart on my website if you want to pick it up. Incidentally, January 11 is the 222nd anniversary of the discovery of Titania and Oberon, two of Uranus' bright moons, by William Herschel.

Probably the one planet you've been waiting for is Saturn, which rises late at night this month and is visible all night long. Its spectacular ring system will look even more special as we are seeing them quite close to being edge-on, so that through a telescope they will look very slender. The rings open up becoming more visible as the year progresses.

From March onwards, Saturn will be a favourite in telescopes at public star parties, and besides the Moon it probably has the highest wow-rating with the general public.

By July, Saturn's rings start closing again until on September the 4th the rings will be seen exactly edge-on from Earth – that's something you really have to see!

This month, Jupiter, Mars and Mercury will be tricky to see, being near the Sun. You may be able to spot Jupiter and Mercury early month at sunset, but the pair will be very low.

Mercury swings about the Sun and becomes visible in the morning sky later in January, near Mars in the dawn sky.

And speaking of Mars, this month 5 years ago, the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Rovers landed on the Red Planet. And 175 years ago, John Herschel landed, in Cape Town, on January 15, to begin his epic survey of the deep sky objects in the southern skies.

Other anniversaries this month include Isaac Asimov and Stephen Hawkings' birthdays.

January evenings is a good time to view the brilliant constellation Orion, which is accompanied by Taurus, and with Auriga nearby. Also notice Lepus, the Hare, crouching at Orion's feet.

Early evening Orion sits high up in the north-east. Its most prominent feature are the three bright stars Mintaka, Alnilam and Alnitak lying in a row, better known as Orion's Belt. Some folk know them as the Three Kings, or the Three Sisters.

If you're facing northeast, look to the left of Orion for the bright pale-red star Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus the Bull. If you look through binoculars and place Aldebaran on the extreme right edge of your field, you'll see a large V-shaped grouping of stars filling your field of view, with Aldebaran at the one tip of the V. If your skies are dark enough, you can see this star cluster, called the Hyades, with the naked eye.

Over a dozen bright stars can be counted in the cluster, which is about 5 degrees from side to side. Careful study has shown, however, that some 300 stars, scattered over a 20 degree area, are actually members of the cluster. What we see with binoculars are only the bright, giant-class stars. The cluster formed some 625 million years ago, condensing out of a nebula now long gone.

The Hyades measures a whopping 40 light years from side to side; (technically, its half-mass radius is estimated to be 5.7 parsecs) and the distance from us to the centre of the cluster is around 150 light years. This makes it one of the nearest star clusters to Earth.

Interestingly, Aldebaran is not a member of the cluster because its only some 65 light years from us, or less than half the distance to the Hyades. It's purely by chance that it lies in the same direction along our line of sight.

A little further along from the Hyades lies the famous Pleiades open cluster, also well-known as the Seven Sisters. This bright grouping is readily visible with the naked eye, and under good conditions more than seven members can be seen. Individuals with exceptional eyesight can see over a dozen stars here.

Unlike the Hyades, the Pleiades is a young star cluster, less than 100 millions years old. The nebulosity left over from the star-birth can still be seen, although it is a challenge to observe by eye. Furthermore, the Pleiades is about 385 light years away, more than double the distance to the Hyades.

Both star clusters are glorious in binoculars, and are excellent targets for practising your sketching skills (even in bright moonlight).

The photo above, taken 2008 December 30 from the town of Sutherland by Prof Zbig Zembaty of Poland, shows the surroundings of Orion. At left-centre is the Pleiades; the bright star at the top-right of the frame is Sirius. Other bright stars include Procyon (Canis Minor), Castor & Pollux (Gemini, lower-right) and Capella (Auriga) low on the horizon.

Focus constellations for January southern skies

Constellation	Abbrv	Genitive	Hands	Stars	Visibility	Star rating
Auriga [oh-RYE-gah], the Charioteer	Aur	Aurigae	2	152	Dec – Jan	* * * *
Lepus [LEE-pus], the Hare	Lep	Leporis	1	73	Nov – Apr	* * * *
Orion [oh-RYE-un], the Hunter	Ori	Orionis	2	204	Nov – Apr	* * * * *
Caelum [SEE-lum], the Chisel	Cae	Caeli	0.5	20	Oct – Apr	*
Eridanus [eh-RID-an-us], the River Eridanus	Eri	Eridani	4	194	Nov – Mar	* * *
Taurus [TORR-us], the Bull	Tau	Tauri	3	223	Nov – Feb	* * * * *

Key: column 1 – constellation name and pronunciation; col 2 – abbreviation; col 3 – genitive form; col 4 – area in terms of the number of outstretched hands that will cover the constellation; col 5 – number of naked-eye stars; col 6 – months during which the constellation is prominent in the southern hemisphere; col 7 – prominence of the constellation, from 1 to 5 (most prominent).

/ph

Related articles you may also enjoy:

2009 Southern Sky Almanack

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Southern Sky News for 2009 January

Focus constellations for January southern skies

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