January Night Sky
D.W.Q.M.: "If you could touch the alien sand, and hear the cry of strange birds, and watch them wheel in another sky, would that satisfy you?" -the First Doctor
I know this post is extremely late-I even considered skipping it for this month-but I really want to post one of these every month, so this particular post is really just highlights from the month, plus a couple of things to lookout for. ;)
Today's astronomy post is brought to you by
Sky and Telescope
Interesting days (nights) of note:
January 2nd: Earth at perihelion (Earth is closest to the Sun)
January 3rd: Quadrantid meteor shower peaks.
January 13th: Saturn reaches opposition to the sun.
And now for some notes for events that still have potential this month ;) :
Comet Machholz
Due to cloudy skies here in Cleveland on the 7th, we were unable to find the comet when it was near the Pleiades. Friday night, Jerm, Adam and I braved the cold wind chill and attempted to locate the comet-we were unsuccessful-there were just a few too many clouds for us to spot it.
The comet will be traveling through Perseus this week (through the 24th). Although the moon will be returning to the evening sky this week, the comet should be visible through binoculars for the next couple of weeks, glowing at 4th magnitude. To view the sky chart, just click here and follow the link to the northern hemisphere interactive sky chart. :)
Solar flares!
Aurora Borealis!!
Sunspot Region 10720 has been quite active-an X3.8 class solar flare errupted from it early yesterday morning-it was associated with a high velocity Earthward-directed
coronal mass ejection. What does this mean for you? Well, if conditions are right, once it hits Earth, we could be seeing some major auroral activity, sometime tonight and early tomorrow morning... KEEP IN MIND, at the time I wrote this, they weren't sure of how big an impact it will be...if you're stuck in my latitude, there's a good chance auroral activity will be low (based on the Solar Terrestrial Dispatch's latest forcast.) Ooooh! Those lucky ducks in Alaska!!!
They say that activity from this region will remain pretty active over the next 5-6 days as it travels across the sun.
--------------------------------------
Happy viewing!
I know this post is extremely late-I even considered skipping it for this month-but I really want to post one of these every month, so this particular post is really just highlights from the month, plus a couple of things to lookout for. ;)
Today's astronomy post is brought to you by
Sky and Telescope
Interesting days (nights) of note:
January 2nd: Earth at perihelion (Earth is closest to the Sun)
January 3rd: Quadrantid meteor shower peaks.
January 13th: Saturn reaches opposition to the sun.
And now for some notes for events that still have potential this month ;) :
Comet Machholz
Due to cloudy skies here in Cleveland on the 7th, we were unable to find the comet when it was near the Pleiades. Friday night, Jerm, Adam and I braved the cold wind chill and attempted to locate the comet-we were unsuccessful-there were just a few too many clouds for us to spot it.
The comet will be traveling through Perseus this week (through the 24th). Although the moon will be returning to the evening sky this week, the comet should be visible through binoculars for the next couple of weeks, glowing at 4th magnitude. To view the sky chart, just click here and follow the link to the northern hemisphere interactive sky chart. :)
Solar flares!
Aurora Borealis!!
Sunspot Region 10720 has been quite active-an X3.8 class solar flare errupted from it early yesterday morning-it was associated with a high velocity Earthward-directed
coronal mass ejection. What does this mean for you? Well, if conditions are right, once it hits Earth, we could be seeing some major auroral activity, sometime tonight and early tomorrow morning... KEEP IN MIND, at the time I wrote this, they weren't sure of how big an impact it will be...if you're stuck in my latitude, there's a good chance auroral activity will be low (based on the Solar Terrestrial Dispatch's latest forcast.) Ooooh! Those lucky ducks in Alaska!!!
They say that activity from this region will remain pretty active over the next 5-6 days as it travels across the sun.
--------------------------------------
Happy viewing!
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