Astroblog: Thursday December 30 to Thursday January 6

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Thursday December 30 to Thursday January 6

The New Moon is Monday, January 3. Occultation of Mars, morning January 1. Three bright planets are seen forming a line in the early evening twilight. These are Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter. The thin crescent Moon is between Mercury and Saturn on the 4th and between Saturn and Jupiter on the 5th. Then the crescent moon is then close to Jupiter on the 6th. Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard is visible in binoculars but fading.

The New Moon is Monday, January 3. The Moon is at Perigee, when it is closest to the Earth, on January 2.

Morning sky on January 1 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 4:53 ACDST (60 minutes before sunrise). Mars is low in the twilight below the bright red star Antares and the Moon is just about to pass in front of Mars. Details for other sites are below.

Similar views will be seen from South-eastern Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).

Evening sky on January 4 looking west as seen from Adelaide at 21:38 ACDST (60 minutes after sunset). The thin crescent Moon is between mercury and Saturn. Mercury forms a line with Saturn and Jupiter.

Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

Whole sky showing the Jupiter, and comet C/2021 A1 Leonard, January 1, 22:18 ACDST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Orion, Taurus and the Pleiades can be seen above the eastern horizon.

Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view line up that the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard as seen looking west
from Adelaide at January 1, 22:18 ACDST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). The inset shows the approxinmate binoclar view of the comet at this time. Similar views will be seen in elsewhere in Australia 90 minutes after sunset.

Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) is is a nice little binocular object. It is currently in outburst and has even been reported to be (just) visible to the unaided eye. Whether it will remain bright is uncertain.

Mercury climbs higher in the evening twilight and forms a line with Saturn and Jupiter. The thin crescent Moon is between Mercury and Saturn on the 4th

Venus is lost in the twilight.

Mars is rising higher in the twilight in the twilight. On Jan 1 2022 Mars is occulted by the thin crescent Moon. The occultation of Mars is seen in south eastern and south central Australia in the early morning on New Years Day. It will be visible from Adelaide, Hobart, Melbourne and Canberra. Sydney sees a graze 12 minutes before sunrise. The occultation will be low to the horizon with the thin crescent Moon covering Mars. In Adelaide this is after astronomical twilight and in the east with the best views, for Hobart, Melbourne and Canberra this is around nautical twilight.

Place	Disappears bright Limb	Reappears dark Limb
Adelaide ACDST	04:53	05:37
Canberra AEDST	05:31	05:47
Hobart AEST	05:30	06:11
Melbourne AEST	05:26	06:00
Sydney AEST	5:36	-

Jupiter is readily visible in the western sky when the sky is fully dark. Mercury , Saturn and Jupiter form a line in the twilight sky. The crescent Moon is between Saturn and Jupiter on the 5th. Then the crescent moon is then close to Jupiter on the 6th.

Saturn is now too low for telescopic observation.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/

Labels: weekly sky