Astroblog: Thursday January 11 to Thursday January 18

Monday, January 08, 2024

Thursday January 11 to Thursday January 18

The New Moon is Thursday January 11 then the First Quarter Moon is Thursday January 18. Saturn is now in the west when twilight ends. Jupiter is highest around nautical twilight and is now well visible in the early evening sky. Venus is visible in the morning twilight above Mercury. Mercury is at its highest on the 13th. Mars enters the morning twilight. The Moon is close to Saturn on the 14th and Jupiter on the 18th.

The New Moon is Thursday January 11 then the First Quarter Moon is Thursday January 18. Perigee, when the Moon is closest to the Earth, is on the 13th.

Evening sky on Sunday, January 14 as seen from Adelaide at 22:15 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset), Saturn is low above the western horizon close to the thin crescent Moon. The inset is the telescopic view of Saturn at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).

Evening sky on Thursday, January 18 as seen from Adelaide at 22:13 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset). Jupiter is above the north-western horizon and near the first quarter Moon. The inset is the telescopic view at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).

Morning sky on Saturday, January 13 as seen from Adelaide at 05:10 ACDST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Venus is beginning to lower in the morning twilight with Mercury below. Mars is low on the horizon

The inset is the telescopic view of Venus at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise).

Whole sky on Saturday, January as seen from Adelaide at 22:15 ACDST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Saturn is setting in the west, and Jupiter is high in the north-west.

Orion is almost due north. Bright Sirius is high in the eastern sky. Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are a wealth of binocular objects to discover.

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

Mercury is now in the morning twilight. It will be at its highest on the 13th

Venus is in the morning twilight, it will now sink towards the horizon but will remain easily visible for all of January.

Mars is low in the morning twilight.

Jupiter is highest around nautical twilight and is now well visible in the early evening sky. Jupiter is close to the Moon on the 18th.

Saturn is past opposition but is now a difficult telescopic object low in the west. The crescent Moon is close to Saturn on the 14th.

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