Astroblog: Thursday January 25 to Thursday February 1

Monday, January 22, 2024

Thursday January 25 to Thursday February 1

The Full Moon is Friday January 26. Saturn is low in the west when twilight ends. Jupiter is now in the north-western sky but still dominates the early evening sky. Venus is visible in the morning twilight above Mercury. Mars climbs higher in the morning twilight and is spectacularly close to Mercury on the 28th.

The Full Moon is Friday January 26. The Moon is at apogee, when it is furthest from the Earth, on the 29th.

Evening sky on Saturday, January 27 as seen from Adelaide at 21:29 ACDST (60 minutes after sunset), Saturn is low above the western horizon .

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

Evening sky on Saturday, January 27 as seen from Adelaide at 22:05 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset). Jupiter is above the north-western horizon. 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 Sunday, January 28 as seen from Adelaide at 05:27 ACDST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Venus is beginning to lower in the morning twilight. Mercury and Mars are at their closest below Venus.

The inset is the telescopic view of Mars and Mercury 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 27 as seen from Adelaide at 22:05 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. The Full Moon will make them harder to see though.

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

Mercury is low in the morning twilight. It is heading towards the horizon and is spectacularly close to Mars on the 28th.

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

Mars is rising in the morning twilight and is spectacularly close to Mercury on the 28th..

Jupiter is highest around nautical twilight and is now well visible in the early evening sky.

Saturn is now a difficult telescopic object low in the west.

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