Astroblog: Thursday January 18 to Thursday January 25

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Thursday January 18 to Thursday January 25

The First Quarter Moon is Thursday January 18. Saturn is low 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. Mars climbs higher in the morning twilight. The Moon is close to Jupiter on the 18th. The moon occults the Pleiades on the 20th (best in Western and Central Australia).

The First Quarter Moon is Thursday January 18.

Evening sky on Saturday, January 20 as seen from Adelaide at 21:34 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 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 20 as seen from Adelaide at 05:19 ACDST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Venus is beginning to lower in the morning twilight with Mercury below. Mars is rising 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).

Evening sky on Saturday, January 20 as seen from Perth at 21:13 AWST, (click to embiggen). The moon is just about to cover the star 17 tau (Electra). The inset is the binocular view of the moon at this time.

about 50 minutes later the moon will cover the bright star Merope, followed by the brightest star Alcyone 45 minutes later.

From Adelaide 17 tau is covered at 23:21 ACDST, followed by Merope 40 minutes later then Alcyone 30 minutes after that.

From Brisbane, only 17 Tau is covered at 00:37 AEST on the 21st

From Darwin, Merope is covered at 00:18 ACST on the 21st, followed by Alcyone .

From Melbourne, only 17 Tau is covered at 00:55 AEDST on the 21st

From Hobart, only 17 Tau is covered at 00:48 AEDST on the 21st

For more details and timings see my occultation page.

Whole sky on Saturday, January 20 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. The waxing 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 now in the morning twilight.

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.

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