My first Magazine Sky & Telescope - 01.2019 | Page 48

JANUARY 2019 OBSERVING
Sun, Moon & Planets by Fred Schaaf
To i nd out what’s
visible in the sky
from your location,
go to skypub.com/
almanac.
Evening Eclipse and Morning Planets
There’s a lot happening in the skies during this irst month of 2019.
T
he New Year opens with an unusual
and exciting month for observ-
ers of the Sun, Moon, and planets.
A total eclipse of the Moon is visible
in the convenient evening hours of
January 20th for the Americas and the
pre-dawn hours of January 21st for
Europe and Africa. Mars is the sole
bright planet in the evening sky. But
the opening days of the year begin with
the crescent Moon walking down a
stair of dawn planets: first, Venus (near
greatest elongation); next, Jupiter; last,
Mercury. By the second half of Janu-
ary ringed Saturn appears, replacing
Mercury low in morning twilight —
and Jupiter lofts up for a close meeting
with Venus, not far from Antares. The
amazing month ends with the waning
lunar crescent returning to pass Jupiter
and have a spectacular close conjunc-
tion with Venus.
DUSK AND EVENING
Mars, which spends the month cross-
ing Pisces, shines about halfway up the
southwestern sky a few hours after sun-
set. Its brightness fades from magnitude
+0.5 to +0.9 in January, while its disk
shrinks from almost 7½″ to little more
than 6″ wide. Mars sets around 11:20
p.m. on January 1st and only about 20
minutes earlier on January 31st. Preced-
ing Mars in the nightly journey of the
stars and planets across the heavens
is Neptune, still in Aquarius. Trailing
Mars during the night is Uranus, in
extreme eastern Pisces. Finder charts
for these distant ice giants appear in the
September 2018 issue, pages 48–49.
PRE-DAWN
Venus rises a little after 3:30 a.m. at
year’s beginning, more than four hours
after the setting of Mars leaves the
sky devoid of bright planets. The time
of Venus-rise on New Year’s Day is
more than 3½ hours before sunup (for
observers around latitude 40° north).
That’s an impressively large interval,
and indeed Venus is at its greatest
western elongation of 47° from the Sun
on January 6th. However, the sunrise
altitude of Venus decreases significantly
from nearly 31° to 23° during January.
Venus also dims in January, from
–4.6 to –4.3. But the planet is still spec-
tacular, especially in its close pairings
with the Moon this month. As exciting,
and more long-lasting, is Venus’s pair-
ing with another object — the second-
brightest planet, Jupiter.
Jupiter starts the month and year
rising after 5 a.m., about an hour and
a half after Venus. Jupiter brightens
from magnitude –1.8 to –1.9 in Janu-
ary, but what’s really notable is how
Dawn, Jan 2 – 4 Jan 11–12 Dawn, Jan 26
30 minutes before sunrise Around 7 pm 45 minutes before sunrise
Venus
Moon
Jan 2
β Sco
10°
Moon
Jan 3
PISCES
δ Sco
Moon
Jan 12
Jupiter
Antares
SCO RPIUS
Moon
Jan 11
Circlet
Mercury
Looking Southeast
46
JA N UA RY 2 019 • SK Y & TELESCOPE
Jupiter
Mars
Antares
Moon
Jan 4
Venus
Looking Southwest, halfway up
Cat’s Eyes
Looking South-Southeast