THE USM SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
43.6667° N 70.2667° W
Altitude: 10 feet below sea level
Founded January 1970
Julian date: 2458467.35
2018-19: LXXII
"Where the hurly burly's never done!"
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
January 2019 Night Sky Calendar (part I)
Yes, we know the new year hasn't even started (here) and all of the well balanced people are still in blissful repose and savoring the sweetness of the holiday. Well, we utterly unbalanced subterranean star dome dwellers are doing nothing of the sort. 2019 is imminent and we are confronted yet again with time's disquieting evanescence. The year 2018 will soon no longer exist (well, maybe, see the following paragraph) and we are aghast than an entire block of 365 days could soon suddenly belong to the ages. It will be then be nothing but a jumble of imprecise and quickly fading memories just like all the other years that preceded it and, of course, the myriad years to follow. Thousands of years...millions....billions....heck, perhaps trillions, if red dwarf stars are given enough time to live out their life cycles.
Such contemplations instill in us all an irrepressible urge to just do, well, something, anything! We want to grab every single moment and wring out the nectar. Of course, some of those wet-blanket quantum theorists might tell us not to be so anxious because every moment in space time already exists, be in the future or the past or the fleeting moments defining the ever-changing and always elusive "now." The multidimensional space-time matrix is akin to a crystalline lattice in which each space-time point exists simultaneously. If we were only clever enough -and knew the math- we could skip around to all those past moments we'd love to re-live and even enjoy a sneak peek into the future. That only makes us all the more eager to explore as many of those ST points as we can possibly happen upon within this mystifying Universe in which nothing is as it seems, Plato.
So, what are we waiting for? Yes, I know, you're waiting for the bubbly to wear off so I'll actually start the stupid night sky calendar.
Now, we used to post weekly night sky calendars, but decided now to send a monthly night sky calendar because some of the weekly calendars were a bit content-weak. "Last quarter moon 10th and, well, look for Venus to go near 51 Pegasi on the 16th." The monthly night sky calendars promise to be far more content strong. Of course, this time, we have to post the calendar in two parts (ha ha ha) because the New Year's Planetarium has become a beautiful, battleship breaking behemoth and I am typing with one hand and swatting away tentacles with the other. Of course, based on the previous discussion, the second part already exists somewhere in space-time, so why bother writing it?
Anyway....
TUESDAY, JANUARY 1: MOON NEAR VENUS (SILVER EVENT!!)
Wow! Ok, let's say you're reading this article soon after receiving it. Well, you don't have much time before the first event of 2019 occurs. In the wee hours, you'll see the waning crescent moon appear close to the brilliant planet Venus in the eastern pre-dawn sky. The coupling of Diana and Aphrodite against dawn''s ember veil is always a spectacle!
THURSDAY, JANUARY 3: EARTH AT PERIHELION
A planet's distance from the Sun varies continuously: veering from the minimum distance of perihelion to the maximum of aphelion. Today, Earth reaches perihelion and will be 91.45 million miles from the Sun. (Earth next reaches aphelion on July 4). While our closeness to the Sun exerts a negligible effect on our weather, it does affect the length of the seasons. These seasonal variations result from Earth's 23.5 degree tilt (obliquity.) In winter, Earth's northern hemisphere is directed away from the Sun and in summer, it is aligned toward it. Were Earth's orbit circular, each season would be of equal duration. However, as Earth is closest to the Sun during our winter, it is moving fastest in its orbit. (Remember: the closer a planet is to the Sun, the faster it moves). The current duration of the seasons: spring 92.76 days ; summer 93.65 days; autumn 89.84 days; winter 88.99 days. (Note: we used the word "current" because perihelion will not always occur in early January. Over a 21,600 year period, the perihelion shifts along Earth's orbital path, so that perihelion will occur progressively later in the year throughout this period.)
FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 2019: QUADRANTID METEOR SHOWER PEAKS
Meteor showers are named for the constellation or star from which the meteors appear to originate. The year's first meteor shower is named for an "extinct" constellation, defined as one that is no longer officially recognized. That constellation was called "Quadrans Muralis." Invented by French astronomer Jerome LaLande (1732-1807), Quadrans Muralis represented a mural quadrant, a large device used to measure a star's position. Lalande first included Quadrans Muralis in his 1795 edition of the Fortin's Celestial Atlas. The pattern soon lapsed into obscurity as only faint stars comprised it. Those stars are now shared by the constellation Bootes and Ursa Major.
The Quandrantid shower generally produces 40 - 60 meteors an hour. However, 2019 is a great tear for the Quadrantids as the moon is almost new and won't rise until well after the peak time of 10 p.m. - 2:00 a.m.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 5: NEW MOON
The beginning of lunation 1188.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 5: PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE (NOT VISIBLE HERE IN NORTH AMERICA!)
We're mentioning this partial solar eclipse because it is associated with the total lunar eclipse we will be able to see later this month. A solar eclipse either precedes or follows a lunar eclipse. While we won't be able to see this solar eclipse, we will know that we're just two weeks away from watching the full moon move into Earth's shadow.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 6: VENUS AT GREATEST WESTERN ELONGATION
Heavens above, this is the week to observe Venus! The exquisitely beautiful planet is a spectacle and a half in the eastern pre-dawn sky. It is all the easier to see now because it is 47 degrees from the Sun: almost equal to its maximum possible angular separation. When Venus is in its greatest western elongation, one can find it in the eastern pre-dawn sky. Conversely, when Venus is at greatest eastern elongation, it will be high in the western evening sky.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 12: MOON NEAR MARS
(See how threadbare the second weekly night calendar would have been this month?) See the waxing crescent moon close to Mars in the western evening sky. Although Mars won't be nearly as brilliant as Venus, it will still be a moderately bright star like object! See it and the moon from just after dusk to mid evening!
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14: FIRST QUARTER MOON
Tomorrow, we continue with the night sky calendar that will include that splendid total lunar eclipse (Yes, we'll talk about the super eclipsed moon, too.) We'll see Venus close to Jupiter (in our sky, but not in reality, although that would be utterly fantastic until the explosion), and we'll discuss a drop dead gorgeous lunar occultation of Venus that we won't actually see simply because we don't live in Polynesia, where, of course, it's already 2019.
See you next year...with bells on!