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This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the week ending Wednesday, January 9, 2013. Here is what’s happening in the skies of Southern California:
Moonlight will interfere with the Quadrantid meteor shower, expected to peak on Friday morning, the 3rd. From ideal, dark sky conditions, between 34 and 153 meteors can be seen at the best viewing time, from 4:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m., P.S.T., but moonlight and city light-pollution will reduce the number actually seen. The meteor shower is named for an obsolete constellation representing Tycho Brahe’s mural quadrant, an astronomical instrument. The meteor radiant currently is reckoned to be in northern Boötes the Herdsman, not far from the tail of the Big Dipper, and is high in the northeast before dawn.
The planet Jupiter, in Taurus the Bull, is brilliant and high in the sky through the evening hours. It is visible 54 degrees above the eastern horizon as darkness falls, and crosses the meridian, 77 degrees high in the south at 9:15 p.m. In the early morning Jupiter moves to the west, setting in the west-northwest before dawn. The bright orange star that appears to accompany Jupiter through the night is Aldebaran, the fiery eye of Taurus.
The next bright planet visible is Saturn, in Libra the Scales. It rises at 2 a.m. and is noticeable in the east-southeast about an hour later. Saturn is best seen at the start of dawn, when it appears 36 high in the south-southeast. A telescope will show the northern face of the planet’s rings, now tilted 19 degrees in our direction. The moon appears near Saturn on the morning of the 6th.
The brightest planet, Venus, clears the east-southeast horizon at 5:35 a.m. Venus can still be glimpsed 13 degrees high in the southeast at sunrise.
The moon’s phase wanes from gibbous to crescent this week, becoming last quarter on the 4th. It appears near Saturn on the 6th. Its rising time advances from 10:17 p.m. to 4:43 a.m. between the 2nd and the 9th.
As 2013 opens, astronomers are tracking two comets that may become bright later in the year, comet PANSTARRS in mid-March and comet ISON in late-November. There is already a lot of speculation about how spectacular these comets might become, but many comet experts are skeptical. Until these objects move closer to the sun, there is too little information available now to accurately forecast how bright they will become–few newly discovered comets that appear bright at great distances from the sun maintain their brightness when they move into the inner solar system. As continued observations help to clarify predictions over the next few weeks and months, Griffith Observatory and the Sky Calendar will provide information to help you to see each comet.
Free views of the sun during the day and of the moon, planets, and other celestial objects at night, are available to the public in clear weather through Griffith Observatory’s telescopes Wednesday-Sunday before 9:30 p.m. Check our website for our schedule. The next Griffith Observatory public star party, hosted by Los Angeles Astronomical Society, the Sidewalk Astronomers, and the Planetary Society, is scheduled for Saturday, January 19.
From Griffith Observatory, I’m Anthony Cook and I can be reached at griffithobserver@gmail.com.