{"id":2894,"date":"2022-01-01T05:10:15","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T05:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=2894"},"modified":"2022-01-01T05:10:15","modified_gmt":"2022-01-01T05:10:15","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-january-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2022\/01\/01\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-january-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through January, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Jan2022_SR.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between January 1 and January 31, 2022. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.<\/p>\n

Mercury<\/strong> starts January in the evening sky. Look for the planet low in the western sky just after sunset. On the 1st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 4:55 p.m., PST, and Mercury sets at 6:14 p.m., PST. On the 7th<\/sup>, Mercury reaches greatest eastern elongation. On the 20th<\/sup>, the sun sets at 5:12 p.m., PST, and Mercury sets at 5:40 p.m., PST. For the rest of the month Mercury is close to the sun and cannot be observed. Do not observe any planet when it comes close to the sun, for the danger to the eyes is great.<\/p>\n

Venus<\/strong> is in the evening sky, low in the southwest. On the 1st<\/sup>, Venus sets at 5:52 p.m., PST. Within a few days, Venus will be close to the sun and cannot be observed. On the 15th<\/sup>, Venus rises in the morning sky at 5:57 a.m., PST, and the sun rises at 6:59 a.m., PST. On the 31st<\/sup>, Venus rises at 4:38 a.m., PST, and the sun rises at 6:51 a.m., PST. On that date Venus is a thin crescent with a width of 50 arcseconds and 15 percent of the disk illuminated.<\/p>\n

Mars<\/strong> rises at 4:58 a.m., PST, on January 1 and at 4:38 a.m., PST, on the 31st<\/sup>. Mars is a disk only four arcseconds wide and will not show any surface features through a telescope.<\/p>\n

Jupiter<\/strong> is in the southwest as evening starts. On the 1st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 4:55 p.m., PST, and Jupiter sets at 8:47 p.m., PST. On the 31st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 5:23 p.m., PST, and Jupiter sets at 7:20 p.m., PST. For all of January, Jupiter is observable for only a short time. A telescope capable of magnification 50x will show the Red Spot, and the four bright Galilean moons may be seen moving back and forth, roughly in a line centered on Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Saturn<\/strong> is ending its appearance in the evening sky. On the 1st<\/sup>, Saturn sets at 7:16 p.m., PST. By the 20th<\/sup>, the sun sets at 5:12 p.m., PST, and Saturn sets at 6:12 p.m., PST. For the rest of the month, Saturn will be too close to the sun to be observed.\u00a0 Saturn is low in the southwest. The rings and Saturn\u2019s largest moon Titan may be seen with a telescope capable of magnification 50x.<\/p>\n

Uranus<\/strong> is in the constellation of Aries the Ram and is observable most of the night. On the 1st<\/sup>, Uranus sets at 2:26 a.m., PST. On the 31st<\/sup>, the planet sets at 12:28 a.m., PST. On the 15th<\/sup>, Uranus is at Right Ascension 2h<\/sup> 32m<\/sup> 55s<\/sup> with a declination of +14\u00b0 35\u02b9 48\u02ba. Uranus is only 3.6 arcseconds wide, and so a telescope with a magnification of 150x is needed to show its diminutive disk.<\/p>\n

Neptune<\/strong> is in the constellation Aquarius the Water Bearer. On the 1st<\/sup>, Neptune sets at 10:22 p.m., PST. On the 31st<\/sup>, the planet sets at 8:27 p.m., PST. On the 15th<\/sup>, Neptune is at Right Ascension 23h<\/sup> 27m<\/sup> 34s<\/sup> with a declination of -4\u00b0 43\u02b9 38\u02ba. Neptune is only 2.2 arcseconds wide, and so a telescope with a magnification of 150x is needed to show the disk.<\/p>\n

New moon occurs on the 2nd<\/sup>, first quarter on the 9th<\/sup>, full moon on the 17th<\/sup>, last quarter on the 25th<\/sup>, and new moon again on the 31st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

SPECIAL EVENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Quadrantid meteor shower<\/strong> will peak on the night of the 3rd<\/sup> and through the morning of the 4th<\/sup>. The moon will be a day past new moon and will not interfere with observations. The peak usually only lasts six hours and may produce 25 meteors per hour.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0All Space Considered<\/a> and\u00a0Griffith Observatory<\/a> on Twitter for updates on astronomy and space-related events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Jan2022_SR.mp3 This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between January 1 and January 31, 2022. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California. Mercury starts January in the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-skyreport"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2896,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2894\/revisions\/2896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}