{"id":3014,"date":"2024-01-03T02:33:51","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T02:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=3014"},"modified":"2024-01-03T02:33:51","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T02:33:51","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-january-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2024\/01\/03\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-january-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through January, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Jan_2024-Sky-Report.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between January 1 and January 31, 2024. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.<\/p>\n

Mercury<\/strong> rises in the east-southeast at 5:32 a.m., PST, on the 1st<\/sup>, and the sun rises at 6:59 a.m., PST, one hour 27 minutes later. On the 31st<\/sup>, Mercury rises at 5:54 a.m., PST, and the sun rises at 6:51 a.m., PST, 57 minutes later.\u00a0 On the 15th<\/sup>, Mercury\u2019s disk is 69-percent illuminated and 6.3 arcseconds wide. Do not observe any planet when it comes close to the sun, for the danger to the eyes is great.<\/p>\n

Venus<\/strong> rises in the east-southeast at 4:08 a.m., PST, on the 1st<\/sup>, two hours 51 minutes before sunrise. On the 31st<\/sup>, Venus rises at 4:58 a.m., PST, one hour 53 minutes before sunrise. On the 15th<\/sup>, the disk of Venus is 82-percent illuminated and 13 arcseconds wide.<\/p>\n

Mars<\/strong> rises in the east-southeast at 6:08 a.m., PST, on the 1st<\/sup>, 51 minutes before sunrise. On the 31st<\/sup>, Mars rises at 5:43 a.m., PST, one hour eight minutes before sunrise. On the 15th<\/sup>, the disk of Mars is 99-percent illuminated but only 3.9 arcseconds wide and therefore too small to see details on its disk through a telescope.<\/p>\n

Jupiter<\/strong> sets in the west at 2:03 a.m., PST, on the 1st<\/sup>, and sets at 12:13 a.m., PST, on the 31st<\/sup>. The planet\u2019s disk is 42 arcseconds wide on the 15th<\/sup>, and so a telescope capable of magnification 50x will show the Red Spot. The four bright Galilean moons can be seen moving back and forth, across and behind Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Saturn<\/strong> sets in the west-southwest at 9:02 p.m., PST, on the 1st<\/sup>. On the 31st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 5:22 p.m., PST, and Saturn sets at 7:19 p.m., PST, one hour 57 minutes later. The disk of Saturn is 16 arcseconds wide. The rings and Saturn\u2019s largest moon Titan may be seen with a telescope capable of magnification 50x.<\/p>\n

Uranus<\/strong> sets in the west at 3:11 a.m., PST, on the 1st<\/sup> and sets at 1:11 a.m., PST, on the 31st<\/sup>. On the 15th<\/sup>, Uranus is at Right Ascension 3h<\/sup> 7m<\/sup> 9s<\/sup> with a declination of +17\u00b0 13\u02b9 20\u02ba. Uranus is only 3.7 arcseconds wide, and so a telescope with a magnification of 150x is needed.<\/p>\n

Neptune<\/strong> sets at 10:46 p.m., PST, on the 1st<\/sup> and sets at 8:51 p.m., PST, on the 31st<\/sup>. On the 15th<\/sup>, Neptune is at Right Ascension 23h<\/sup> 44m<\/sup> 49s<\/sup> with a declination of -2\u00b0 59\u02b9 02\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

The last quarter moon occurs on the 3rd<\/sup>, new moon on the 11th<\/sup>, first quarter on the 17th<\/sup>, and full moon on the 25th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

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

The Quadrantid meteor shower<\/strong> will peak on the night of the 3rd<\/sup> through the morning of the 4th<\/sup>. The peak usually only lasts six hours. Rates may approach 25 meteors per hour, but the last quarter moon will reduce this number after midnight. These meteors usually lack persistent trains but can produce bright fireballs. They appear to radiate from the constellation Bo\u00f6tes the Herdsman. Unusually, the meteors appear to originate from a dead comet or asteroid designated 2003 EH.<\/p>\n

Follow All Space Considered and Griffith Observatory on Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, and Twitter<\/a> 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\/2024\/01\/Jan_2024-Sky-Report.mp3 This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between January 1 and January 31, 2024. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California. Mercury rises in the east-southeast … 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-3014","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\/3014","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=3014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3016,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3014\/revisions\/3016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}