The Sky This Week, 2013 January 29 - February 5

The Moon wanes in the morning sky this week, reaching last Quarter on
February 3rd at 1:56 pm Eastern Standard Time. If you find yourself up
in the wee hours, look for the Moon near the bright star Spica on the
morning of the morning of the 2nd. She will pass just under five
degrees south of Saturn before dawn on the 3rd, then wend her wayinto
rising stars of Scorpius to close out the week.
As the Moon heads toward the morning sky we enter another periodof
relative darkness for skywatchers to enjoy the evening's stars. The
year's second " Globe At Night " observing campaign begins on the
evening of the 31st and lasts until February 9th. Once againwe
encourage people to venture out into the night and count stars for
science. Again, the technique is quite easy; simply locate the
constellation of Orion and match the number of stars you see in the
sky to the charts published on the Globe At Night website . Once you
report your observations, the data will be used to analyze long-term
changes in the amount of light pollution around the world. Last year
16,850 observations were recorded in 92 countries, and the organizers
hope to surpass that number this year. The first campaign for 2013
netted over 1700 reports, so they are well on the way to their goal.
Few sights in the sky are as inspiring as the view of the winter
constellations from a dark location. Once free from the orange haze of
city lights the stars of Orion and his bright cohorts display their
true colors against a deep blue-black background. This is a wonderful
part of the sky to explore with eventhe slightest optical aid.
Binocularswill easily reveal the Great Nebula in Orion's "sword", the
small asterism that hangs below the easternmost star in Orion's
"Belt". Just east of Orion himself is a faintband of the Milky Way
that lies behind the faint stars of the obscure constellation of
Monoceros, the Unicorn. Within thisband your binoculars will reveal
several knotty patches of light produced by star clusters and gaseous
nebulae. Train a modest telescope on these patches and they will start
to break up into tangled groups of faint stars. This is one of my
favorite areas of the sky to explore with my small low-power
telescopes. Sweeping the sky between the bright blue dazzle of Sirius
and the golden glimmer of Capella offers hours of splendid viewing.
If you're out in the early evening, keep your eyes peeled for the
returnof the elusive planet Mercury. The fleet planet will begin climb
into thesouthwestern sky by the end of the week, rapidly gaining
ground on ruddy Mars. The two planets are a tad more than two degrees
apart at dusk on the 5th. They will close to within 3/4ths of a degree
by the evening of the 7th. The best time to look for them will be
about an hour after sunset, when they will bejust over five degrees
above the west-southwest horizon. Mercury will be the brighter of the
pair as they pass through the star-poor reaches of Aquarius.
Giant Jupiter may be seen high in the east as Mars and Mercury set.
The giant planet reaches the secondstationary point in this year's
apparition on January 30th. Over the next couple of weeks you'll see
him gradually resume eastward motion against the background stars. Old
Jove is at his best placement for observing in the earlyevening hours,
crossing the meridian at around 8:00 pm. If you have a four-inch or
larger telescopeyou can watch Jupiter's innermost large moon Io cross
the planet's disc starting just before 8:00 pm EST on the 31st. At
9:10 pm the moon's inky shadow begins to cross, then Io emerges from
transit about an hour later. If you're still upwatching, the shadow
leaves the disc at 11:21. As an added bonus, the Great Red Spot will
be visible during the early stages of the events.
Golden Saturn still delights early risers with his warm golden glow.
Although he's making steady progress toward the evening sky, he's
still best seen in the morning sky just before the onset of twilight.
He gets a nice visit from the Last Quarter Moon on the morning of the
3rd.
Finally, we can't let the week go without mentioning one of my
favorite astronomical observances, Groundhog Day. This is one of the
traditional mid-season markers known as "cross-quarter" days thatwe
still unwittingly celebrate, although most of us have no idea why.
Loosely tied to a pagan festival called Imbolc, the day was brought to
the U.S. by German immigrants who adopted the winter habits of the
groundhog to those oftheir traditional old-world badger. As the
mid-point of the season of winter, it does indeed mark the six-week
interval leading to spring. Traditionally, if the groundhog sees his
shadow....see image if the groundhog has Spring in its Nature clock of
"Shadow".

--
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