BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Start observing - look up!

Here's something cool - and the whole family can do it - for 2016. Make this the year that you start looking at the night sky.

Absolute Beginners - Start Observing
You'd like to know the night sky better? But you haven't a got a telescope,live in a city, don't know any constellations or can't tell a star from a planet? Time to give up? Absolutely not. Time to read on and look up.

What's of special interest in January? Jane Houston Jones tells us What's up. And it looks like what's up is Jupiter and its moons.

Although it's easy enough to spot bright Jupiter in the sky, in order to see the moons you need binoculars, or of course, a telescope if you have one.

The Quadrantid meteor shower is expected to peak on the night of January 3/4. If you catch it, the peak rate is very impressive. However, the maximum lasts just a few hours and you'll miss it if it doesn't fall between midnight and dawn in your part of the world.

The International Meteor Organization predicts a peak on Monday the 4th, centered on 3 a.m. Eastern Standard Time - and midnight on the west coast. So if they're right, this is good news for North Americans. However a different model predicts a peak 8 hours earlier, which would be great for Europe.

I guess we won't know until later in the day on Monday.

From Space.com:
At dawn on Thursday, Dec. 31, the four brightest planets outline the ecliptic, the path followed by the sun and moon. The moon visits each in turn over the next week.

(Image credit: Space.com with Starry Night software)


You can find out more about the ecliptic in ABC of Astronomy - E is for Ecliptic.

Spaceweather.com reported today:

Click to see Park's composite image of the Quadrantids that he saw in Bloomfield, Ontario.

Ian Morison from Jodrell Bank in England has a splendid collection of interesting things to see. He's now looking at the January sky, but the same URL will take you to the current month whenever you are.

What does every astronomer need? Most people would answer "a telescope." But, actually, binoculars are the best way to start observing the sky. Many experienced astronomers use them in addition to a telescope. Here is some guidance about getting started.

Start Observing - with Binoculars

Tomorrow morning - worth a look!
Venus and Saturn, brilliant in the southeastern sky before dawn, come within o.1° of each other on the morning of January 9.

This Week's Sky at a Glance January 8-16 comes to you courtesy of Sky & Telescope magazine.

Lots of ideas for things to see. I'd love to hear what you see.

Want to see all five visible planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - in the sky together? It's possible for about a month starting January 20th. But you have to get up early to see them before dawn.

You can use the Moon as guide from January 27 to February 6. SeaSky has made some helpful charts for mid-northern North American latitudes, but – local conditions permitting – you can see them from anywhere.

In these 2 charts the moon appears larger than it does in the real sky. Mid-northern latitudes in Europe and Asia see the planets similarly positioned, with the moon somewhat offset toward the previous date. Spica is a star in the constellation Virgo. The green line on the above chart is the the ecliptic.

South to southwest

Southeast to south