January 2016 – Skies News
01/8/2016
January Skies – by Dick Cookman
Highlights: Comet Journal, Martian Landers, Meteor Showers, Planet Plotting, January Moon
Focus Constellations: Camelopardalis, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Draco, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Pisces, Perseus, Auriga, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Lynx
Comet Journal
The 20km. wide New Years comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) passes by Arcturus in Bootes at the beginning of January and is approaching 5th magnitude. The comet will be closest to Earth on January 17th when it will be near the end of the tail of Ursa Major. It will be within 8° of Polaris on Jan. 31st in the constellation Camelopardalis. It can easily be seen with 7×50 or 10×50 binoculars and will remain quite bright until late February. It is a long period first time comet from the Oort Belt, but gravitational influences during the passage through the inner solar system is accelerating it to solar escape velocity, never to return.
Comet C/2014 S2 (PanSTARRS) and Comet C/2013 X1 (PanSTARRS) are both 8th magnitude comets in northern skies in January. The former is near peak magnitude in Draco below the cup of the Little Dipper. It passed through perihelion on Dec. 9th and will complete its circuit through Draco and head toward the cup of the Big Dipper during the winter.
The latter in southeastern Pegasus is still inward bound and will be closest to the Sun at perihelion on April 20, 2016 between Pisces and Aquarius. It will be closest to Earth in June when it may reach magnitude 5 or 6 and will be best observed at low latitudes or in the southern hemisphere as it skirts south of Capricornus and Sagittarius.
Mars Landers
Opportunity is in Marathon Valley to examine the phyllosilicate clay minerals which were discovered via satellite spectral studies. The rover has been slipping and sliding as it jockeys around on the steep north facing slope on the south side of the valley to position itself for its next rock grinding task with the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT). This target may hold some of the clues as to the origin of the clay spectral signature detected in Marathon Valley.
From Sol 4166 (Oct. 13, 2015) until Sol 4227 (Dec. 14, 2015), Opportunity has moved only 0.3 km. around its winter haven. It has now traversed 26.5 miles (42.63 kilometers) over the Martian surface. Solar energy in the last month ranged from 376 to 419 watt hours per day.
The problems with Flash memory continue. It contains data stored which has not yet been transmitted to Earth due to rover resets and some transmission issues associated with the Deep Space Network station transmitter. The rover is still capable of operating on Flash memory despite the resets but needs to switch to Ram memory in order to safely move the robotic arm used to conduct its science activities. The switching back and forth has limited these activities.
Curiosity is climbing the lower slopes of Mt. Sharp over the sandstones of the Stimson Unit. The dark sandstone of the Stimson over which the rover has been traveling since August 27th displays some large scale cross-bedded layers typical of windblown sand deposited as dunes on Earth.
The rover is currently at Namib Dune, a large active dark colored dune in the Bagnold Dune Field on the northwestern flank of Mt. Sharp. Curiosity circuited the dune to observe the steep downwind slip face which rises at a 28° angle to a height of 16 feet. On Earth, the angle of repose of dry sand is steeper, at 32°, possibly because Earth’s greater force of gravity which holds the sand grains together more tightly. Whereas the windward face of Namib Dune is a gentle slope characterized by many small cuspate ripples, the steep slip face has small parallel ridges and valleys trending downslope. The ridges result from grain flows formed as sand is blown over the crest of the dune, builds up in small hills, then avalanches down the slip face. The intervening valleys are simply the areas where grain flows did not occur. Namib Dune is an active dune estimated to be moving at a rate of 3 feet per year, primarily by means of grain flows.
Although most rocks studied on Mars have relatively low levels of silica, hydrogen rich, high silica samples were obtained on July 30th adjacent to the contact zone between the basal rock layer of Mt. Sharp called the Murray Formation and the base of the overlying younger Stimson Unit which the rover is now traversing. The samples contain abundant amounts of tridymite, a rare form of silicon dioxide (quartz) characterized by high temperatures during crystallization, conditions characteristic of some igneous and metamorphic rock in the Earth. The abundance of silica may be explained as a result of low pH conditions where acidic waters removed other elements from the rocks, intensifying the concentration of silica or high pH conditions where silica rich alkaline waters added silica to the rocks. Good examples of the latter condition include the high silica areas found since leaving Marias Pass. The fracture zone observation target examined at Greenhorn revealed high silica in the form of opal, a mineral composed of silicon dioxide with water included in its molecular structure. On Earth, opal is found in environments such as soils, sediments, hot spring deposits, and acid leached rocks.
The presence of tridymite further complicates the issue because the high temperatures required for crystallization necessitates hot environments such as those found at depth below the surface of the planetary body. Further, the relatively low levels of silica in volcanic rocks derived from magma rising from depth found so far on Mars suggests that either the silica may not be of volcanic origin or that there were igneous processes transpiring which concentrated the silica at depth.
The more we learn about the Planet Mars, the more we need to figure out and explain. The reward is a concept of how the planet evolved in very ancient times, a concept that may yield information about how our own planet evolved.
Meteor Showers
The Quadrantid Meteor Shower occurs between Dec. 28th and Jan. 12th. At its peak on the morning of the 4th it will illuminate January night skies a week before New Moon under the light of a waning crescent Moon. It may produce up to 120 meteors per hour in dark skies and has historically varied from 30 to 200 meteors per hour. The meteors will appear to emanate from a radiant in Bootes between Hercules and the end of Ursa Major’s tail which will be high in the east in predawn hours. The Quadrantids shower is probably caused by debris from the destruction of Comet 2003 EH1, 500 years ago. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean observers in 1491 discovered a bright comet which had an orbit very similar to that of the Quadrantid debris stream and in 2003, Peter Jenniskens identified a minor planet, EH1, with the same orbit, another remnant of the comets destruction.
Other showers in January are relatively minor and restricted to the southern hemisphere.
Planet Plotting
Morning planets include Venus (-4.0 to -3.9) which moves through Scorpius, Ophiuchus, Sagittarius in January, Saturn (+0.5) in Ophiuchus, and Mars (+1.3 to +0.8) in Virgo and Libra. Mercury is buried in the glow of dusk and dawn all month and is at Inferior Conjunction with the Sun on the 14th. Depending on your horizon you may observe Mercury when it sets after the Sun in early January or when it rises immediately before sunrise at the end of the month.
Jupiter (-2.2 to -2.4) in Leo rises well before midnight and is in the southwestern sky in the hours before dawn. Neptune (+7.9) in Aquarius and Uranus (+5.8) in Pisces are evening planets which rise during the day and set before midnight.
Before dawn on Wednesday morning, Jan. 6th, a very thin and faint waning crescent Moon rises in the southeast and is soon joined by Saturn in Ophiuchus and Venus in Scorpius not far from Antares, its brightest star. In the south-southeast Mars and its slightly brighter companion, Spica, shine farther above the horizon in Virgo (source: Cosmos Celestron Navigator). Venus and Saturn in Ophiuchus present an impressive conjunction on the 8th when they are separated by less than 1° at 11PM EST. The ringed planet will pair with its much brighter companion in our skies as they rise before dawn when they are slightly farther apart but still a splendid sight.
Planet……Constellation……Magnitude……Planet Passages
Sun…….Sagittarius, Ophiuchus……..-26.8…………..New Moon, ………………………………………………………1/9, 8:31PM EST Mercury..Capricornus, Sagittarius….-0.4 to +3.1 to -0.0
…………………………………………………….Inferior Conjunction ……………………………………………………..1/14, 9:00AM EST Venus….Scorpius, Ophiuchus, Sagittarius…-4.0 to -3.9 …………………………………………………….Saturn, 0.09°N, 1/8, ………………………………………………………………….11:PM EST
Mars……Virgo, Libra…………………….+1.3 to +0.8
Jupiter….Leo……………………………….-2.2 to -2.4
Saturn….Ophiuchus……………………..+0.5 …………………………………………………….Venus, 0.09°S, 1/8, ………………………………………………………………….11:PM EST Uranus….Pisces…………………………..+5.8
Neptune..Aquarius……………………….+7.9
January Moon
Lunation 1151 begins with the New Moon of January 9th at 8:31PM EST. It ends 29.63 days later with the New Moon on February 8th at 9:39AM EST.
The Full Moon for January in Gemini is at 8:46PM EST on the 23rd. It is called the “Moon after Yule” or “Old Moon.” Colonial Americans named it the “Winter Moon” and it was the “Wolf Moon” to the Medieval English. The Anishinaabe (Odawa and Ojibwe) of the northern Great Lakes refer to it as “Gitchi-manidoo-giizis” (Great Spirits Moon). Celts called it the “Quite Moon” while for the Chinese it is the “Holiday Moon.”
Apogee distance (maximum orbital distance) is 251,206 miles (63.39 Earth radii) from Earth on the 2nd at 6:53AM EST. Perigee distance is 229,671 miles or 57.95 Earth radii on the 14th at 9:14PM EST when the Moon makes its 2nd closest approach of the year to Earth. It returns to the apogee position in orbit on the 30th at 4:10AM EST when it is farther away at 251,377 miles or 63.43 Earth radii.
Planet..Constellation..Magnitude..Moon Passage..Moon ………………………………………………………………….Phase/Age
Sun….Sagittarius….-26.8……………8:31PM EST, 1/9 ……………………………………………………..New ~ 0 days Mercury..Sagittarius..+3.1…………..2.1°N, 1PM EST, 1/10 …………………………………………Waxing Crescent ~ 0.69 days Venus…..Ophiuchus..-4.0…………3.0°N, 7PM EST, 1/6 …………………………………………Waning Crescent ~ 26.27 days Mars……..Virgo…….+1.3…………1.5°SN, 2PM EST, 1/3 …………………………………………Waning Crescent ~ 23.69 days Jupiter……Leo.. …….-2.4…………1.4°S, 8PM EST, 1/27
…………………………………………Waning Gibbous ~ 17.04 days
Saturn..Ophiuchus…+0.5…………3.0°N, Midnight EST, 1/6 …………………………………………Waning Crescent ~ 25.77 days Uranus….Pisces…….+5.8………….1.5°S, 1AM EST, 1/16 …………………………………………Waxing Gibbous ~ 6.19 days
Neptune..Aquarius…+7.9…………2.0°N, 10AM EST, 1/13 …………………………………………Waxing Crescent ~ 3.56 days
