Quick guide to cool astronomy pictures.

SOLAR SYSTEM

STAR CLUSTERS

NEBULAE

GALAXIES

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Monthly Astronomy Viewing Guide - January 2008

January 2008 Night Sky at a Glance
See the planets, comets, asteroids, and other interested solar system and deep sky objects that are up this month.

Planets Up and Visible This Month

Planets at a glance

Early Evening
Mercury
Mars
Uranus
Neptune

Midnight
Mars
Saturn

Early morning
Venus
Mars
Jupiter (late month)

Planets in Detail

	Mercury	Mercury is visible this month starting on about January 9, 2007. Its disk will be illuminated 90% and will be a magnitude -0.9, which is pretty bright. As the month progresses, Mercury will dim. Mercury will only be up for 80 -90 minutes and that time will be getter shorter after January 19, 2008 when Mercury reaches its greatest angel east of the Sun
	Venus	Venus remains an early morning target rising about 3 hours before the Sun this month. As the month goes on, more and more of Venus' crescent will be visible. On January 5th, the crescent moon and Venus will be grouped together. On January 21st, Jupiter and Venus will be 11º apart. The gap narrows each night until February 1st.
	Mars	Mars reached opposition on December 24, 2007 and was the closest that Mars will be for about 8 years. It is slowly moving away from Earth, so this is the best month to observe the Red Planet for awhile. Mars dominates the eastern sky at dusk and will be high in the sky all month. This is a great month to image Mars.
	Jupiter	Jupiter is lost in the morning twilight at the beginning of the month. By January 15th, Jupiter will rise one hour or so before the Sun. However it will still be low on the horizon and viewing quality will be diminished at high magnification because of the fact you will have to see through more atmosphere. You will have no problem seeing the 4 largest moons.
	Saturn	Saturn is making its way around again and will delight those who can stay up a little later. It rises at about 10 P.M. in late January. 2008 is the last year to see Saturn's rings. They will be edge on in 2009 and thus invisible.
	Uranus	Uranus remains in the evening throughout the earlier part night and will set before midnight in the earlier part of the month. In the later part of the month, it will set about 90 minutes after the sun. It is located in the southern sky. It generally appears as a small green disk.
	Neptune	Neptune is also located in the southern sky this month and actually sets before Uranus. It will appear as a small blue dot. It will be lost in twilight by the end of the month.
	Pluto	Pluto is not visible in the beginning part of the month and is very close to Jupiter and Venus in the sky by month's end coming up about 1 hour before sunrise. You can more or less forget about seeing Pluto this month, not that Pluto is an easy target at any time.

List of Visible Comets For This Month

Comet 17P Holmes	If you have not seen this comet yet, do yourself a favor and find it. It started out as magnitude 17 which is too dim for all but the largest of amateur telescopes. For some unknown reason, it brightened up to a magnitude 2.5 in October and was visible with the naked eye being one of the brightest objects in the sky. It has dimmed and is currently estimated to be about magnitude 3.8. It may still a naked eye object if you know where to look and you are in dark skies. The comet is becoming more diffuse and thus dimmer by the day. It's coma is currently the largest object in the solar system, even bigger than the Sun, although the mass in nothing compared to that of the Sun. Because of its large size, it is best viewed at low magnification, and even binoculars. It is currently located in the constellation Perseus. Click on the comet's name to the left for a list of coordinates throughout the month.
Comet 8P Tuttle	Comet Tuttle is a rapidly brightening comet that is visually located not far from Comet 17P Holmes. On January 2nd, it will pass within 0.25AU from Earth. One AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun. You need to view this comet now if you want to see it because at month's end, it will only be visible to those in the Southern Hemisphere. It is located halfway between the constellations Cassiopeia and Andromeda. It orbits the Sun every 5.4 years. Click on the comet's name to the left for a list of coordinates throughout the month.
Comet 46P Wirtanen	Comet 46P Wirtanen is a dim comet shining at magnitude 10.2 by some estimates and 12 by others by othere and is located near the constellation Aquarius. Click on the comet's name to the left for a list of coordinates throughout the month.
Comet C/2007 T1 McNaught	Comet C/2007 T1 McNaught is found in the constellation Ara and is a dim comet at the moment.

Meteor Showers

Quadrantids Meteor Shower

The Quadrantids meteor shower is on January 4th in the early AM hours. The Moon will only be a crescent at that time, so light pollution from the moon will not be a problem. The Quadrantids produces fast meteors and should put on a good display this year.