This Week’s Night Sky: Distant Giants Pose With the Moon
Comet Catalina glides past a pretty galaxy as it continues its journey out of the solar system.
Io Dance. Late night on Tuesday, January 12, Io and its shadow take a trip across the face of the volcanic moon’s parent planet, Jupiter, with both being visible on the planet’s surface together for a little more than an hour.
At 10:50 p.m. EST, Io’s shadow begins its transit, leaving the planet at 1:05 a.m. The moon itself starts its glide across the gas giant at 11:54 p.m., leaving at 2:08 a.m.
Neptune Companion. After nightfall on Wednesday, January 13, telescope users can look for the waxing crescent moon pointing the way to Neptune, the most distant giant planet in the solar system.
Neptune will appear only 5 degrees from Earth’s companion—equal to the width of your middle three fingers held at arm’s length. Don’t be fooled with the objects’ closeness in our skies, though, since the moon is only 1.3 light-seconds away and light from Neptune takes an incredible 4 hours and 15 minutes to reach us here on Earth.
Dipper Flyby. Late night on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, comet Catalina (C/2013 US10) will pass the iconic Big Dipper star pattern and some deep sky treasures.
On Thursday night, the comet—shining between 6 and 7 magnitude—will be easy to track down using binoculars as it passes Alkaid, the bright, naked-eye star at the end of the Big Dipper’s handle. The two should be separated by about 1 degree, making them both easily fit into the same field of view in binoculars or telescopes using low power.
Then on Friday and Saturday, Catalina will pose next to the Pinwheel galaxy, also known as Messier 101. This giant face-on spiral galaxy, shines at magnitude 7.9. However, because of its low surface brightness, small telescopes will only reveal its central core, and a telescope with at least with a 15-centimeter (6-inch) mirror will be needed to glimpse its patchy spiral arms.
The comet is currently only 6 light-minutes away and the Pinwheel galaxy is 22 million light-years distant, but in the sky the objects will appear less than 3 degrees from each other—equal to 6 moon disks sitting side-by-side. This should make for a great photo opportunity to capture the pair together.
Green Giant Followed. As darkness sets in on Friday, January 15, binocular and telescope users can easily hunt down the planet Uranus sitting perched above the moon. That night, the cosmic pair will only be separated by 5 degrees in the southwest sky.
Clear skies!
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