JANUARY NIGHT SKIES OVER TANZANIA
JANUARY NIGHT SKIES OVER TANZANIA
With a total solar eclipse very close to home, passing through Uganda and Kenya on 3rd November, the New Year 2013 has quite remarkable stellar shows in store for us. The greatest comet show is also developing as the comet fast approaching from the outer space and could produce a remarkable spectacle at the end of November. A deep penumbral lunar eclipse on April 25 will pose an exciting challenge to observe the darkening of a slight edge and to notice the difference in brightness over the rest of the face of the Moon. We also have good news from NASA about the fear of collision on Earth with an asteroid in 2040 which now has been proved to be not a threat after further monitoring of new data from the 140 meter asteroid. The asteroid is now expected to pass more than 800,000 kilometres (two Moon distances) away from Earth, posing no threat to humanity.
Among the planets, Jupiter is visible in the overhead skies from sunset. Next to Jupiter as a quickly recognizable pair is the red giant star Aldebaran in Taurus (the bull) constellation. The pair moves westwards as the night progresses. Mars is close to the western horizon at sunset but can still be seen about 15 degrees elevation above the horizon. By 8th February, it will be a challenge to point out its close encounter with Mercury when it will be about 10 degrees above the horizon at sunset. Venus is a bright morning star about 25 degrees above the eastern horizon at sunrise. It is dipping fast and by February it will disappear into the Sun’s glare and will not be visible until the beginning of May when it will reappear in the evening skies and will now be known as the evening star.
This is a month when the our southern skies come alive with dense collections of stars, nebulae and galaxies since the densest potions of our Milky Way enters our skies. The Orion constellation, seen from our skies as a big rectangle crossed with three diagonal stars, is the most recognizable constellation for the next five months as it shifts from east to west. From March, the Southern cross is easily identified also. The brightest stars brightest stars in the whole sky, Sirius and Canopus are accompanied by Capella, Rigel, Procyon, Achernar, Beltelgeuse, Aldebaran. These are among the top ten brightest stars in the sky, so go out and know your stars.
The Milky Way contains a dense collection of stars and interstellar dust and nebulae stretching across the sky from the southeast across the sky to the north, grazing Sirius, Orion, Taurus and finally enclosing Perseus and Cassiopeia in the north. Three visible galaxies can be seen in the early night sky for the next few months. Two of these, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) are members of our local group with our Milky Way galaxy. Only southern observes can see the two Magellanic Cloud galaxies since they are close to the South Pole. They both have irregular shapes and cover a wide area of the sky with more than 4 to 5 degrees of angular width. LMC lies between Canopus and the South Pole and can best be viewed after 9 p.m. The SMC (3½ deg across) lies similarly between Achernar and the South. These two galaxies are about 50,000 light years away from us. The Andromeda galaxy can be seen in the north above Cassiopeia. It is more than 2 million light years away from us and can be seen as a fuzzy patch of light, making it the farthest object seen with the naked eyes.
The Globe at Night campaign which is an attempt to monitor light pollution of night skies is conducted by amateur observers around the world in the first months of the year. It makes use of the many bright stars seen at this time of the year and observers determine the state of light pollution by reporting to a central website which stars they can see from their neighbourhoods. This year, the campaign is conducted on January 3-12, January 31-February 9, March 3-12, March 31-April 9, and April 29-May 8. Use the upcoming January 31 to February 9 opportunity to participate in the global science even by visiting the www.globeatnight.org website for further instructions.
The best opportunity of viewing satellites will be on January 31 for the International Space Station (ISS) and on February 2 for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). On January 31, the ISS will rise from south west at 08:07 pm rising to 31 degrees in the northwest skies as an extremely bright star. After this which it will dramatically disappear at 8:11 pm because it will enter the Earth’s shadow. On February 2, the HST will cut across the sky from southwest at 7:25 pm to north east at 7:34 pm cutting through the Orion constellation, close to its diagonal stars. Visit the www.heavens-above.com website for exact local times by entering your location coordinates.