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Liverpool Astronomical Society News Page


Society News and Night Sky Notes - January 2001

CLEAR DARK SKIES for the New Year from all at
LIVERPOOL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY.


Lasted updated December 7th 2000.



Society News Headlines


  • Jan 1st - Start of the New Millennium.
  • Jan 1st - 200th anniversary (1801) of Guiseppe Piazzi's discovery of the first astroid (Ceres).
  • Jan 3rd - Max for the Quadrantids Meteor shower.
  • Jan 3rd - Earth at Perihelion (0.983 AU).
  • Jan 6th - Moon is 2° South of Saturn.
  • Jan 6th - Moon is 3° South of Jupiter.
  • Jan 6th - Comet Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak at Perihelion (1.052 AU).
  • Jan 6th - Comet Ashbrook-Jackson at Perihelion (2.305 AU).
  • Jan 9th - Total Lunar Eclipse seen from Liverpool early evening.
  • Jan 9th - Lunar Eclipse special meeting at LAS Pex Hill Observatory.
  • Jan 15th - STARDUST spacecraft flyby of Earth.
  • Jan 15th - Comet Smirnova-Chernykh at Perihelion (3.546 AU).
  • Jan 17th - Venus at greatest elongation from the Sun -47° East (Evening).
  • Jan 17th - Moon 3° North of Mars.
  • Jan 18th - Planned launch of space shuttle Atlantis on STS-98 ISS/5A mission.
  • Jan 19th - LAS Monthly Meeting at RC Catherdral Crypt Concert Room.
  • Jan 24th - 15th anniversary (1986) Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus.
  • Jan 26th - Moon 3° South of Mercury.
  • Jan 26th - LASSA event at Leasowe lighthouse, Holylake, Wirral 7:30pm - 9:30pm.
  • Jan 27th - Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 at perihelion (0.937 AU).
  • Jan 27th - Comet C/2000 O1 (Koehn) at perihelion (5.922 AU).
  • Jan 28th - 15th Anniversary (1986) of space shuttle challenger explosion.
  • Jan 28th - Moon 6° south of Venus.
  • Jan 28th - Mercury at greatest elongation from the Sun - 18° East (evening)
  • Jan 31st - 30th anniversary (1971) of the Apollo 14 launch - 3rd manned Moon landing.

    • THE NIGHT SKY DURING THE MONTH OF January 2001.

    Will it be cloudy to-night?, ask the The U.K. Goverment Met Office Weather service.
    To make your own star chart fo your location at any time, Click Here.


    and

    The Sun and Moon


    All times are in GMT the same as U.T. Times For Observer in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, U.K.

    Latitude 53 degs 24 mins North.
    Longitude +3.0 degs West.

    
            1st          6th        11th      16th      21st      26th        31st
SUNRISE    08:27        08:26      08:24     08:19     08:13     08:06       07:59
SUNSET     16:04        16:10      16:17     16:25     16:34     16:44       16:53

    PHASES OF THE MOON DURING January 2001
    NEW MOON

    on 24th
    at 13hr:07m    		 FIRST QUARTER

    on 2nd
    at 22hr:33m    		 FULL MOON

    on 9th
    at 20hr:25m     		LAST QUARTER

    on 16th
    at 12hr:36m

    Total Lunar Eclipse on 2001 January 9th. Details Here.
    Details for Liverpool.


    The Earth is at perihelion on the 4th at a diatance of 0.983285 Astronomical Units (1 Astronomical Unit is equivalent to 149.6 million Kilometers). Perihelion is the closest any body approaches the Sun. Its opposite is aphelion, when a body is furthest from the Sun in its orbit. On the 24th the Moon reaches its furthest point from the Earth - its apogee - in 2001. It lies at a distance of 406,562 kilometers.


    planets THE PLANETS THIS MONTH.

    mercury MERCURY.

    Mercury is at its greatest Eastern elongation on the 28th at an angle of 18° from the Sun. From the 21st look low down in the South West using this TABLE and the Moon and Venus as guides for location. On the 26th the Moon and Mercury are 3.5° apart. Mercury's phase changes from a 79% gibbous with an apparent diameter of 5.9" on the 21st to a 16% crescent on February 5th. Its brightness diminishes accordingly throughout the appartion from -0.9 to +3.0 so the best chance of sighting it will be between Jan 21st and 31st.

    venus VENUS.


    Venus is superbly placed in the evening sky and is by far the frist object (apart from the Moon) to become visible soon after Sunset. Venus reaches greatest Eastern elongation on the 17th at an angle of 47° with a phase of exactly 50% and sports a disk 25" across. On the 28th at 19hrs Venus is a wide 6.5° North of the moon.

    mars MARS.


    Mars is purely a early morning object now and for the next few months.


    ASTEROIDS.


  • No asteroids is well placed at the moment.

    For More information on Asteroids Click Here.

    JUPITER.


    Unsually, there is no opposition of Jupiter this year. Last year it was on November 28th and the next one won't be untril January 1st 2002. However Jupiter is well placed in the evening sky in Taurus.

    Launched in October 1989, the Galileo Jupiter Probe entered orbit around the great planet on December 7th 1995. The Project Galileo Homepage will give you up-to-date information and the very latest images returned.

    SATURN.


    Saturn joins Jupiter in the evening sky in Taurus. Saturn is less bright and to Jupiter's upper right.

    URANUS and neptune NEPTUNE.


    Both Uranus and Neptune are at or near solar conjunction and are unfavorable for observations until June.

    PLUTO.


    Pluto will be out of view until after April in morning skies.


    METEORS.


  • January 4th Quadrantids ZHR is 80 per hour. ( Fairly favourable)


    • comets COMETS.


  • January 6th - Comet Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak at Perihelion (1.052 AU).
  • January 6th - Comet Ashbrook-Jackson at Perihelion (2.305 AU).
  • January 15th - Comet Smirnova-Chernykh at Perihelion (3.546 AU).
  • January 27th - Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 at Perihelion (0.937 AU).
  • January 27th - Comet C/2000 01 (Koehn) at Perihelion. (5.922 AU).

    Plus these pages will give daily and weekly reports of this and other Comets progress.

  • BAA Comet Section Home Page
  • Comet Web Sites.
  • NASA/JPL Comet Observations Home Page.
  • The Astronomer Comet Page.


    • occulationsOCCULATIONS.

  • There are several occultations during the total lunar eclipse on the 9th, the brightest being at 20:29 when 63 Geminorum is only just occulted from the latitude of Liverpool. Observes at latitudes lower than +53.4° may see the Moon pass just North of the Star. Full details of the stars which are occulted is given on pages 7-8 of the 2001 LAS Astronomical Events Booklet.


    December 2000 News and Sky Notes.

    February 2001 News and Sky Notes.HERE SOON!


    These pages are maintained by Gerard Gilligan.
    EMail: ggastro@liverpool.ac.uk.

    Return to the The Liverpool Astronomical Society Home Page.

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