BAS - MONTHLY SKY GUIDE January 2018 January is often a challenging month for Brisbane astronomers as clouds and storms are common and finding a clear night is a rare event. However, an interesting region of the sky passes over us this month, so it is worth a try. 1
DARK SKY BEST OBSERVING DATES - JANUARY From January 9 th the Moon rises after midnight From January 20 th the Moon gets too bright and does not set until after 8:00pm The most convenient observing days in January are between January 9 th and 20 th. From January 9 th the Moon rises after midnight and so we have a few dark hours after sunset. But after January 20 th the Moon gets too bright and does not set until after 8:00pm and so you spend more hours each night waiting for the Moon to set after January 20 th. 2
THE MOON Lunar eclipse January 31 st 10:00pm to about 1:00am Red Moon Australia enjoys a lunar eclipse on the evening of Wednesday January 31 st with the Moon starting to turn red from around 10:00pm through until about 1:00am Thursday morning. A great opportunity for some simple astrophotography with camera and tripod. 3
THE PLANETS Jupiter Mars Mercury Saturn You ll have to get up very early to see any planets this month. At about 4am from January 5 th to 10 th Jupiter and Mars will be very close together in the eastern morning sky. Around January 13 th at around dawn Mercury and Saturn will be very close and a slender crescent Moon will join the show on the morning of January 15 th. 4
USEFUL TELESCOPE ALIGNMENT STARS Carina Taurus Alignment Stars: Canopus Aldebaran Two prominent and widely spaced stars that are good for telescope alignment are Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus, the Bull, located on the ecliptic, and bright Canopus in the constellation Carina. Aldebaran is a great alignment star as it is bright and distinctly orange and so difficult to confuse with other stars in the eyepiece. Similarly, Canopus is also very bright, the second brightest of all stars in the sky after Sirius, and also easy to distinguish in the eyepiece. 5
CONSTELLATION OF THE MONTH - DORADO Observing targets: NGC 2079 Open cluster Large Magellanic Cloud The constellation name Dorado means the dolphinfish in Spanish. The Dorado constellation was created by the Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius from the observations of Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman who sailed from Holland to the spice islands of Indonesia in 1595-7. There are very few deep sky objects within the Dorado asterism worth chasing with a telescope. NGC 2079 is a small open cluster of stars with faint nebulosity. However, just to the south, is the Large Magellanic Cloud, an irregular galaxy near the Milky Way with an abundance of deep sky targets particularly nebulae and star clusters. 6
NEW MOON - 9 PM MERIDIAN CONSTELLATIONS Fornax Taurus The Fornax constellation, Latin for The Furnace was added to the modern constellation list by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille following his southern sky observing program in Cape Town in 1751-53. It was one of number of constellation created by Lacaille and named after scientific instruments of the time. Fornax is notable for the bright galaxies in the Fornax Cluster, including the Great Barred Spiral galaxy (NGC 1365) and Fornax A (NGC 1316). The Taurus constellation lies in the northern sky and its name means bull in Latin. Taurus is one of the 12 constellations of the zodiac, first catalogued by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century. The constellation s history, however, dates back to the Bronze Age. Taurus is a large constellation and one of the oldest ones known. In Greek mythology, the constellation is associated with Zeus, who transformed himself into a bull in order to get close to Europa and abduct her. Taurus is known for its bright orange star Aldebaran - the eye of the bull. The constellation is probably best known for the Pleiades cluster (Messier 45), also known as the Seven Sisters, and the Hyades, which are the two nearest open star clusters to Earth. 7
TAURUS A good binocular object in Taurus is the large open cluster, The Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters. A much more faint telescope object is the Crab Nebula, or Messier 1, the remnant gas cloud from a supernova explosion recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054. 8
FORNAX Fornax A NGC 1316 There are plenty of galaxies to hunt for around Fornax. Start the hunt with Fornax A, NGC 1316, a large and bright lenticular galaxy about 60 million light years from Earth. Then move on the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 and lots of other nearby fainter galaxies. 9
BUILD YOUR OWN OBSERVING LIST Click Find Objects Select object types Select constellation Search https://dso-browser.com/ Make sure you take a look at the great observation planning tool DSO-Browser before the New Moon period. This is a fantastic tool to help you build a list of objects you can try and find each month. Just a few clicks on www.dso-browser.com can generate a fantastic observing list of object types you are interested in. 10
AVOIDING CLOUDS www.cloudfreenight.com www.skippysky.com More info: http://philhart.com/content/cloud-forecasts-australian-astronomers And to find the best cloud-free evenings for observing make sure you check CloudFreeNight and Skippysky as you plan your next observing evening. 11