JUNE Skygazer s 0 N lmanac FOR LTITUDES NER 0 NORTH Julian day 2,,000+ DECEMBER 2 JNURY 2 NOVEMBER p.m. Midnight 2 a.m. FEBRURY 2 OCTOBER set set 2 Sirius s olaris s Upper Culmination 2 Mars s s End of evening s EVENING SKY Jan Earth is,02,0 miles from 2 the (perihelion) near midnight Feb Mars is 0. lower left of Feb is east of the Mar Comet NSTRRS begins its best two weeks, low in the west 2 at dusk pr 2 artial lunar eclipse, but it is not visible in North merica 2 pr 2 Saturn is at opposition May Hawaiians see a partial solar eclipse this afternoon; 2 it is annular in a path across northern ustralia (morning of 2 the th) and the Central acific May 2 Jupiter is.0 lower left of Venus, with above Jun 2 is 2 east of the Jun Longest day, h 0 m at latitude 2 0 north Jun 2 Latest (at 0 N) 0 Jun 2 Latest sunset (at 0 N) Jul Regulus is.2 below Venus tonight and tomorrow ug 2 Neptune is at opposition tonight Sep Fall begins at the equinox, : p.m. EDT 2 Sep 2 Spica is 0. below (use binoculars) Oct 2 Uranus is at opposition tonight Oct is 2 east of the Oct Venus is east of 2 the Dec Earliest end of evening Dec Earliest sunset Dec Shortest day, h m at lat. 0 N; winter begins at the solstice, 2 2: p.m. EST 2 2 2 MRCH 2 RIL SETEMBER Conjunction (appulse) MY UGUST 0 JULY Greatest elongation Neptune s leiades Transit End of evening s EVENING Orion Nebula M2 Transits ollux Transits Venus s Greatest illuminated extent Betelgeuse s Uranus s Sirius s Opposition Upper Culmination of olaris Regulus Transits Deneb Transits Jupiter s Saturn s New fast 2 Neptune Transits First slow Equation of time 2 2 2 Northern Full Uranus Transits Jupiter s Neptune s Uranus s Uranus s Saturn s Southern Delta quarids Last Saturn Transits leiades Transit ntares s Orion Nebula M2 Transits Lower Culmination of olaris Neptune s Geminids pogee Eta quarids erseids MORNING Mars s erigee Lyrids Start of morning ollux Transits s Orionids s Saturn s Start of morning Regulus Transits JUNE SULEMENT TO SKY & TELESCOE MY JULY Waxing (moonset) UGUST RIL Leonids SETEMBER s Mars ntares s Quadrantids p.m. Midnight 2 a.m. 2 2 2 0 Venus s s OCTOBER MRCH 2 rise Transits 2 rise NOVEMBER Waning (moonrise) 2 2 FEBRURY JNURY 2 MORNING SKY Jan Latest sunrise of 2 the year at latitude 0 north Jan Latest onset of morning Mar Spring begins at the equinox, :02 a.m. EDT Mar is at greatest elongation, 2 west of 2 the Jun Earliest sunrise Jun Earliest morning Jun Summer begins at the solstice, :0 a.m. EDT Jul Earth is,0, miles from 2 the (aphelion) near a.m. EDT Jul Mars is 0. upper left of Jupiter Jul 0 is at greatest elongation, west of the Nov total solar eclipse occurs in a path across the mid-tlantic Ocean and central frica, with 2 a slight partial eclipse visible at sunrise along the eastern coast of North merica Nov is at greatest elongation, west of the Nov 2 Saturn is 0. above this morning (and also yesterday) 2 Nov 0 On this and the following mornings, look for Comet ISON low in the eastsoutheast 2 at dawn Computed by Roger W. Sinnott. Sky & Telescope Media, LLC. rinted in US. Sky & Telescope 0 Sherman St. Cambridge, M 00 US DECEMBER 2 0 SkyandTelescope.com
Skygazer s 0 N FOR LTITUDES NER 0 NORTH lmanac When does the set, and when does end? Which planets are visible? What time does the rise? Welcome to the Skygazer s lmanac a handy chart that answers these and many other questions for every night of the year. It is plotted for skywatchers near latitude 0 north in the United States, Mediterranean countries, Japan, and much of China. For any date, the chart tells the times when astronomical events occur during the night. Dates on the chart run vertically from top to bottom. Time of night runs horizontally, from sunset at left to sunrise at right. Find the date you want on the left side of the chart, and read across toward the right to find the times of events. Times are labeled along the chart s top and bottom. In exploring the chart you ll find that its night-to-night patterns offer many insights into the rhythms of the heavens. The Events of a Single Night To learn how to use the chart, consider some of the events of one night. We ll pick January,. First find January and at the left edge. This is one of the dates for which a string of fine dots crosses the chart horizontally. Each horizontal dotted line represents the night from a day evening to Monday morning. The individual dots are five minutes apart. Every half hour (six dots), there is a vertical dotted line to aid in reading the hours of night at the chart s top or bottom. On the vertical lines, one dot is equal to one day. sweep of the eye shows that the line for the night of January crosses SGR What s in the sky tonight? many slanting event lines. Each event line tells when something happens. The dotted line for January begins at the heavy black curve at left, which represents the time of sunset. Reading up to the top of the chart, we find that sunset on January th occurs at : p.m. Local Mean Time. (ll times on the chart are Local Mean Time, which can differ from your standard clock time. More on this later.) Moving to the right, we see that the bright star Sirius rises at :0 p.m. Evening ends at :, marking the time when the is below the horizon. Six minutes later Mars, very low in the western sky, sets. t about : p.m. olaris, the North Star, is at upper culmination. This is when olaris stands directly above the north celestial pole (by or 0 this year), a good time to check the alignment of an equatorial telescope. The sets at : p.m., and we can tell by its symbol that it has been a thin crescent, low in the western sky. t : the leiades transit the meridian, meaning the famous star cluster is then due south and highest in the sky. Jupiter transits at :, followed by the Great Orion Nebula, M2, at :0. Transits of celestial landmarks help indicate when they are best placed for viewing with a telescope and where the constellations are during the night. Running vertically down the midnight line is a scale of hours. This shows the sidereal time (the right ascension of objects on the meridian) at midnight. On January this is h m. To find the sidereal time at any other time and date on the chart, locate that point and draw a line through it parallel to the white event lines of stars. See where your line intersects the sidereal-time scale at midnight. ( star s event line enters the top of the chart at the same time of night it leaves the bottom. Sometimes one of these segments is left out to avoid crowding.) Near the midnight line is a white curve labeled Equation of time weaving narrowly down the chart. If you regard the midnight line as noon for a moment, this curve shows when the crosses the meridian and is due south. On January th the runs slow, transiting at 2:0 p.m. This variation is caused by the tilt of Earth s axis and the ellipticity of its orbit. The ringed planet Saturn rises in the east at :0 a.m., and Regulus transits at 2:. Jupiter, after being visible all night, finally sets at :02. Then a star we usually associate with a much later season, ntares, rises at :2. The first hint of dawn the start of morning comes at : a.m. Then the brilliant planet Venus rises at :. The finally peeks above the horizon at : a.m. on the morning of January th. Other Charted Information Many of the year s chief astronomical events are listed in the chart s evening and morning margins. Some are marked on the chart itself. Conjunctions (close pairings) of two planets are indicated on the chart by a symbol on the planets event lines. Here, conjunctions are considered to occur when the planets actually appear closest together in the sky (at appulse), not merely when they share the same ecliptic longitude or right ascension. Opposition of a planet, the date when it is opposite the in the sky and thus visible all night, occurs when its transit line crosses the Equation-of-time line (not the line for midnight). Opposition
is marked there by a symbol, as for Saturn on the night of pril 2 2. rise and moonset can be told apart by whether the round limb the outside edge of the symbol faces right (waxing sets) or left (waning rises). Or follow the nearly horizontal row of daily symbols across the chart to find the word or. s are indicated by a larger symbol. Full is always a large bright disk whether rising or setting; the circle for new is open. and mark dates when the is at perigee and apogee (nearest and farthest from Earth, respectively). and Venus never stray far from the bands. Their dates of greatest elongation from the are shown by symbols on their rising or setting curves. sterisks mark the dates when and Venus show their greatest illuminated extent in square arcseconds. For Venus, but not, it is also the date of the planet s greatest brilliancy (which occurs on the evening of December th this year). Meteor showers are marked by a starburst symbol at the date of peak activity and at the time when the shower s radiant is highest in the night sky. This is often just as morning begins. Julian dates can be found from the numbers just after the month names on the chart s left. The Julian day, a seven-digit number, is a running count of days beginning with January, BC. Its first four digits this year are 2, as indicated just off the chart s upper left margin. To find the last three digits for evenings in January, add 2 to the date. For instance, on the evening of January th we have 2 + = 0, so the Julian day is 2,,0. For North merican observers this number applies all night, because the next Julian day always begins at 2:00 Universal Time (:00 a.m. Central Standard Time). North Latitude Rising or ting Corrections Declination (North or South) 0 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 2 0 2 2 2 Time Corrections ll events on this Skygazer s lmanac are plotted for an observer at 0 west longitude and 0 north latitude, near the population center of North merica. However, you need not live near eoria, Illinois, to use the chart. Simple corrections will allow you to get times accurate to a couple of minutes anywhere in the world s north temperate latitudes. To convert the charted time of an event into your civil (clock) time, the following corrections must be made. They are given in decreasing order of importance: daylight-saving time. When this is in effect, add one hour to any time obtained from the chart. your longitude. The chart gives the Local Mean Time (LMT) of events, which differs from ordinary clock time by a number of minutes at most locations. Our civil time zones are standardized on particular longitudes. Examples in North merica are Eastern Time, W; Central, 0 ; Mountain, ; and acific,. If your longitude is very close to one of these (as is true for New Orleans and Denver), luck is with you Local Mean Time Corrections tlanta + Boise + Boston Buffalo + Chicago Cleveland +2 Dallas +2 Denver 0 Detroit +2 El aso + Helena +2 Honolulu + Houston + Indianapolis + Jacksonville +2 Kansas City + thens +2 Baghdad + Beijing + Belgrade Cairo Istanbul + Jerusalem Los ngeles Memphis 0 Miami + Minneapolis + New Orleans 0 New York hiladelphia + hoenix +2 ittsburgh + St. Louis + Salt Lake City +2 San Francisco + Santa Fe + Seattle + Tulsa +2 Washington + Lisbon + Madrid + New Delhi + Rome + Seoul +2 Tehran + Tokyo and this correction is zero. Otherwise, to get standard time add minutes to times obtained from the chart for each degree of longitude that you are west of your time-zone meridian. Or subtract minutes for each degree you are east of it. For instance, Washington, DC (longitude ), is 2 west of the Eastern Time meridian. So at Washington, add minutes to any time obtained from the chart. The result is Eastern Standard Time. Find your time adjustment and memorize it; you will use it always. The table below shows the corrections from local to standard time, in minutes, for some major cities. rising and setting. Times of rising and setting need correction if your latitude differs from 0 north. This effect depends strongly on a star or planet s declination. (The declinations of the and planets are given in Sky & Telescope.) If your site is north of latitude 0, then an object with a north declination stays above the horizon longer than the chart shows (it rises earlier and sets later), while one with a south declination spends less time above the horizon. t a site south of 0, the effect is just the reverse. Keeping these rules in mind, you can gauge the approximate number of minutes by which to correct a rising or setting time from the table above. Finally, the s rapid orbital motion alters lunar rising and setting times slightly if your longitude differs from 0 west. The rises and sets about two minutes earlier than the chart shows for each time zone east of Central Time, and two minutes later for each time zone west of Central Time. European observers can simply shift each rising or setting symbol leftward a quarter of the way toward the one for the previous night. Skygazer s lmanac is a supplement to Sky & Telescope. Sky & Telescope Media, LLC. ll rights reserved. For reprints (item SGR, $. each postpaid) or to order a similar chart for latitude 0 north or 0 south, contact Sky & Telescope, 0 Sherman St., Cambridge, M 00, US; phone 00-2-02, fax --. You can send e-mail to custserv@ SkyandTelescope.com, or visit our online store at SkyandTelescope.com. SkyandTelescope.com
set Julian day 2,,000+ DECEMBER 2 JNURY 2 EVENING SKY Feb NOVEMBER p.m. Midnight 2 a.m. Quadrantids slow 2 2 Uranus Transits s set FEBRURY 2 Mars is 0. to the lower left of Sirius s Mars s Upper Culmination of olaris s leiades Transit Neptune s Orion Nebula M2 Transits End of evening Venus s s Deneb Transits Uranus s Saturn s fast 2 Orionids 2 Southern 2 OCTOBER MRCH 2 Feb attains greatest elongation, east of the Mar Skygazer s 0 N lmanac FOR LTITUDES NER 0 NORTH SULEMENT TO SKY & TELESCOE Comet NSTRRS begins its best two weeks, low in the west at dusk Conjunction (appulse) SETEMBER RIL pr 2 The is partially eclipsed from :2 to :2 UT for most of the Eastern Hemisphere, but at greatest eclipse just 2% of the s diameter is in the umbra pr 2 Saturn comes to opposition tonight May 2 Jupiter is.0 lower left of Venus, with above them Greatest elongation End of evening Neptune Transits Jupiter s Uranus Transits ollux Transits Betelgeuse s Upper Culmination of olaris leiades Transit Jupiter s Sirius s Saturn Transits Regulus Transits Uranus s Saturn s Mars s Neptune s Orion Nebula M2 Transits Lower Culmination of olaris Uranus s ntares s Neptune s s ollux Transits Start of morning Lyrids MY UGUST 0 JUNE JULY Greatest illuminated extent EVENING Opposition 2 2 2 New First Northern Full Last Geminids pogee MORNING 2 Equation of time 2 MORNING SKY Jan 2 Earth is 2,0, 2 2 km from the (perihelion) near h UT Jan Latest onset of morning Mar Spring begins at the Jun 2 attains greatest elongation, 2 2 2 east of the 2 Jun Longest day, h m at latitude 0 N Jun 2 Latest sunset Jul Earth is 2,0,2 km from the (aphelion) near h UT Jul Regulus is. below Venus (use binoculars) ug 2 Neptune comes to opposition tonight 2 2 Sep Fall begins at the equinox, : UT 0 Oct Uranus is at opposition tonight Oct reaches greatest elongation, 2 east of the Oct ntares is. lower left of Venus, low in the southwest at dusk Delta Nov Venus attains greatest elongation, quarids east of the 2 2 Nov total eclipse of the occurs in a path across the mid-tlantic Ocean and central frica; the east coast of North merica sees a partial 2 eclipse just ending at sunrise erigee Start of morning Regulus Transits Leonids Saturn s s Dec Earliest end of evening Dec 2 Earliest sunset 2 2 Dec Shortest day of the year, 2 h 0 m at latitude 2 0 north; winter begins at the solstice, : UT 2 2 2 0 Waxing (moonset) Venus s 2 2 2 2 2 0 s Mars Transits s ntares s p.m. Midnight 2 a.m. JUNE JULY MY May 2 Jun Jun Jul Jul 0 UGUST RIL pr SETEMBER MRCH Nov west of the Nov 2 Nov 0 Dec OCTOBER rise rise Waning (moonrise) FEBRURY Computed by Roger W. Sinnott. Sky & Telescope Media, LLC. rinted in US. NOVEMBER JNURY equinox, :02 UT is at greatest elongation, 2 west of the n annular eclipse of the May occurs in a path across northern ustralia (soon after sunrise) and the Central acific, with a partial eclipse visible in Hawaii (afternoon on the th) penumbral eclipse of the technically takes place, much too slight to be seen Earliest sunrise at latitude 0 north Summer begins at the solstice, :0 UT Mars is 0. upper left of Jupiter is at greatest elongation, west of the is at greatest elongation, Saturn is 0. above On this and the next few mornings, watch for Comet ISON low in the east-southeastern sky shortly before sunrise Latest sunrise of the year Sky & Telescope 0 Sherman St. Cambridge, M 00 US SkyandTelescope.com DECEMBER
Skygazer s 0 N FOR LTITUDES NER 0 NORTH lmanac When does the set, and when does end? Which planets are visible? What time does the rise? Welcome to the Skygazer s lmanac a handy chart that answers these and many other questions for every night of the year. This version is plotted for skywatchers near latitude 0 north in the United Kingdom, northern Europe, Canada, and Russia. For any date, the chart tells the times when astronomical events occur during the night. Dates on the chart run vertically from top to bottom. Time of night runs horizontally, from sunset at left to sunrise at right. Find the date you want on the left side of the chart, and read across toward the right to find the times of events. Times are labeled along the chart s top and bottom. In exploring the chart you ll find that its night-to-night patterns offer many insights into the rhythms of the heavens. The Events of a Single Night To learn how to use the chart, consider the events of one night. We ll pick January,. First find January and at the left edge. This is one of the dates for which a string of fine dots crosses the chart horizontally. Each horizontal dotted line represents the night from a day evening to Monday morning. The individual dots are five minutes apart. Every half hour (six dots), there is a vertical dotted line to aid in reading the hours of night at the chart s top or bottom. On the vertical lines, one dot is equal to one day. sweep of the eye shows that the line for the night of January crosses SGE What s in the sky tonight? many slanting event lines. Each event line tells when something happens. The dotted line for January begins at the heavy black curve at left, which represents the time of sunset. Reading up to the top of the chart, we find that sunset on January th occurs at :2 p.m. Local Mean Time. (ll times on the chart are Local Mean Time, which can differ from your standard clock time by many minutes. More on this later.) Moving to the right, we see that Uranus transits the meridian at : p.m., meaning it is then due south and highest in the sky (during bright ). Mars sets at :2, so it won t be visible later tonight. Evening ends at :, marking the time when the is below the horizon. Then at :2 the brilliant star Sirius rises. t :0 p.m. the sets, and we can tell by its symbol that it has been a thin crescent, low in the southwestern sky. t about : olaris, the North Star, reaches upper culmination. This is when olaris stands directly above the north celestial pole (by or 0 this year), a good opportunity to check the alignment of an equatorial telescope. The faint telescopic planet Neptune sets at :, so we can cross it off the observing list. The leiades transit the meridian at :, followed by the bright planet Jupiter at : and the famous Orion Nebula at :02. Transits of celestial landmarks help indicate where the constellations are throughout the night. Running vertically down the midnight line is a scale of hours. This shows the sidereal time (the right ascension of objects on the meridian) at midnight. On January this is h m. To find the sidereal time at any other time and date on the chart, locate the point for the time and date you want, then draw a line through it parallel to the white event lines of stars. See where your line intersects the sidereal-time scale at midnight. ( star s event line enters the top of the chart at the same time of night it leaves the bottom. Sometimes one of these segments is left out to avoid crowding.) Near the midnight line is a white curve labeled Equation of time weaving narrowly right and left down the chart. If you regard the midnight line as the previous noon for a moment, this curve shows when the crosses the meridian and is due south. On January th the runs slow, transiting at 2:0 p.m. This variation is caused by the tilt of Earth s axis and the ellipticity of its orbit. The ringed planet Saturn rises at : a.m. Regulus (in Leo) transits at 2:, and Jupiter finally sets at :. Then a star that we usually associate with later seasons, ntares, rises at :. The first hint of dawn the start of morning comes at : a.m. Brilliant Venus rises in the east at :0, and Saturn is highest in the sky min- Local Mean Time Corrections msterdam +0 Belfast +2 Berlin + Bordeaux +2 Bremen +2 Brussels + Bucharest + Budapest Calgary + Copenhagen + Dublin +2 Geneva + Glasgow + Halifax + Hamburg + Helsinki + Kiev 2 London 0 Lyons + Manchester + Montreal Moscow +2 Munich + Oslo + Ottawa + aris + rague +2 Quebec Regina + Reykjavik + St. John s + Stockholm 2 Toronto + Vancouver +2 Vienna Warsaw 2 Winnipeg +2 Zurich +2
utes later. The finally peeks above the horizon at : a.m. on the morning of January th. Other Charted Information Many of the year s chief astronomical events are listed in the chart s evening and morning margins. Some are marked on the chart itself. Conjunctions (close pairings) of two planets are indicated on the chart by a symbol on the planets event lines. Here, conjunctions are considered to occur when the planets actually appear closest together in the sky (at appulse), not merely when they share the same ecliptic longitude or right ascension. Opposition of a planet, the date when it is opposite the in the sky and thus visible all night, occurs when its transit line crosses the Equation-of-time line (not the line for midnight). Opposition is marked there by a symbol. For instance, Saturn reaches opposition on the night of pril 2 2. rise and moonset can be told apart by whether the round limb the outside edge of the symbol faces right (waxing sets) or left (waning rises). Or follow the nearly horizontal row of daily symbols across the chart to find the word or. s are indicated by a larger symbol. Full is always a large bright disk whether rising or setting; the circle for new is open. and mark dates when the is at perigee and apogee (nearest and farthest from Earth, respectively). and Venus never stray far from the bands. Their dates of greatest elongation from the are shown by symbols on their rising or setting curves. sterisks mark the dates when and Venus show their greatest illuminated extent in square arcseconds. This is also when Venus, but not, is at greatest brilliancy. Meteor showers are marked by a starburst symbol at the date of peak activity and the time when the shower s radiant is highest in the night sky. This is often just as begins before dawn. Julian dates can be found from the numbers just after the month names on the chart s left. The Julian day, a sevendigit number, is a running count of days North Latitude Rising or ting Corrections Declination (North or South) 0 2 0 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 2 0 2 2 2 2 0 beginning with January, BC. Its first four digits this year are 2, as indicated just off the chart s upper left margin. To find the last three digits for evenings in January, add 2 to the date. For instance, on the evening of January th we have 2 + = 0, so the Julian day is 2,,0. For European observers this number applies all night, because the next Julian day always begins at 2:00 Universal Time (noon Greenwich Mean Time). Time Corrections ll events on this Skygazer s lmanac are plotted for an observer at 0 longitude and 0 north latitude, a reasonable compromise for the countries of northern and central Europe. However, you need not be on a boat in the English Channel to use the chart. Simple corrections will allow you to get times accurate to a couple of minutes anywhere in the world s north temperate latitudes. To convert the charted time of an event into your civil (clock) time, the following corrections must be made. They are given in decreasing order of importance: daylight-saving time (or summer time ). When this is in effect, add one hour to any time that you obtain from the chart. your longitude. The chart gives the Local Mean Time (LMT) of events, which differs from ordinary clock time by a number of minutes at most locations. Our civil time zones are standardized on particular longitudes. Examples in Europe are Greenwich Mean Time (or Universal Time), 0 ; Central European Time, E; and East European Time, 0. If your longitude is very close to one of these (as is true for London), luck is with you and this correction is zero. Otherwise, to get standard time add minutes to times obtained from the chart for each degree of longitude that you are west of your timezone meridian. Or subtract minutes for each degree you are east of it. You can look up your longitude on a map. For instance, Copenhagen (longitude 2. east) is 2. west of the Central European Time meridian. So at Copenhagen, add minutes to any time obtained from the chart. The result is Central European Standard Time. Find your local-time correction and memorize it; you will use it always. In the table below at left are the corrections from local to standard time, in minutes, for some major cities. rising and setting. Times of rising and setting need correction if your latitude differs from 0 north. This effect depends strongly on a star or planet s declination. (The changing declinations of the and planets can be found in each issue of Sky & Telescope.) If your site is north of latitude 0, then an object with a north declination stays above the horizon longer than the chart shows (it rises earlier and sets later), while one with a south declination spends less time above the horizon. t a site south of 0, the effect is just the reverse. Keeping these rules in mind, you can gauge the approximate number of minutes by which to correct a rising or setting time from the table at upper left. Finally, the s rapid orbital motion alters lunar rising and setting times slightly if your longitude differs from 0. The rises and sets about two minutes earlier than the chart shows for each time zone east of Greenwich Mean Time, and two minutes later for each time zone west of Greenwich Mean Time. Skygazer s lmanac is a supplement to Sky & Telescope. Sky & Telescope Media, LLC. ll rights reserved. For reprints (item SGE, $. each postpaid) or to order a similar chart for latitude 0 north or 0 south, contact Sky & Telescope, 0 Sherman St., Cambridge, M 00, US; phone + -- 0, fax + --. Send e-mail to custserv@ SkyandTelescope.com, or visit our online store at SkyandTelescope.com. SkyandTelescope.com
set Skygazer s 0 S lmanac FOR LTITUDES NER 0 SOUTH MY JUNE JULY s Mars s s s End of evening leiades Transit Southern Cross Transits Neptune s Venus s LMC Culminates Orion Nebula M2 Transits End of evening Jupiter s Uranus s Saturn s Canopus Transits ntares s lpha Centauri Transits Rigel s Saturn Transits Jupiter s Neptune s Uranus s Saturn s Neptune Transits leiades Transit Neptune s Uranus s Sirius s Small Magellanic Cloud Culminates Canopus Transits Saturn s Venus s s s MRCH 2 FEBRURY 2 UGUST 0 RIL SETEMBER OCTOBER Uranus Transits Mars s Large Magellanic Cloud Culminates ntares s Start of morning Orion Nebula M2 Transits 2 Orionids 2 2 fast Southern Leonids Northern 2 2 NOVEMBER Julian day 2,,000+ DECEMBER 2 JNURY 2 p.m. Midnight 2 a.m. set EVENING 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 2 2 MORNING 2 s Geminids 2 2 0 p.m. Midnight 2 a.m. SULEMENT TO SKY & TELESCOE EVENING SKY Jan 2 Earth is,0, km from the (perihelion) near p.m. EST Jan Latest of the year at latitude 0 south Jan Latest sunset slow Feb Mars is 0. above and right of 2 2 Feb attains greatest elongation, east of the Mar Fall begins at the equinox, Equation :02 p.m. EST of time pr 2 The is partially eclipsed from :2 to :2 UT, which is in the evening for frica and near dawn on 2 2 the 2th in ustralia, but just 2% of the s diameter is in the umbra at greatest eclipse pr 2 Saturn is at opposition tonight May 2 penumbral eclipse of the technically takes place, much too slight to be seen 2 2 2 May 2 Tonight and tomorrow, Jupiter is. upper left of Venus with to the right Jun Earliest end of evening Jun Earliest sunset Jun 2 stands at greatest elongation, 2 east of the Jun Shortest day, h m at latitude 0 south; winter begins at solstice, :0 p.m. EST Jul Regulus is. upper left of Venus ug 2 Neptune comes to opposition Sep 2 Spica is 0. lower left of (use binoculars) Oct Uranus is at opposition Oct is at greatest elongation, 2 east of the Nov Venus attains greatest elongation, east of the Nov total solar eclipse occurs in a path across the mid- tlantic Ocean and central frica Dec Longest day, h 0 m at latitude 0 south MORNING SKY pr is at greatest elongation, 2 west of the May n annular eclipse of the occurs in a path across northern ustralia (soon after sunrise) and the central acific Ocean, with a partial eclipse visible in Hawaii (afternoon on the th) Jul Latest sunrise Jul Latest onset of morning Jul Earth is 2,0,2 km from the (aphelion) near a.m. EST Jul Today and tomorrow, Mars is 0. to the lower left of Jupiter Jul is at greatest elongation, west of the Sep 2 Spring begins at the equinox, : a.m. EST Nov is at greatest elongation, west of the Nov 2 Saturn is 0. below Dec Earliest sunrise Dec Earliest morning Dec Summer begins at the solstice, : a.m. EST rise rise Start of morning NOVEMBER DECEMBER JNURY FEBRURY Eta quarids MRCH OCTOBER s RIL SETEMBER MY UGUST JUNE JULY Computed by Roger W. Sinnott. Sky & Telescope Media, LLC. rinted in US. SkyandTelescope.com Sky & Telescope 0 Sherman St. Cambridge, M 00 US Conjunction (appulse) Greatest elongation Greatest illuminated extent Opposition New First Full Last pogee erigee Waxing (moonset) Waning (moonrise)
Skygazer s 0 S FOR LTITUDES NER 0 SOUTH lmanac SGS What s in the sky tonight? When does the set, and when does end? Which planets are visible? What time is moonrise? Welcome to the Skygazer s lmanac a handy chart that answers these and many other questions for every night of the year. This version is plotted for skywatchers near latitude 0 south in ustralia, southern frica, and the southern cone of South merica. For any date, the chart tells the times when astronomical events occur during the night. Dates on the chart run vertically from top to bottom. Time of night runs horizontally, from sunset at left to sunrise at right. Find the date you want on the left side of the chart, and read across toward the right to find the times of events. Times are labeled along the chart s top and bottom. In exploring the chart, you ll find that its night-to-night patterns offer many insights into the rhythms of the heavens. The Events of a Single Night To learn how to use the chart, consider the events of one night. We ll pick January,. First find January and at the left edge. This is one of the dates for which a string of fine dots crosses the chart horizontally. Each horizontal dotted line represents the night from a day evening to Monday morning. The individual dots are five minutes apart. Every half hour (six dots), there is a vertical dotted line to aid in reading the hours of night at the chart s top or bottom. On the vertical lines, one dot is equal to one day. sweep of the eye shows that the line for the night of January crosses many slanting event lines. Each event line tells when something happens. The dotted line for January begins at the heavy black curve at left, which represents the time of sunset. Reading up to the top of the chart, we find that sunset on January th occurs at :0 p.m. Local Mean Time. (ll times read from the chart are Local Mean Time, which can differ from your standard clock time by many minutes. More on this later.) Moving to the right we see that the sets at :0 p.m., its symbol telling us it has been a thin crescent low in the west. t : the leiades transit the meridian, meaning the famous star cluster is then highest in the sky. Mars sets at :, so we can cross it off the observing list for later tonight. Evening ends at :, marking the time when the is below the horizon. The bright planet Jupiter transits at :, so it is well placed for telescopic viewing. But dim Neptune sets at :2. t : the Large Magellanic Cloud culminates (another way of saying it transits). Then the Orion Nebula, M2, transits at :0. The two brightest nighttime stars, Canopus and Sirius, transit at : and :, respectively. Transit times of celestial landmarks keep us aware of the march of constellations through the night sky. Running vertically down the midnight line is a scale of hours. This shows the sidereal time (the right ascension of objects on the meridian) at midnight. On January this is h m. To find the sidereal time at any other time and date on the chart, locate the point for the time and date you want, then draw a line through it parallel to the white event lines of stars. See where your line intersects the sidereal-time scale at midnight. ( star s event line enters the top of the chart at the same time of night it leaves the bottom. Sometimes one of these segments is left out to avoid crowding, but it can be drawn in.) Near the midnight line is a white curve labeled Equation of time weaving narrowly right and left down the chart. If you regard the midnight line as the previous noon for a moment, this curve shows when the crosses the meridian and is due north. On January th the runs slow, transiting at 2:0 p.m. This variation is caused mainly by the tilt of Earth s axis. s we enter the wee hours of the morning, the ringed planet Saturn rises at 2:2 a.m. Then ntares, a star we usually associate with later seasons, climbs above the southeastern horizon at :. Jupiter finally sets at :. The first hint of dawn the start of morning comes at : a.m. The brilliant planet Venus rises 2 minutes later. The finally peeks above the horizon at : a.m. on the morning of January th. Other Charted Information Many of the year s chief astronomical events are listed in the chart s left-hand margin. Some are marked on the chart itself. Local Mean Time Corrections delaide + Brisbane Canberra + Cape Town + Durban Harare sunción Buenos ires + Montevideo + Melbourne + erth + Sydney Johannesburg + ort Elizabeth + retoria + Rio de Janeiro Santiago + São aulo +
Conjunctions (close pairings) of two planets are indicated on the chart by a symbol on the planets event lines. Here, conjunctions are considered to occur when the planets actually appear closest together in the sky (at appulse), not merely when they share the same ecliptic longitude or right ascension. Opposition of a planet, the date when it is opposite the in the sky and thus visible all night, occurs when its transit line crosses the Equation-of-time line (not the line for midnight). Opposition is marked there by a symbol. For instance, Saturn reaches opposition on the night of pril 2 2. rise and moonset can be told apart by whether the round limb the outside edge of the symbol faces left (waxing sets) or right (waning rises). Or follow the nearly horizontal row of daily symbols across the chart to find the word or. s are indicated by a larger symbol. Full is always a large bright disk whether rising or setting; the circle for new is open. and mark dates when the is at perigee and apogee (nearest and farthest from Earth, respectively). and Venus never stray far from the bands. Their dates of greatest elongation from the are shown by symbols on their rising or setting curves. sterisks mark when and Venus show their greatest illuminated extent in square arcseconds. Meteor showers are marked by a starburst symbol at the date of peak activity and at the time when the shower s radiant is highest in the night sky. This is often just before morning begins. Julian dates can be found from the numbers just after the month names on the chart s left. The Julian day, a sevendigit number, is a running count of days beginning with January, BC. Its first four digits this year are 2, as indicated just off the chart s upper left margin. To find the last three digits for days in January, add 2 to the date. For instance, on January th we have 2 + = 0, so the Julian day is 2,,0. Note that the Julian day doesn t change to this value until 2:00 Universal Time (UT). In ustralia, 2:00 UT South Latitude Rising or ting Corrections Declination (North or South) 0 2 0 2 0 2 2 0 2 2 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 2 0 2 2 2 falls during the evening of the same day (at p.m. Eastern Standard Time, EST). Before that time, subtract from the Julian day number just obtained. Time Corrections ll events on this southern version of the Skygazer s lmanac are plotted for an observer at east longitude and 0 south latitude. However, you need not live near McDouall eak, South ustralia, to use the chart. Simple corrections will allow you to get times accurate to a couple of minutes anywhere in the world s south temperate latitudes. To convert the charted time of an event into your civil (clock) time, the following corrections must be made. They are given in decreasing order of importance. daylight-saving time ( summer time ). When this is in effect, be sure to add one hour to any time obtained from the chart. your longitude. The chart gives the Local Mean Time (LMT) of events, which differs from ordinary clock time by many minutes at most locations. Our civil time zones are standardized on particular longitudes. Examples in ustralia are 0 E for the eastern states (which use Eastern Standard Time, EST), and 2. E for the two central states (an odd value that puts the minute hands of their clocks 0 minutes out of joint with most of the rest of the world). If your longitude is very close to your standard time-zone meridian, luck is with you and your LMT correction is zero. Otherwise, to get standard time add minutes to times obtained from the chart for each degree of longitude that you are west of your time-zone meridian. Or subtract minutes for each degree you are east of it. You can look up your longitude on a map. For instance, Melbourne, ustralia (longitude ), is west of its time-zone meridian (0 ). So at Melbourne, add minutes to any time obtained from the chart. The result is standard time. Find your Local Mean Time correction and memorize it; you will use it always. The table at far left below has the corrections, in minutes, for some major cities. rising and setting. Times of rising and setting need correction if your latitude differs from 0 south. This effect depends strongly on a star or planet s declination. (The changing declinations of the and planets can be found in each month s Sky & Telescope, on the lanetary lmanac page.) If your site is south of latitude 0 S, then an object with a south declination stays above the horizon longer than the chart shows (it rises earlier and sets later), while one with a north declination spends less time above the horizon. t a site north of 0 S, the effect is just the reverse. Keeping these rules in mind, you can gauge the approximate number of minutes by which to correct a rising or setting time from the table above. Finally, the s rapid orbital motion alters lunar rising and setting times slightly if your longitude differs from E. The rises and sets about two minutes earlier than the chart shows for each time zone east of central ustralia, and two minutes later for each time zone west of there. Observers in southern frica can simply shift the symbol a third of the way to the one for the following date. Observers in South merica can shift it about halfway there. Skygazer s lmanac is a supplement to Sky & Telescope. Sky & Telescope Media, LLC. ll rights reserved. For reprints (item SGS, $. each postpaid) or to order a similar chart for north latitude 0 or 0, contact Sky & Telescope, 0 Sherman St., Cambridge, M 00, US; phone + --0, fax + - -. You can send e-mail to custserv@ SkyandTelescope.com or visit our online store at SkyandTelescope.com. 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