With temperatures more like we’re used to seeing in January, most star gazing will be brief even for the dedicated. However, because I know Saskatchewan people are hardy, and laugh in the face of winter, I would be remiss in not pointing out a few events for the week; just a couple, though, so you’ll have plenty of time in between to get that frostbite looked after.
After giving us a chance to find it by buzzing Arcturus on New Year’s Day, Comet Catalina is now rapidly working its way along the handle of the Big Dipper (currently found low in the northern sky with its handle pointed downward). On the 14th, the comet passes a degree (thumb width) to the left of the end star in the handle, and on the 17th, about three degrees to the left of the handle’s middle star.
It will continue to move northward about three degrees per day, and by January 30th will lie seven degrees to the east of the North Star. Someone with good vision might be able to spot Catalina from the country with their eyes alone, but it’s generally considered a binocular object. Catalina was formed in our solar system roughly the same time as the Earth, and is now leaving. While not spectacular, it’s nice that it paid us a brief visit before beginning its billion year journey to nowhere in particular.
Unless you occasionally pop out to see how Catalina’s doing, you’re good indoors until the night of the 19th. On this Tuesday, the Moon will occult (eclipse) the bright star Aldebaran, an orange giant 44 times the Earth’s diameter, lying 65 light years away in the constellation Taurus.
At about 7:45 p.m., the Moon’s dark left limb will slide over Aldebaran and the star will wink out, emerging again out the other side of the Moon just before 9 p.m. That’s it. Not Earth-shattering, but less common than you’d think. Unfortunately, because the Moon is only four days short of full, it will wash out most of the southern sky, making it difficult, without binoculars or a telescope, to see Aldebaran near the Moon.
The two events above are not spectacular in themselves, and would normally have passed without notice. Most star stuff does, because the universe is a very busy place, I have less than five hundred words a week, and you have a life. However, be it the bright constellations of winter in the evening sky or the planet tricks currently playing out before sunrise, the universe is always doing something, and I just feel compelled to point it out.
When the feeling returns to your finger tips, you’ll thank me.
