This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Friday, January 9, through Sunday, January 11, written by Alan French. This is a great weekend for sky watchers. We have a nice comet, easily visible in binoculars, and Venus and Mercury will be unusually close together in theevening twilight sky. Brilliant Venus will be a superb landmark for finding the elusive innermost planet. We’ll start with Venus and Mercury since you’ll need to look just after sunset. The sky is dark enough to easily spot Venus by 5:00 pm. Look for Venus, the evening star, just a little west of southwest. At 5:00 pm on Friday Venus will be ten degrees above the horizon and fainter Mercury will be less than one degree to the lower right of Venus. (A fist held at arm’s length spans 10 degrees across the knuckles. A pinkie held at arm’s length spans one degree.) Binoculars will improve your chances of spotting Mercury, especially if there are thin clouds or haze near the horizon. With clear skies you should be able to spot Mercury by eye, especially if you wait until the skies are bit darker – say around 5:15 pm. Buy don’t wait too long, Mercury sets at 6:04 pm and is likely to vanish behind distant trees or buildings well before then. At 5:00 pm Saturday Venus will be a bit higher and Mercury just over one-half a degree away, still to the right and below Venus. This is the night they’ll be closest together. They’ll be slightly higher and a tad farther apart on Sunday, with Mercury to the right and just a little below Venus. Comet Lovejoy has been easily spotted through binoculars even with a bright Moon in the sky and has been seen by eye before moonrise. This weekend the comet will be in Taurus, the Bull, and due south and highest at convenient times. On Friday look for Lovejoy at 8:40 pm when it will be due south. It will be about as far above the horizon as the top of Orion, which you’ll find to its left. The comet will form a large, rough rectangle with Rigel, Betelgeuse, and Aldebaran. On Saturday the comet will be a bit higher and due south at 8:30 pm, and by Sunday it will be due south at 8:20 pm. If you live where the skies are dark, simply look for a large fuzzy glow a bit more than half way to the zenith. Be sure to give your eyes some time, perhaps fifteen minutes, to adapt to darkness if you want a better chance to spot the comet by eye. (With the bitter cold, turn off the lights inside and allow your eyes to adapt to darkness before going outside.) If you are unable to spot it by eye, try finding it with binoculars. Once you’ve found exactly where it is, try by eye again. Even if you can see it by eye, a binocular view will provide a better view, and may reveal part of its tail. If you’re not having any luck spotting Comet Lovejoy, an Internet search will quickly turn up more information and sky charts showing its location.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 00:21:04 +0000
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