[Chaos-l] Alice's what's up for January, 2010

[Ned Light]

Hi Folks,

Alice did a great job with her what's up last night, with some real
interesting finds.  She was kind enough to lend me her notes and here they
are.  I added a few things like the links and a couple target.  I cannot
promise I will do this every month.  If people are interested, would you
prefer an included file such as a .pdf to this longish email?

Ned

*
*

*What’s up* for Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010     Next meeting Feb. 9th



Sunset tonight – 5:21 PM                                   Moonrise – 6:18
AM

Sunrise tomorrow – 7:26 AM                             Moonset – 4:02 PM

Length of twilight – 1 hr, 26 minutes

New Moon – Jan. 15th

First quarter – Jan. 23rd

Full Moon Jan. 30th, will be the largest of 2010

Last quarter – Feb. 15th


Planetary round up



Mercury – coming into the morning sky 1/13/10, 30 minutes before sunrise,
mag. 0.8, greatest elongation on January 27, the mag. will be –0.2.



Venus – behind the sun, will appear in the evening sky February 10.



Mars – rising at 7:02 PM, moving from Leo into Cancer, mag. –1.1.  Opposition
is on January 29 with a mag of –1.3 and diameter of 14”.  It will continue
to be more than 10” until the end of March. Best when viewed high in the
sky, which is around midnight now.



Jupiter – low in the SW in the evening, setting at 8:20 PM, mag. –2.1,
crossed into Aquarius



Saturn - rises at 11:07 PM in Virgo, mag. 0.8, getting brighter as it
approaches opposition in March. Rings are now tilted 5 degrees and we are
now seeing the Northern side.



Uranus – to the upper left of Jupiter,  mag. 5.9  moving from Aquarius into
Pices



Neptune – 2 degrees to the lower right of Jupiter, mag. 8.0, disappearing
into the twilight


Things to see



The wonderful winter constellations are now great for viewing – Orion, Canis
Major, Lepus, Gemini, Cassiopeia and Perseus



M31, Andromeda galaxy still nice

M33, Pinwheel galaxy, possibly easier to see in binoculars because of low
surface brightness

NGC 869 and 884, Double cluster in Perseus



Epsilon Aurigae, Mystery Star, normally mag. 3.0, every 27 years goes into a
2 year eclipse when it falls down to mag. 3.8.  We are in the eclipse
period, and there is noticeable dimming.  Mid-eclipse should be August 2010.
For more information, check out http://www.citizensky.org/ and
http://www.aavso.org/vstar/vsots/eps_aur.shtml

Sky and Telescope has an online article about it and possible causes.  It
can be found at



http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/80730537.html



The citizen sky link also has a project teaching you how to observe this
variable and contribute to the data.



*Within Eridanus, the River*, a large constellation SW of Orion, we can see
only the Northern part.



NGC 1531 and 1532 , a pair of interacting galaxies. Mag. 12.7  and 10.6
respectively  Possibly an interesting astro photo target, though it is very
low in our southern sky.  A larger telescope (8” or greater) is probably
needed to see both galaxies.



NGC 1535, bright planetary nebula, mag. 9, size 42” with a mag. 11 central
star, SW (more west) of Rigel in Orion, it is East of Gamma Eridani
(Zaurak).



Omicron 2 Eridani (40 Eridani) triple star system a wide double, but the
fainter one is actually a close pair of a red and white dwarf.  About 16
light years away, it is the easiest white dwarf to see from Earth, and the
only one that shows up in a smaller telescope.



A star, mag. 4.4

B mag. 9.5 (white dwarf)

C mag. 11.2 (red dwarf)



Separation AB – 83.4”; BC 7.6”
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