| Moondark for December: Anticipating 2009 | |
| Next year, 2009, is a big one for astronomy. In fact, there are a remarkable number of anniversaries to note in the next 365 days. So let’s get started early with the celestial highlights for the year. As January opens, the crescent Moon wil have just passed a spectacular conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and Mercury in the evening twilight. On the 4th the Earth is at perihelion, closest to the Sun. Full moon follows on the 11th, and New Moon falls on the 26th. Venus continues to dominate the evening twilight through the winter months. The 13th of February this year is a Friday, and Mercury and Jupiter reappear in the morning sky in the latter part of the month. New Moon is on the 25th. March brings to Delmarva the spring equinox and the Mid Atlantic Mirror Making Seminar #9, both on the 20th. Try out your brand new mirror under the dark nights leading up to the New Moon on the 26th. Enjoy Saturn and other celestial wonders at the clubs’ Star Gaze Star Party, running from the 23rd to the 26th of April. In May, Venus returns to the morning sky and will remain there for the rest of the year. Set your alarm to look for a remarkable span of five planets in the dawn sky: Mars, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter and Neptune—can you find them all with your telescope? June brings the solstice on the 21th, the New Moon the next evening, followed by Pluto at opposition the next day. Although these are the shortest deep nights of the year, they are your best chances at finding Pluto. Does it look like a planet to you? July evenings bring bugs, humidity and heat despite the fact that Earth is at aphelion, farthest from the Sun on the 3rd. New Moon occurs on the 22nd. Viewing for the Perseid meteor shower in August will be somewhat affected by a waning crescent Moon. September’s No Frills Star Party runs from the 17th to the 21st, and the equinox follows on the 22nd. In October, Mercury again becomes a morning star, the New Moon falls on the 18th and deep nights now last 10 hours or more. With New Moon on the 16th, November’s Leonids will not have to compete this year with moonlight. Nights are getting long: from the 13th - 19th of November and again from the 12th - 18th of December, we will have ten or more hours of moonless, fully dark skies, peaking at 11.4 hours around the New Moon on December 16th. December’s solstice is on the 21st, Christmas falls on a Friday this year, and the year ends with a New Year’s Eve partially-eclipsed, Full Moon. It is an off year for Mars, spending the entire year in the morning sky and not returning to opposition until 2010. Although there are six eclipses this year (four lunar, two solar), we miss seeing them all: even the shallow penumbral lunar eclipse in early August will not be visible to the unaided eye. We miss entirely what is arguably the eclipse of the decade, an extended solar eclipse visible in China and the western Pacific two weeks earlier in July. On the other hand, 2009 turns out to be unusually favorable for many meteor showers, and with the beginning of the next solar cycle, will northern lights return to our skies? What other surprises and delights will the coming year bring? So dust off your star charts and dig out your telescopes. Whatever your experience level or the sophistication of your astronomical equipment, make a list of your favorite sights and add a few new objects or observing challenges. Point your telescope skyward and join in a tradition of discovery started 400 years ago by Galileo. 2009 has a full 365 days and nights of celestial events to enjoy! Stay up with current events with Sky & Telescope's This Week's Sky at a Glance and Spaceweather sites. For more information on celestial events and sights, see Guy Ottewell’s Astronomical Calendar for 2009 as well as Francis Reddy and Greg Walz-Chojnaki’s Celestial Delights. Moondark is written by Douglas C. Miller, published at the Moondark web site, and printed in the Delmarva Star Gazers' Star Gazer News. This document was last revised on 23 November 2008. Text on this web page is free for non-commercial use with attribution under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 3.0 License. Ask Doug about other uses. |
