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Home , Caelum, Double Cluster, Kappa Geminorum, NGC 1023, NGC 1232

OBSERVER’S REPORT FOR JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

Neptune remains in very low in the southwestern sky. It will soon be lost in the glow of twilight as it sinks down to the horizon. On January 29 th the two -day -old crescent Moon lies about 6

Ǥͷι•‘—–Š‘ˆ ‡’–—‡ǤŠ‡‡š–†ƒ›‹–‹•‘ —Ž–‡†„›–Š‡‘‘†—”‹‰†ƒ›Ž‹‰Š– ƒ••‡‡ˆ”‘’ƒ”–•‘ˆ †‹ƒǡ ‡–”ƒŽˆ”‹ ƒǡƒ†ƒ—†‹”ƒ„‹ƒǤ  ’ƒ”–•‘ˆ™‡•–‡”Š‹ƒ–Š‡‘ —Ž–ƒ–‹‘™‹ŽŽ‘ —”†—”‹‰–™‹Ž‹‰Š–Ǥ Š‡‡š–‘ —Ž–ƒ–‹‘‘ˆ‡’–—‡ƒ••‡‡ˆ”‘Š‡”‡™‹ŽŽ„‡‹‡’ǦVenus is moving east in Aquarius and enters into–‡„‡”‘ˆʹͲʹͶǤ ‘—”Š‘—”•„‡ˆ‘”‡–Š‡‘ —Ž–ƒ–‹‘–Š‡”‡ƒ›„‡ on January 23 rd near the circlet . It moves to withinƒ 5.4’ƒ”–‹ƒŽŽ—ƒ”‡ Ž‹’•‡Ǥ of Mars on February 1 st , then its motion slows, and Mars pulls away from Venus. It reaches it highest point above the horizon on Februaryι 3 rd when it will 40 up at sunset. Between mid -January and mid -February Venus' disk grows from 27" to 40" across while its phase goes from 46% to 27%.ι On February 17 th Venus shows its NOTE: greatest illuminated extent shining at magnitude -4.8 and dominates the southwestern sky. It is bright enough to be seen during daylight if ALL TIMES GIVEN conditions are right. Mars is in Pisces moving east towards Uranus IN THE which it passes in late February. Mars shines at magnitude 1.1 on Feb- st OBSERVER’S ruary 1 and shows a disk only 5" across. Uranus is the third planet in Pisces this month and is located halfway between and a little north REPORT ARE CST of a line connecting 4.3 magnitude Epsilon and 4.8 magnitude Mu Pis- USING A 24 -HOUR cium. Uranus shines at magnitude 5.9 and shows a disk 3.5" across, CLOCK. just a bit less than Mars. Jupiter is moving east in and on Janu- ary 20 th is almost 4 due north of Spica. It now rises before midnight shining at magnitude -2.0 and shows a disk 38" across. On February 6th Jupiter is stationaryι in then begins moving west. All four Galilean moons are east of the planet on 1 -25,2-8 and 2-14. Some times when the Great Red Spot is centered on Jupiter include: 1 - 22 at 4:00 with Io's shadow transiting north of the GRS; 1 -29 at 4:50 with an Io shadow transit just starting; 2 -1 at 2:20 followed later by a Europa shadow transit beginning at 5:20. A Ganymede shadow transit begins at 1:00 on February 2 nd . On February 16 th Callisto is positioned due north of the planet. Saturn is in extreme southern , low in the southeastern sky. In mid -January it rises about 5:00 and shines at magnitude +0.5. By mid -February it rises almost two hours earlier. The best views will be around the start of twilight when it is highest. On January 20 th Saturn forms an isosceles triangle with Xi and 44 Ophiuchi. On January 24 th look for the waning crescent Moon 3 to the upper left of Saturn. Titan, Saturn's largest moon, will be south of the planet on 1 -23 and 2-8. It will be north of the planet on 1 -31.ι On January 30 th the moons Titan, Rhea, and Dione are in a line to the west of the planet. Don't be confused by the bright "moon" to the east of the planet that morning which is really the 6.5 magnitude 52 Ophiu- chi. The next morning the star is to the west of the planet. Pluto has

(Continued on page 7)

6 OBSERVER’S REPORT (CONTINUED FROM PAGE J)

moved into the morning sky but is lost in the glow of twilight. On the morning of January 29 th Mercury passes just over one degree to the south of Pluto. Mercury is in Sagittarius, low in the southeastern sky, rising about 90 minutes before the in mid -January and shines at magnitude -0.2. It is 10 above the horizon 30 minutes before sunrise. The time between Mercury rising and sunrise becomes less each day as Mercury moves closerι to the horizon.. By February 1 st it is only 5 above the horizon 30 minutes before sunrise. On February 6 th it is 5 up 15 minutes before sunrise and is located less than 1 to the west ι northwest of M75, although the globular cluster will not be visible inι the bright twilight. The Moon phases are: new 1 -27at ι18:07; FQ 2 -3 at 22:19; Full 2 -10 at 18:33; LQ 2 -18 13:33. The full Moon under- DID YOU KNOW? goes a deep penumbral eclipse that begins before the Moon rises C!"#$%&!' D!* +!' here. Mid -eclipse occurs a little before the end of twilight so the best time to look will be after the end of twilight. The shading will appear !" !",-%"/ C01-'3 deepest toward the northern limb. On January 31 st the four -day -old /-!" /1!#-/-5" Moon along with Mars and Venus all fit within a 6 circle. On Febru- +0%" ,$%16* +58$# ary 5 th the waxing gibbous Moon occults Aldebaran at night as seen 9$%'' !"# #-'/1-93 from northern Africa and southern Europe. About 10ι hours later the 8/% ,!"#$%' "%%#%# Moon occults a 5.5 magnitude star in from 1:16 until 1:57 ;51 +-"/%1. I/ February 6 th as viewed from here. February 11 th the almost -full Moon %<5$<%# 5<%1 /0% occults Regulus in a dark sky for viewers in Australia and New Zea- *%!1' !"# -" =>>7 -" land. For us the Moon gets within 2 of Regulus before it sets. As of th A&%1-,! 9%,!&% January 6 comet 45P/Honda -Mrkos -Pajdusakova is reported to be G158"#056 D!*. I/ at magnitude 6.3. It is in the eveningι sky very low in the southwest -' 5"% 5; ;581 passing through and is probably lost in the glow of sun- set. Better views will be had by the first weekend of February when ,15'' -@8!1/%1 #!*' the comet will be about 13 above the eastern horizon just before the #81-"6 /0% *%!1. start of morning twilight. It will then be in about 7 to the right of Altair. By mid -Februaryι it will pass closest to Earth and will have moved all the way into Boötes and rise around 21:00.ι February 2 nd is Groundhog Day and marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Asteroid 4 Vesta is mov- ing west northwest through . On February 3 rd it is 3 south of and 0.5 north of Kappa Geminorum. Vesta shines at magni- tude 6.6 and should be visible in a pair of binoculars. ι ι

7 January/February 2017

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

15 (January) 16 17 18 19 20 21 Martin Luther Last Quarter Moon No meeting in Moon - apogee King, Jr. Day January Moon 3° north of Jupiter Register for Texas Star Party by to- day

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Moon 4° north of Moon 4° north of New Moon Saturn Mercury

29 30 31 1 (February) 2 3 4 Moon 0.2° north Moon 4° south of Groundhog Day No public viewing of Neptune Venus and 2° south of Mars Moon 3° south of First Quarter Moon Uranusanus

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Moon - perigee Full Moon Jupiter appears Deadline for the stationary February newslet- ter

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Valentine’s Day Moon 3° north of SIAC meeting 7 pm Venus at greatest Last Quarter Moon Jupiter at Burlington Pub- illumination lic Library Moon - apogee

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 President’s Day

Moon 4° north of Saturn

8 Slaughter-Burnham (56P) Elnath M35

Leto Hertha PANSTARRSTriangulum (C/2016 T3) M36 M37 Brucia M38 M33 ( , ) Ambrosia Kalliope Lemmon-Yeung-PANSTARRS (C/2015 VL62) M34 Dynamene Mirach Capella Catalina (C/2013 US10) Mirfak Menkalinan PANSTARRS (C/2015 V1) Aegle

M31 () Andromeda Double Cluster h Persei Boattini (C/2010 U3) Egeria NGC 663 Owl Cluster Catalina (P/2011 CR42) M103 Cassiopeia NGC 7789 NGC 2403

M52 (The Scorpion)

Lacerta NEOWISE (C/2014 N3)

Cepheus Polaris PANSTARRS (C/2015 V3)

M39 SONEAR (C/2014 A4) Dubhe NGC 6946 NGC 6939

Deneb UrsaKochab Minor SL-16 R/B Lemmon (C/2012 K8)

Catalina (C/2013 V4) Alioth PANSTARRS (C/2014 R3) ARIANE 40 R/B NGC 6819 IRIDIUM 84 [+] LINEAR (C/2016 K1)

IRIDIUM 5 [+] Alkaid PANSTARRS (C/2016 M1) M51 () Catalina (C/2016 KA) Vega IRIDIUM 920 [-] IDEFIX & ARIANE 42P R/B COSMOSLyra 1844 M92 PANSTARRS (C/2014 OE4) Johnson (C/2015 V2) SL-16 R/B LINEAR (C/2015 Y1) SL-16 R/B IRIDIUM 15 [+] PANSTARRS (C/2016 N6)ENVISAT H-2A R/B Makemake M13 ( Cluster) M3 IRIDIUM 70 [+] SL-3 R/B Hercules IRIDIUM 31 [+] CZ-2C R/B SL-16 R/B Corona BorealisCOSMOS 1626 SL-14 R/B BootesCOSMO-SKYMED 1 Viewing from Burlington, IA; Long:-91°08'07", Lat:SL-14 40°48'52" R/B January 20, 2017 8:00:00 PM (Local) Looking: North (40° above horizon) Mirfak Catalina (C/2013 US10) Capella PANSTARRS (C/2015 V1) M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)Andr Perseus M34 NGC 891 Auriga Ambrosia GPS BIIF-10 (PRN 08) Aegle NGC 1023

Kalliope M38 M36 M37 Dynamene Leto M33 (Triangulum Galaxy, Pinwheel Galaxy) CXO Brucia Triangulum NGC 1514 PANSTARRS (P/2013 J4) Elnath PANSTARRS (C/2016 T3) Lutetia PANSTARRS (C/2015Gemini X5) M35 Lemmon (C/2016 X1) M45 (, Seven Sisters) Gibbs (P/2011 S1) Amalthea PANSTARRS (C/2013 P4) Catalina (P/1999 AriesXN120) NGC 772 McNaught (C/2009 F4) AldebaranTaurus Lemmon-Yeung-PANSTARRS (C/2015 VL62) McNaught (P/2005 L1)Eugenia Echo NGC 2194 Eurynome Pisces Kopff (22P) Betelgeuse Uranus Bellatrix Reinmuth (30P) Ceres Melpomene Parthenope M78 Nemausa Alnilam NGC 936 Alnitak Eris Spacewatch (C/2011 KP36) M43 (de Mairan’s ) M42 (Orion Nebula) GALAXY 19 MonocerosECHOSTAR 18 Undina Rigel Kowalski (C/2012 Q1) M50 NGC 1535 NGC 246 PANSTARRS (C/2017 A1) Sirius NGC 1232 M41 (Little Beehive) M79 Tenagra (C/2013 CanisG9) Major SL-16 R/B PANSTARRS (C/2016 R2) IRIDIUM 10 [+] Adhara LINEAR (C/2012 X1) DELTA 2 R/B(1) PANSTARRS (C/2012 A1) COSMOS 1455 IRIDIUMPuppis 73 [-] FLOCK 2E-8 NODES 1 Elenin (C/2017 A3) Horologium BEVO 2 IRIDIUM 77 [+] Canopus FLOCK 2E'-8 FLOCK 2E'-20 ERBS Suhail al Muhlif IRIDIUM 54 [+] FLOCK 2E'-7 SL-16 R/B PANSTARRS (P/2016 S1)

Viewing from Burlington, IA; Long:-91°08'07", Lat: 40°48'52" January 20, 2017 8:00:00 PM (Local) Looking: South (40° above horizon)