Sky Report
The Griffith Observatory Sky Report
Anthony Cook
Astronomical Observer
This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the week ending Wednesday, January 7. Here is what’s happening in the skies of Southern California:
This is the last full week to see three bright planets during evening twilight. The best time to see all of them is 30 minutes after sunset–at 5:22 p.m. Venus is the most brilliant planet, about 30 degrees high in the southwest. Jupiter and fainter Mercury are close together and approximately 10 degrees above the southwest horizon, below and to the right of Venus. On New Year’s eve, Jupiter and Mercury appear side by side, separated by a little more than one degree. At the same time Venus–28 degrees away, is only 4 degrees below the waxing crescent moon. On following nights, the moon will leave the scene, and Jupiter will slowly separate from Mercury, appearing closer to the horizon each following night. Jupiter sets by 6:00 p.m., preceding Venus by 2½ hours.
Saturn, in Leo the Lion, rises in the east at about 10:00 p.m. and is best placed for telescopic observation at 4:30 a.m. when it is 62 degrees high in the south. This is your last chance before the year 2025 to clearly see the rings tilted less than one degree from edge-on.
The moon reaches first quarter phase on Sunday, January 4, and appears in waxing gibbous phase for the remainder of this period.
A leap-second will be added to the last minute of 2008, Universal Time. In the Pacific Time Zone, this happens during the transition from 3:59 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., P.S.T. The 61-second long minute can be heard by counting the second-interval ticks that are broadcast by the National Berueau of Standards and Technology on short-wave radio frequencies of 5, 10, and 15 megahertz.
The Earth is at perihelion (closest to the sun) on January 4 at 7:30 a.m., P.S.T. At that time the center of our planet will be 91,400,938 miles from the center of the sun, some 3,104,112 miles farther than we shall be from it at aphelion (farthest from the sun) on July 3.
The Quadrantid meteor shower is expected to peak in a sky free of moonlight during the early morning hours of January 3. Before dawn, the shower’s radiant is located 56˚ high in the northeast, in the northernmost reaches of Bootes the Herdsman, between Hercules and the handle of the Big Dipper. The Quadrantids can produce between 45 to 100 meteors per hour in dark, rural sites.
The International Space Station makes one visible pass above Los Angeles this week. On Tuesday morning, January 6, watch for five minutes starting at 6:04 a.m. as the ISS crosses the sky from northwest to southeast, reaching the apex of its path 67 degrees above the northeast horizon at 6:06 a.m.
Free public viewing of the sun during the day and of the moon, planets, and other celestial objects at night, is available through Griffith Observatory’s telescopes until 9:45 p.m., every night–weather permitting–except Mondays, when the Observatory is closed. A public star party held by the Los Angeles Astronomical Society and the Los Angeles Sidewalk Astronomers, will be held on the Observatory’s front lawn on Saturday, January 3. For Observatory information, please visit our website, www.griffithobservatory.org, or call (213) 473-0800.
The Sky Report is updated every Wednesday. It can be heard as a recorded phone message by calling (213) 473-0880. From Griffith Observatory, I’m Tony Cook, and I can be reached at tcook@earthlink.net.
