As Bakersfield College begins its spring semester, I am eager to teach astronomy to students in the planetarium.
My previous column discussed how the official dates of the seasons are determined based on the position of the sun relative to the celestial equator. I’ve also noticed that the meteorological definition of a region’s seasons can be very different from the astronomical definition. As I was tidying up the yard last weekend with temperatures hitting the 70s, I wondered if our winter had come and gone during those December weeks!
Looking for Comet ZTF
At the end of the month, we possible The comet was able to be seen as a naked-eye object as it moved across the northern sky. Comet ZTF (C/2022 E3) was first detected last March by the Zwicky Transient Facility as it traveled toward the inner Solar System.
The Zwicky Transient Facility uses the P48 telescope at Palomar Observatory in Southern California to scan the entire northern sky every two nights in search of new celestial objects such as near-Earth objects, comets, supernovae and more. Comet ZTF reached its closest approach to the sun on Thursday and will pass its closest approach to Earth on February 2 at a distance of 26 million miles.
Depending on how much activity it continues to do, there may be enough dust in its tail and coma (the cloud surrounding the nucleus) to reflect enough sunlight for us to see without binoculars. Comets are notoriously unpredictable in the amount of gas and dust they eject as they pass near the Sun.
At the end of the month, Comet ZTF will follow a path between the Big Dipper stars (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor). On January 27 and 28, it will be next to the bowl of the Big Dipper, and on January 31, it will be a fist-width from Polaris at the end of the handle of the Big Dipper (or tail of Ursa Minor). Those whose skies are dark A person may be able to see blurry objects without binoculars, but those in cities will need to use them. Although the comet will be orbiting the poles (always above the horizon) by then, it will be higher in the sky after midnight.
in the night sky
Mercury has now left our night sky, so we no longer have the whole grand parade of planets across the sky, but the rest is still good. Shortly after sunset, low in the southwest, you’ll see Venus burning in the twilight. On the left is Saturn, the faintest planet in tonight’s sky. In our sky, Venus is getting closer and closer to Saturn.
On January 22, Venus and Saturn will be close together, about an arm’s length away from each other. Afterwards, Venus will be the higher of the two.
Farther to the southwest is bright Jupiter, just behind Venus in tonight’s sky and next week’s first quarter crescent Moon. Above Jupiter is the familiar Great Square of Pegasus. Between Jupiter and Pegasus is the constellation Pisces, but city dwellers will have a hard time finding those dim stars due to our light pollution.
Shortly after sunset, bright orange-red Mars is high in the southeast, about halfway between the head of Taurus and the Pleiades star cluster on the shoulder of Taurus. For the past few months, Mars has been retrograde—backward, or west, back into the Pleiades star cluster, as Earth catches up and passes Mars on our faster orbit around the sun. Mars stops retrograde tonight and will return to the head of Taurus, reaching the first angle in mid-February.
On the night after Venus conjunct Saturn on January 23, there will be an elongated first quarter new moon to the left of Venus. Two nights later, on January 25, a fatter new moon will be next to Jupiter. The moon will enter its first quarter on the night of January 28, and at the end of the month, on January 30, the moon will do a repeat of its December Martian occultation show. This time, it will be a gradually bulging phase covering Mars.Mars won’t be as bright as December, but it’s still bright enough to see it twinkle behind the moon between 8:45pm and 9:18pm
