Sky This Week 16-22 Jan 2013

Sky this week

January 2013

Third Week 16-22 jan

January 18 Europa transit on Jupiter followed by shadow transit

January 19 Last Quarter Moon at 05:15 IST

January 19 Iridium Flare from Delhi

January 19 Io transit on Jupiter

Constellation of the week

This week we will be seeing Taurus (the Bull or the Vrishabha in hindi) crossing the meridian just half an hour after 8:00 pm. Its a V shaped constellation to the folks living in big cities but it stands out in the dark skies with lot more stars.

Taurus is one of the constellations of the zodiac, which means it is crossed by the plane of the ecliptic. Its name is a Latin word meaning "bull",. Taurus is a large and prominent constellation in the northern hemisphere's winter sky. It is one of the oldest constellations, dating back to at least the Early Bronze Age when it marked the location of the Sun during the spring equinox. Taurus came to symbolize the bull in the mythologies of India, Ancient Babylon, Egypt and Greece.

There are a number of features of interest to astronomers. Taurus hosts two of the nearest open clusters to Earth, the Pleiades and the Hyades, both of which are visible to the naked eye. At first magnitude, the red giant Aldebaran is the brightest star in the constellation. In the northwest part of Taurus is the supernova remnant Messier 1, more commonly known as the Crab Nebula. One of the closest regions of active star location, the Taurus-Auriga complex, crosses into the northern part of the constellation. The variable star T Tauri is the prototype of a class of pre-main-sequence stars.

Deep Sky Object of the week

Pleiades cluster (M45)

At 8:00 pm look just above your head, if the skies are clear and no haze is there, you should see a group of stars clustered together. You may be able to see 4-6 stars in a clump depending on how good your eyesight is!! Well this is not a constellation but what we call an open cluster of stars, or a nakshatra called Krittika in hindu astronomy.

In Hindu mythology, the god Murugan(Skanda/Subrahmanya/Kartikeya) was raised by the six sisters known as the Krittikā and thus came to be known as Kārtikeya. According to the Mahābhārata, Murugan was born to Agni and Svāhā, after the latter impersonated six of the seven wives of the Saptarishi and made love to him. The Saptarshi, hearing of this incident and doubting their wives' chastity, divorced them. These wives then became the Krittikā.(Takne from Wikipedia)

For astronomers, pliades or krittika offers so much to study. In astronomy, the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters (Messier object 45 or M45), is an open star cluster containing middle-aged stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. The name Pleiades comes from Greek mythology.

Its a treat to watch pleiades through any of the optical instruments. Binoculars do justice to the size of the cluster showing all the stars packed tightly, with a telescope you will have to move it a bit to see the whole extent of the cluster.

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Sunrise/Sunset Moonrise/Moonset data for delhi

Date              Sunrise Sunset

16 Jan 2013      07:15 17:47

17 Jan 2013      07:15 17:48

18 Jan 2013      07:15 17:49

19 Jan 2013      07:14 17:50

20 Jan 2013      07:14 17:50

21 Jan 2013      07:14 17:51

22 Jan 2013      07:14 17:52

Date              Moonrise Moonset

16 Jan 2013      10:05 22:40

17 Jan 2013      10:41 23:36

18 Jan 2013      11:16 -          

19 Jan 2013      11:53 00:30

20 Jan 2013      12:32 01:24

21 Jan 2013      13:13 02:17

22 Jan 2013      13:57 03:08

For more details log on to SPACE’s Astronomy Calender at http://space-india.org/space_calendar.html

Check out the transits and shadow transit of Jovian Moons listed in the daily updates above with your telescopes. Need any help? we are here to help you out!