Starwatch Newsletter Minnesota Starwatch is a tape-recorded message describing the night sky in the Midwest, which can be called by telelphone number (612) 624-2001 It is updated montly, and is produced by the Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

The month begins with a nearly full moon, a new moon on the 13th, and a full moon on the 28th.

Planets to watch early in the evening are Neptune and Mercury. On the 9th of January in the eastern horizon, one can observe the planet Neptune about 1.3 degrees (about 3 thumb widths at arm's length) northwest from the planet Mercury after sunset. Mercury, the closet planet to the Sun, will reach greatest elongation, 19 degrees east (about two fist widths at arm's length) of the Sun on the 11th. Other planets visible in the January sky include Saturn, which will transit the meridian at about 9pm on the 13th, Jupiter, and Mars low in the southwest with its distinct reddish hue. Both Jupiter and Saturn will be visible throughout most of the evening and the cold, crisp Minnesota nights should provide excellent opportunities to view cloud structure in the atmospheres of these large gaseous worlds, as well as their moons.

Two other interesting phenomena occur early in January. On January 2nd, the Earth is closest (perihelion) to the Sun in its yearly orbit being approximately 91,400,000 miles distant at 8pm CST. For those of you that enjoy staying warm and cozy, the latest sunrise of the year for latitudes of 40 degrees north will occur on January 4th.

January also is the month to observe the constellation of Orion the hunter in the southeast after dark. This constellation is comprised of four bright stars that form a prominent rectangle, delineating Orion's shoulders, and knees, with three stars in the middle of the rectangle, making up Orion's belt. Dangling down (toward the south) from the middle star in the belt, is Orion's sword. The sword contains a fuzzy object, which when viewed through low power binoculars or field glasses reveals the Orion nebula -- a swirling stellar nursery of young stars about 1500 light years from Earth. The brightest star in the northeastern shoulder of Orion is Betelguese (from the arabic "armpit of the giant"), a candidate for a supernova explosion in the not too distant future.

Friday night telescope viewing begins at 8pm. Please call 626-0034 for more information.

The Minneapolis Planetarium offers a wide variety of programs for all ages. For more information, call (612) 630-6150.

For those interested in the Minnesota Astronomical Society, call (651) 649-4861 for information on their upcoming events.

Minnesota Starwatch is available online at http://www.astro.umn.edu/Outreach/pub_out.html.

This has been Minnesota Starwatch, produced by the University of Minnesota Astronomy Department in cooperation with WCCO Weather Center.

Last Updated: Fri Jan 25 12:16:27 2002