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 icy, clear winter evenings are ideal for star-gazing.

Depending on how enthusiastically you celebrated the night before, you may just find that the early morning of New Year's Day makes an exceptionally fine time to start your observations of the year 2003. Try getting up an hour before daylight. You'll find a lovely pairing of Venus and Mars, mounting into the sky together in the southeast corner of the sky.

Venus and Mars will continue to dominate the sky throughout the month, rising four hours before the sun on the morning of New Year's Day. Mercury will also be a feature of the early morning sky in the last two weeks of the month. Look for it in the southeast about 45 minutes before sunrise.

In the evening sky, Jupiter and Saturn are the stars to watch. You'll find Jupiter in the Eastern sky rising about a half hour after dusk at the beginning of the month. By late evening, you can enjoy superb telescopic views of Jupiter and its moons. Notice how Saturn is found near Zeta Tauri, the star that marks the tip of one of the horns in the constellation Taurus.

Visitors to the Winter Carnival this year won't have to depend on the fireworks down on earth for all the show. The skies will be co-operating with a fine display of the planets Mars, Venus and Mercury. Look for them in a rough diagonal rising from the South-Southeast horizon. The waning Moon will be present to point the way to them.

When you observe Jupiter this month, you might keep in mind a distinguished observer of 393 years ago. It was in January of 1610 that Galileo trained his new invention, the telescope, on the night sky. The Italian astronomer noticed that there were faint dots near the bright orb of Jupiter, and that the dots seemed to change in number and position on successive evenings.

After considering the evidence carefully, Galileo realized that what he was seeing were moons in orbit around the planet Jupiter. Not only that, but the moons provided strong evidence of the heliocentric model of the solar system---the Copernican notion that the sun—not the Earth—was the fixed center of the heavens. Galileo wrote up his findings in a work called The Starry Messenger—which soon became "must" reading for all the scientists of Europe.

Galileo's new understanding brought him trouble as well as enlightenment, as he clashed with the orthodox beliefs of his day. We, on the other hand, can enjoy our telescopic view of Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, serene in the knowledge that we are gazing at the self-same moons of Jupiter which inspired Galileo to such profound understanding of the nature of the heavens.

Friday night telescope viewing will not be held during winter break but will resume January 24th at 8:00 p.m. Please call 612/626-0034 for more information.

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

Minnesota Starwatch is available on-line at http://www.astro.umn.edu/Outreach/pub_out.html For fun Astronomy Outreach programs or how you can help build the new Minnesota Planetarium, please call 612.630.6151 or visit http://www.mplanetarium.org.

Also, shows are now playing publicly at the Como Planetarium on a limited basis, please call 651-293-5398 for more info! This has been Minnesota Starwatch, produced by the University of Minnesota Astronomy Department in cooperation with WCCO Weather Center.

Last Updated: Wed Jan 1 10:20:29 2003