Minnesota Starwatch

University of Minnesota

Department of Astronomy

Minnesota Starwatch for January 2005
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Starwatch Newsletter

Minnesota Starwatch is a newsletter describing the night sky in the Midwest.

It is updated monthly, and is produced by the
Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota
116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Minnesota Starwatch for January 2005

As we bring in the new year, Earth is at its closest approach to the Sun,, only 91 million miles. Our cold winter in the Northern hemisphere is because we are tilted away from the Sun this time of year, even though we're somewhat closer than average. The Sun was lowest in the sky at the winter solstice last month, so days are getting longer, and things are looking up!

New Moon is on January 10th, with the full Moon on the 23rd. On the 24th, look about the width of one fist held at arm's length below the Moon to spot ringed Saturn. A small telescope will let you see this celestial wonder. Saturn is visible all month in the early evening, starting in the East and heading high above the southern horizon later in the night. Jupiter rises around midnight and can be seen through pre-dawn. A good pair of binoculars or a small telescope provide the treat of seeing its four large Galilean moons.

Comet Machholz is visible in January, passing the Pleiades on January 7th, and the double star cluster in Perseus on the 27th. You need either binoculars or a small telescope and a sky map to view the comet, but its beautiful dust and gas tails will reward your effort.

For the past six months, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn, returning stunning pictures of its complex ring systems. But Cassini also held its own little robot, the Huygens Probe, built by the European Space Agency and launched from Cassini on December 24th. The probe is named for Christiaan Huygens, the discoverer of Titan in 1655. For three weeks, Huygens is slowly making its way to Saturn's moon Titan, the only one with a substantial atmosphere. On the morning of January 14th, it will wake up and turn on its instruments as it enters Titan's atmosphere, and radio back information about the temperature, wind speeds and pressures as it heads to the surface. It will also photograph Titan's surface - our very first closeup look, before a mild crash landing and eventual permanent sleep as its batteries fade.

Titan's surface may be dotted by lakes of liquid ethane and methane, and Huygens would do fine in a splashdown. At temperatures around 300 degrees below zero, some scientists expect rains of these liquids onto the surface, something quite impossible on Earth, but we will only know for sure when Huygens lands. Titan's atmosphere has a dense organic smog, much like we believe existed on the early Earth. So although conditions are much colder on this giant, distant moon, the secrets it yields will give us a better understanding of the history of our own very special planet.

For fun Astronomy Outreach programs check out our Public Outreach link, or if you're interested in how you can help build the new Minnesota Planetarium, please call 612-630-6151 or visit http://www.mplanetarium.org. Como Planetarium is offering fun family shows about astronomy on a limited basis; please call 651-293-5398 for more info! This has been a Minnesota Starwatch produced by the University of Minnesota Astronomy Department.