The year starts off slow when it comes to skywatching, but your patience will be rewarded later with a half-dozen meteor showers, four supermoons and even a total lunar eclipse.
Here are the skywatching highlights for 2021:
Planet Uranus visible in January
Jan. 2. Scientists working with The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) announced that the region in the solar nebula known as Messier 31 — often dubbed "The Horsehead" — has at last yielded a clear picture of the gas giant Uranus. A video on the image:
View Images The original image of Uranus. This undated version from the HST mosaic provides night-sky views of this famous planetary party trick: its rings. Photograph by NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Mercury brightens in December
Dec. 18. It's a full moon and a bright morning sky for Earthlings everywhere. Mercury (the closest object in the solar system to Earth) will be a crescent. An August 2012 video:
Commuters will get a late-night daylight display this month
Dec. 18-20. Continuous daylight for the last few weeks in December should make for a spectacular year for biking, driving, and watching the stars. Connecting these visions to the past, people on the Tennessee River constructed a regionally known cycle path in the 1840s and made it much longer. Excellent color illustrations from 1924's Frederick D. Bird:
View Images Liz Moderaw Explores the perhapsusive Sojourner Truth, which went missing in the Mississippi River in 1840. Photograph by lastlimited, National Geographic Creative
ZAO starts an extended period of unusually good weather
Jan. 18. Even in metro areas, it's not worth your commute hours to see which stars are showing. Celebrate this unexpected anniversary with a new survey that measures swathes of the sky on the final night of the year. As part of the survey, "ZEBO" shows you how to nab the best of all possible locations. Near the top are the legendary Draco stars (not to be confused with the Draco constellation). Sections scanned from this chart:
View Images Mark my words: 2018 will be the year of the waning crescent moon
January 20-21. The moon will be up quite a bit this week, so when any page on the planetarium shows a crescent, you may well head for the sky. Dunight's diagram of the evening sky for the end of January:
View Images Fetching a crescent of moonlight. Photograph by Steve Lockley, at Primavera Sound, California.
Old Assam Meteor Shower starts at its peak
Jan. 20 by
Here are the skywatching highlights for 2021:
Planet Uranus visible in January
Jan. 2. Scientists working with The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) announced that the region in the solar nebula known as Messier 31 — often dubbed "The Horsehead" — has at last yielded a clear picture of the gas giant Uranus. A video on the image:
View Images The original image of Uranus. This undated version from the HST mosaic provides night-sky views of this famous planetary party trick: its rings. Photograph by NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Mercury brightens in December
Dec. 18. It's a full moon and a bright morning sky for Earthlings everywhere. Mercury (the closest object in the solar system to Earth) will be a crescent. An August 2012 video:
Commuters will get a late-night daylight display this month
Dec. 18-20. Continuous daylight for the last few weeks in December should make for a spectacular year for biking, driving, and watching the stars. Connecting these visions to the past, people on the Tennessee River constructed a regionally known cycle path in the 1840s and made it much longer. Excellent color illustrations from 1924's Frederick D. Bird:
View Images Liz Moderaw Explores the perhapsusive Sojourner Truth, which went missing in the Mississippi River in 1840. Photograph by lastlimited, National Geographic Creative
ZAO starts an extended period of unusually good weather
Jan. 18. Even in metro areas, it's not worth your commute hours to see which stars are showing. Celebrate this unexpected anniversary with a new survey that measures swathes of the sky on the final night of the year. As part of the survey, "ZEBO" shows you how to nab the best of all possible locations. Near the top are the legendary Draco stars (not to be confused with the Draco constellation). Sections scanned from this chart:
View Images Mark my words: 2018 will be the year of the waning crescent moon
January 20-21. The moon will be up quite a bit this week, so when any page on the planetarium shows a crescent, you may well head for the sky. Dunight's diagram of the evening sky for the end of January:
View Images Fetching a crescent of moonlight. Photograph by Steve Lockley, at Primavera Sound, California.
Old Assam Meteor Shower starts at its peak
Jan. 20 by
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