Astronomical phenomena January 2013

Now that we've passed 2012, after the Mayan calendar is also done, let's continue our Julian calendar with Astronomical Calendar of January 2013 astronomy events.
This calendar will be modified with events which will appear in time, such as evolving asteroids or other objects in the sky.
Here's how it looks:


01 January 2013 -Comet P/1996 R2 (Lagerkvist) Closest To Earth (2.546 AU).

02 January 2013 -Comet C/2011 UF305 (LINEAR) Closest To Earth (1.917 AU)

03.04 January 2013 - Quadrantids. Quadrantid meteor shower, get to have up to 40 meteors per hour, usually on 3 and 4 January, but may be visible on 1-5 January. The highest rate of meteors per hour took place in 1932 (80/ hour). The best time for observations is a dark place after midnight. Meteors radiate from the constellation Bootes, close to the North Star.
The source of this meteor shower was unknown until December 2003 when Peter Jenniskens of the Ames Research Center (NASA) found evidence that meteoroids come from 2003 EH1 , an "asteroid", which is probably a piece of a comet which collapsed 500 years ago.

03 january 2013 - Earth at Perihelion . Earth reaches the closest point to the Sun.

03 january 2013- Mercury at Aphelion . Mercury reaches the farthest point from the Sun.

09 january 2013- 99942 Apophis. The asteroid should peak at about apparent magnitude 15.7.

11 january 2013 - New Moon. Moon will be between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth. This phase takes place at 7:44 p.m..


22 january 2013 - The Moon at Apogee at 12:52 Moon will reach apogee, the farthest point from Earth: 405,313 km from Earth.

27 january 2013- Full Moon. Earth is between the Sun and the Moon and so the Moon will be fully illuminated as seen from Earth. This phase occurs at 4:38.


Summary of January 2013:
Jupiter is visible above the North Eastern horizon.
Mars is visible very low above the Western horizon in evening.
Saturn continues to gain altitude in the morning sky and is located above the Eastern horizon.

Posted in: Astronomical calendar 2013