Actual Astronomy - The Observer's Calendar for January 2024

Hosted by Chris Beckett & Shane Ludtke, two amateur astronomers in Saskatchewan. [email protected] The Actual Astronomy Podcast presents The Observer's Calendar for January 2024. In this episode we’ll talk about catching the Quadrantid meteor Shower's up to 200 meteors an hour, a double shadow transit on Jupiter, the planets pairing with the Moon and one of best chances to spot Mercury for 2024. Bio: Shane and Chris are amateur astronomers who enjoy teaching astronomy classes and showing the public views through their telescopes.   Jan 3- Earth at perihelion - 147,100,632km (91.4 mill miles) Jan 4 - Quadrantid meteors peak at 4am EST ZHR 60-200)- but moon interferes as it's last quarter on this night - Radiant is between Bootes and Draco Jan 7 - Double Shadows on Jupiter at 9:08 pm EST & Jupiter is high in the South all evening, in Aries, near the Pisces, Cetus Aries boarder. Jan 8 - Venus 6-degrees N of Moon and add in Mercury to form a triangle in the morning sky Jan 9 - Mercury 7-degrees above Moon this morning Jan 11 - New Moon Jan 12 - Mercury Greatest Elongation Morning Sky - (24-degrees) Jan 14 - Saturn 2-degrees N of Moon but not here in NA Jan 15 - Neptune 0.9-degrees N of Moon Occultation for W. Antarctica, Extreme SE S. America, South Georgia Island and S. Sandwich Isles. Jan 18 - First Quarter Moon and Jupiter 3-degrees S of Moon Jan 19 - Uranus 3-degrees S of Moon & Lunar Straight Wall visible this evening Jan 20 - Moon 0.8 degrees S of Pleiades & Asteroid 354 Eleonora at Opposition & mag. 9.7 Jan 25th - Full Moon Jan 27 - Mercury 0.2 above Mars this morning   Comets: - 12P Pons-Brooks - possibly mid-8th Magnitude in Cygnus. Closest approach isn’t until spring but it has been having regular outbursts for the past 6 months. - 62P/Tsuchinshan mid-9th magnitude in Leo   Concluding Listener Message:  Please subscribe and share the show with other stargazers you know and send us show ideas, observations and questions to [email protected]   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.  Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].