2018 Week 1: (December 31-January 6)

It is the first week of the year and there are exciting things happening!  The weather in Calgary is supposed to warm up to above freezing.  We have been suffering in the low negative 20°C's for over a week now!  This turn of weather is good for anyone who may want to watch the Quadrantid Meteor Shower which peaks this upcoming Wednesday.  You may also be surprised to know that the Earth will be at its closest point to the Sun late on January 2.  This may seem counter intuitive since it is so cold, but the seasons are determined by the tilt of the Earth.

Date	Event
January 1	Full Moon (Supermoon)
January 2	Uranus Stationary
January 2	Earth at Perihelion
January 3	Quadrantid Meteors Peak
January 5	Regulus 0.9°S of Moon
January 6	Mars 0.2°S of Jupiter

As you can see from the table above the first week of 2018 is jam packed with good stuff.  New Year's Day will have the largest Full Moon of the year as it occurs a mere four hours after the Moon's perigee.  Expect the media to start hyping this up as a premiere event when in actual fact the size difference is quite imperceptible.

Uranus will stop its retrograde motion and begin its prograde motion once again.  Apparently retrograde motion has significance in astrology since when I search for it I get nothing but psuedoscientific warnings.

The main excitement for the week comes from the Quadrantid Meteor Shower.  With a calculated hourly rate of 120 it is one of the most prolific showers.  It is best to get out of the city as, according to the American Meteor Society, rates drop to 25 in rural moonless nights and down to 10 and 5 with more significant light pollution.  With a harsh supermoon viciously illuminating the sky this prolific shower may turn into a flop.  However, it is always worth checking it out because you may get lucky.  We will look more into this shower with a posting in a few days.

Later in the week will be a few conjunctions that some people enjoy viewing or photographing.  The breast of Leo, Regulus, will be sitting just below the Moon on Friday night.  The next morning, check out Mars and Jupiter dancing together in the sky.

This may be a good chance to see some planets before the Sun comes up.  The map below shows the southeastern horizon shortly after 6am on the morning of January 6, 2018.  Jupiter and Mars are extremely close to each other just to the East of the bright Libra star: Zubenelgenubi.  Following them up from the horizon will be Mercury and Saturn.  I am not sure how good of a look you will get of these because the Sun shortly follows them up.

Planets - January 6, 2018

A closeup view of Jupiter and Mars is provided below.

Jupiter and Mars, January 6, 2018

Jupiter and Mars will fit into the same field of view of a highly magnified telescope and may be worth the trouble to haul one out into the cool Winter.  However, if you stick with a basic pair of binoculars you will not only see both planets, but Alpha Librae: Zubenelgenubi in the same field.

Stay tuned for more information about the Quadrantids and our January edition of the McKenzie Lake Star Night!  Follow us at:

www.facebook.com/simonjastronomy

or

www.twitter.com/simonjastronomy

for the latest events and news throughout 2018!