Skylights: 2022

January is a month of transition for our evening sky. For the past several months, it has been dominated by our three bright planets, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter. Starting with Venus, on the 8th, Venus passes through inferior conjunction, and because it passes well north of the Sun (sorry, no transit this time), it will remain visible low in the southwest even up until a day or two before conjunction, assuming you have a clear horizon. Even though it is rather low, do watch it, as it is now showing a large and thin crescent phase, about one arcminute across, which should be visible even with binoculars.

While Venus is dropping out of our evening sky, Mercury is coming back into it, and for a brief time it joins Saturn before passing its maximum elongation 19 west of the Sun on the 7th, and dropping back out of view later in the month as it approaches inferior conjunction on the 23rd.

Both Venus and Mercury become visible in the morning sky later in the month. Mercury will have to wait until the very end of the month, as it will remain rather low, but Venus becomes prominently visible by the third week, and closes distance with Mars.

Saturn is beyond its optimal viewing window for the season as its pale golden glow can only be seen through a substantial amount of airmass and through encroaching twilight. The waxing crescent Moon appears near Saturn on the 4th. By the end of the month, Saturn will no longer be visible, as it nears conjunction on February 4th.

Jupiter, likewise, is also disappearing from view early in the evening. During the second half of January, it will be the only bright planet visible in the evening sky, so don’t miss these last few nights of gazing at it and its four Galilean moons before it dips below the horizon.

Neptune remains visible with binoculars or small telescopes in the early evening. Early in the month is the best time for viewing, before bright Moonlight interferes.

Uranus is the best-placed planet this month. Located in Aries, about midway between Hamal (Alpha Arietis) and  Menkar (Alpha Ceti), it should be easy to track with binoculars, even in bright Moonlight.

If you have been watching dwarf planet Ceres as it wanders through Taurus, you can still find it, although it will be dimmer than it was a few weeks back, about 6° south of the Pleiades cluster as it nears its stationary point and begins moving prograde. On the 12th, the waxing gibbous Moon is just 0.4° north of Ceres, which will make a good pair in a telescope.

While you may have not seen Mars in a while, January presents the opportunity to begin viewing it early in the morning sky. The waning crescent Moon joins Mars on the 29th.

New Moon occurs on the 2nd, beginning Lunation 1225. First quarter is on the 9th, Full Wolf Moon occurs on the 17th, rising near the twins of Gemini, Pollux and Castor, with last quarter on the 25th.

Earth is at its closest point to the Sun on January 4. Known as perihelion, the Earth-Sun distance will be 0.983 AU.

The Quadrantid meteors are most active on the 2nd-3rd. Expect a few meteors to originate from the area of northern Bootes. The meteor shower is named for Quadrans Muralis, an obsolete constellation that occupied this area of sky.

Finally for January, we have asteroid 7 Iris, a main-belt asteroid roughly 200km in diameter that is closest to Earth on the 4th, at a distance of 1.094 AU, and at opposition on the 13th. It draws a wide but shallow arc through southern Gemini and shines as bright as magnitude 7.7, making it a good target for binoculars. 

For the remainder of 2022, we have several highlights awaiting us under clear skies:

2022 is a Mars opposition year, with this year’s best viewing occurring in December. Opposition occurs on the 8th, with closest approach occurring a week earlier, on December 1, at a distance of 0.544 AU. While not as close as the two most recent oppositions, Mars will still appear as large as 17 arcseconds in a telescope, which is approximately the size of Saturn’s globe.

A notable event occurs on opposition night, which is also the night of the Full Cold Moon, when an occultation of the Red Planet occurs, though not for Rhode Island, but the southern limit of the grazing line occurs in central Massachusetts. For us, at Seagrave Observatory, Mars will be just 25” from the southern limb of the Moon at 11pm.

After spending the past six years in the southerly portion of the ecliptic, Jupiter crosses the celestial equator in May, and will spend the next six years in the northern part of the sky. It reaches opposition on September 26 in Pisces, just below the eatern edge of the Great Square of Pegasus. Favorable viewing begins in late June, and lasts through December. It is notable, that in the path up to opposition, Jupiter spends about two months in the non-zodiac constellation Cetus.

In 2022, Saturn is once again a summer planet, with opposition occurring on August 14 in Capricornus, and favorable viewing extends from mid-May through mid-November. It is still summer in Saturn’s northern hemisphere, but with just three years until Saturnian equinox, the ring-plane angle is noticeably narrower than we saw in 2021..

Uranus, in Aries, continues to inch its way eastward towards the Taurus border. Moving about 4.25° farther east, and reaching opposition about 4.5 days later each year, Uranus is now an easy star-hop from the Pleiades, about 14° away. Opposition of Uranus occurs on November 9, and is in favorable viewing position from mid-August through February 2023.

It is notable that Uranus is just eight years from its solstice, which means that the planet is nearly two-thirds through its northern hemisphere’s autumn. Due to the extreme axial tilt of the Uranian system, this means we’re looking at the orbital plane of its moons nearly face-on. With Uranus high on the ecliptic, the next two decades provide great opportunities for observing its larger satellites, which can be seen in a 12-inch telescope.

Not to be overlooked, Neptune is in favorable viewing position from mid-June through mid-December, reaching opposition on September 17. Our solar system’s most distant planet can be found not far from its position last year, a few degrees south of the Circlet asterism in Pisces, though the planet crosses the border and is actually located within the boundaries of Aquarius for much of the year.

There are two total lunar eclipses happening in 2022. The first one occurs on the evening of May 15-16, Sunday night into Monday. The Moon rises and sets uneclipsed, and is at maximum just after midnight, when the Moon is relatively high in the sky. Located in Libra, the Moon doesn’t share this part of the sky with any planets or notable bright objects, but should present a great visual observing opportunity.

The second lunar eclipse occurs on the morning of Tuesday, November 8. This one presents the best photographic opportunities, as the Moon will be in total eclipse at Moonset, so be sure to find a place with a good view of the west-northwestern horizon. The Moon will be in Ares, so a wide-angle photo will include the sparkling star clusters of Taurus, and a narrow-angle view may capture Uranus, just 2° to the east.

There are two partial solar eclipses in 2022, one on April 30, and one on October 25, neither of which will be visible from North America.

If dwarf planet hunting is your thing, Ceres starts 2022 in Taurus, and moves into Gemini before being lost in the glare of twilight in May. It returns in September as it moves from Cancer through Leo, on its way to Its next opposition in March 2023.

Pluto is at opposition on July 20 and is best viewed through the summer. This will be the last full year for Pluto to be located within Sagittarius, as it wanders across the border into Capricornus next year. 

There are several notable planetary conjunctions occurring in 2022. 

On the morning of March 28, the waning gibbous Moon joins Venus, Saturn and Mars, but it will be worth watching the three bright planets for a week before and after this date, including a spectacular pairing of Venus and Jupiter on April 30-May 1, when the two brightest planets will be just 0.5° apart. This series of conjunctions culminates on April 5, when Mars is just 0.4° southeast of Saturn.

A week later, on April 12, Jupiter will be just 0.1° north of Neptune. This occurs low in the eastern sky, deep in twilight, but a modest telescope should be able to resolve our solar system’s most distant planet hanging just below its largest.

On April 27, a spectacular binocular conjunction will occur with the waning crescent Moon joining Venus and Jupiter in the morning sky. Neptune will still be just 0.5° from Jupiter, 

Mars joins Neptune on May 18, and even though Mars is 20 times closer and 700 times brighter than Neptune, the color contrast of the two planets as seen through a telescope is notable.

An easier-to-observe conjunction occurs when Mars joins Jupiter on the 29th, when the two bright planets will be just 0.6° apart.

Large and bright (binocular visible) asteroids reaching opposition in 2022 include: 13 Iris, January 13; 20 Massalia, February 5; 16 Psyche, March 3; 8 Flora, April 12; 15 Eunomia, April 16; 10 Hygiea, April 29; 4 Vesta, August 22; and 3 Juno, September 7.

Oppositions of the known dwarf planets in 2022 include: Makemake; March 28, Haumea: April 14, Pluto: July 14, and Eris: October 17. The next opposition of 1 Ceres is in 2023.