The January sky inaugurated by shooting stars

The rain of shooting stars inaugurates the January sky, while Venus and Mars greet days that gradually return to lengthen. The Earth, meanwhile, reaches the minimum distance from the Sun. Thus the Italian Amateur Astronomers Union (Uai) presents the sky that opens in 2022.

In the night between 3 and 4 January the swarm of Quadrantids, the shooting stars in winter whose peak is expected a few hours before midnight on January 3rd; considering that they usually fly in the sky at the rate of over 50 meteors per hour for almost ten hours, the show is guaranteed for the whole night, thanks to the complete absence of the Moon.

At 7.00 in the morning of January 4th the Terra will reach the point of its orbit closest to the Sun. (perihelion), at a distance of 147,104,813 kilometers from our star.

From i planets, starting January 7 Mercury it is observable shortly after sunset for at least an hour and a half. In fact, it sets 1 hour and 32 minutes after the Sun. Venus disappears from the evening sky and on 9 January is in conjunction with the Sun; for Saturn the same thing happens and at the end of the month it is in fact undetectable, while at the beginning of the month, in the evening, it is still possible to observe Jupiter, on the western horizon.
At the first light of dawn he enters the scene instead Venere and will be in the company of Mars, visible on the eastern horizon.

The sky is still dominated by winter constellations, easily recognizable as Orion, Toro, Twins, Auriga. As regards the conjunctions, between the very thin crescent of the crescent moon and the planets observable after sunset, the most suggestive is expected at the dawn of January 29, with the alignment of Luna, Mars e Venere.

Finally, in the second half of the month, it will also be possible to follow some luminous transits of the International Space Station (ISS) over Italy.

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Source From: Ansa

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