Jan 2 - January Meteors and Planets

January 2 January Meteors and Planets by:

The hope for the short-lived Quadrantid shower is always that the shower peaks when the radiant is high in your sky. That can't be true for everyone on Earth at once, but the prediction does look decent for North America in 2020. Now ... will the prediction hold? Read more.

To EarthSky friends across the globe … best to you in 2020! 🎉 Quadrantid meteors on night of January 3-4 Peak activity for the annual Quadrantid meteor shower lasts less than a day. To see the best display, you need to be on Earth's night side during the short peak. The International Meteor Organization predicts the 2020 peak for January 4 at around 08:00 UTC. Translate UTC to your time. That would place the peak around 3 a.m. Eastern Time in North America (2 a.m. Central, 1 a.m. Mountain and midnight Pacific) on January 4. Keep in mind that meteor showers are fickle. This prediction might - or might not - hold. Thus meteor fans around the world will be on the watch. Good news: No moon in the peak predawn hours! Read more and see photos.  January 2020 guide to the bright planets This month, dazzling Venus lights up the early evening sky. Moderately-bright red Mars comes up before dawn. Late in the month, you might catch elusive Mercury at dusk and giant Jupiter at dawn. Ringed Saturn hides in the sun's glare all month. Read more. Why the new year begins on January 1 Celebrating the New Year on January 1 is a civil event, not an astronomical one. And yet nature cooperates to make January 1 a satisfying time to start anew. Read more. What we're reading From the BBC ... Australia fires: New South Wales declares week-long emergency Updated a few hours ago. The leader of Australia's eastern New South Wales state has declared a week-long state of emergency in response to the escalating bushfire threat. High temperatures and strong winds are forecast for the weekend, leading to "widespread extreme fire danger." Troops are also preparing to evacuate some of the 4,000 people trapped by fires in neighboring Victoria state. Since September, bushfires have killed 18 people and destroyed more than 1,200 homes across NSW and Victoria. At least 17 people remain missing after fires this week alone. Read more.

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Latest sunrises (north) and sunsets (south) in early January The latest sunrises of 2020 are happening this week for mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. For example, sunrises in the central U.S. - say, around Wichita, Kansas - for the next several days will be around 7:45 a.m. Meanwhile, at mid-southern latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, your latest sunsets are happening around now. It's what we can expect every year, on our tilted Earth, pursuing our elliptical orbit around the sun. Photo: Peter Bowers on Flickr. Read more.

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