Podcast: Night-sky targets for January 1-9, 2009
The planet Mercury, the star Rigel, and globular cluster M79 are nicely visible in the next few days.
By
Michael E. Bakich —
Published:
December 31, 2008 Mercury shines bright on evenings in early January. It appears highest at greatest elongation, but shows up best when near Jupiter.
Photo by Astronomy: Roen Kelly
In each episode, Michael highlights:
- One object you can see without any optical aid
- One object you can see with a small (4-inch) telescope
- One object you can see with at least an 8-inch telescope
Targets for January 1-9, 2009
Naked eye: Planet Mercury
Small telescope: Star Rigel
8-inch or larger telescope: Globular cluster M79 |
Enhance your observing with these tools from Astronomy.com
StarDome
Check out the Astronomy.com's interactive star chart to see an accurate map of your sky. This tool will help you locate this week's targets.
Podcast transcript
This episode's transcript contains additional links to resources within Astronomy.com to help your observing.
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Observing talk
After you listen to the podcast and try to find the objects, be sure to share your observing experiences with us by leaving a comment at the blog or in the Reader forums.
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Previous episodes:
- December 26, 2008-January 2, 2009: Orion's Belt, open cluster M35, and the Christmas Tree Cluster
- December 19-26, 2008: The Kids, Pazmino's Cluster, and the Flaming Star Nebula
- December 12-19, 2008: Hyades star cluster, open cluster M37, and NGC 1275
- December 5-12, 2008: Kemble's Cascade, open cluster M36, and barred spiral galaxy NGC 925
- November 27-December 5, 2008: Venus and Jupiter, open cluster M38, and spiral galaxy NGC 1365
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