Volume 26 Issue 1
January 2020
January 2020
Month at a Glance:
This month the annual Geminid Meteor Shower will reach its peak on the morning of January 4th. This annual meteor shower lasts from the last week of December through mid-January. It is a somewhat unusual meteor shower because the meteoroids entering our atmosphere becoming the meteorites, we see come from Asteroid 2003 EH1 rather than from a comet. It is thought that the asteroid may be the remnants of a comet that is no longer active as it orbits the Sun in 5.52 years.
Click here for the month at a glance calendar.
January 5th - The Earth is at Perihelion
This month the annual Geminid Meteor Shower will reach its peak on the morning of January 4th. This annual meteor shower lasts from the last week of December through mid-January. It is a somewhat unusual meteor shower because the meteoroids entering our atmosphere becoming the meteorites, we see come from Asteroid 2003 EH1 rather than from a comet. It is thought that the asteroid may be the remnants of a comet that is no longer active as it orbits the Sun in 5.52 years.
Click here for the month at a glance calendar.
January 5th - The Earth is at Perihelion
Mercury moves from superior conjunction, on the opposite side of the Sun, to becoming more visible as an evening planet at sunset local time, until mid-February when it moves into inferior conjunction, between the Earth and the Sun.
Venus is very visible shining brightly over the western horizon at sunset local time.
Mars rises before sunrise local time and is visible over the eastern horizon.
Dwarf Planet Ceres is too close to the Sun to be seen this month.
Jupiter will slowly become more visible over the eastern horizon in the pre-dawn skies.
Saturn moves into solar conjunction, on the opposite side of the sun, and will not be visible again until later next month as it becomes more visible over the eastern horizon in the pre-dawn skies
Above the Solar System at 10 day Intervals
