SkyDiary
Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Find out what’s up in the night sky:
Upcoming astoronomical events, interesting observations, packed with everything a stargazer needs to know.

Observations are described for the NORTHERN hemisphere and can be made by naked eye, small binoculars or by small telescope.

January 2020

Phases of the Moon

First Quarter:January 03
Full Moon:January 10
Last Quarter:January 17
New Moon:January 24

Venus

The planet remains in the evening sky and sets down about 2 hours after Sun. Its brightness rises up to (-4.1) mag, which makes it far the brightest object in the south-western sky. You should have no problems to find it with naked eyes through the whole month.

Penumbral Lunar Eclipse

On January 10, there is a penumbral eclipse visible in Asia, Europe and Africa (except its most western part). However, the Moon is not moving through the dark shadow of the Earth (so called "umbra"), but only through its half-shadow (so called "penumbra"). The penumbra is the consequence of the refraction of light from Sun through the Earth's atmosphere. This type of eclipse is very hard to observe visually, because the difference in brightness between the eclipsed part and non-eclipsed part of the Moon's disc is very small indeed. In the perfect clear sky you can try to take digital photographs and then process them on the computer to see this difference.

Article by (C) G. Okša