Society News Headlines

• Mar 1st – Croxteth Star Party ends to-day.
• Mar 1st – The National Solar Observatory (NSO) have set-up SOLIS. The Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun.
• Mar 1st – Saturn is 1° North of Moon.
• Mar 2nd – Comet Kowal 2 is at Perihelion – (1.397AU).
• Mar 2nd – New Galileo images of Jupiter’s Moon Europa. Images Here.
• Mar 2nd – European astronomers discover planet formation material around dying star. Click Here.
• Mar 2nd – Vesta is 0.1° South of Moon.
• Mar 3rd – Spanner in the works as the Russian Mir crew cancel spacewalk.
• Mar 4th – Comet Shoemaker-Levy 3 is at Perilhelion – (2.817AU).
• Mar 4th – Lt Col Eileen Collins will become the first space shuttle Commander, for mission in December.
• Mar 4th – The first stop for looking for life on Jupiter’s moon Europa, could be Antarctica. Click Here.
• Mar 5th – Aldebaran is 0.2° South of Moon.
• Mar 5th – European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a long term lunar exploriation program called Euromoon 2000.
• Mar 5th – Dr Don Yeomans is to be project scientist on asteroid sample return mission for launch in Jan 2002.
• Mar 5th – Initial Science results from Lunar Prospector released to-day by NASA.
• Mar 6th – Lunar water discovery could lead to Lunar soil retriever mission. Click Here.
• Mar 6th – Pex Hill Observatory – Public Open Night 7pm – 9pm.
• Mar 6th – Dr Stephen Hawking is guest lecturer at U.S. White House.
• Mar 7th – Images from the Feb 26th Solar Eclipse Here.
• Mar 7th – William Herschel Society AGM and Annual Lecture, Bath.
• Mar 7th – Venus is 4° North of Moon.
• Mar 8th – Images from Galileo’s 4th orbit of Jupiter are now on the Internet. Click Here.
• Mar 8th – BBC 1 Sky at Night with Patrick Moore. “February’s Solar Eclipse”(Rept on Sat March 14th).
• Mar 9th – Hubble Space Telescope on the Asteroid Trail.
• Mar 9th – New Advanced Meteosat weather satellite unveiled – due for launch in late 2000.
• Mar 10th – Comet C/1992 J2 Meunier-Dupouy is at Perihelion – (3.058AU).
• Mar 10th – Mark Armstrong discovers his second Supernova, this time in galaxy NGC 6627.
• Mar 10th – At 21:21 UT to-day NASA declared the Mars Pathfinder lander was “DEAD”, after 5 months of trying to make contact.
• Mar 10th – SNOE spacecraft begins to return date.
• Mar 11th – Mercury 1.2° North of Mars.
• Mar 11th – Geologists to study Earthquakes from Earth Orbit.
• Mar 11th – CONGRATULATIONS to Liverpool A.S. member Eric Strach, who has recorded, on video, Shadow Bands, at the Feb 26th Total Solar Eclipse.
• Mar 12th – Pluto is Stationary.
• Mar 12th – NASA’a Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility spacecraft is now completed. Due for launch from the Space shuttle in Dec 1998.
• Mar 12th – Danish team to recover meteorites from Greenland in June.
• Mar 12th – Launch of Landsat -7 spacecraft is delayed until July.
• Mar 12th – New impact craters on Earth suggest that dinosaurs were killed off.
• Mar 12th – Galaxy 0140+326RDI (link removed as URL is invalid) has become the most distant object yet discovered. It is 12.22 billion light years away!.
• Mar 12th – Scientists have evidence to suggest that a series of comet impacts took place 214 million years ago.
• Mar 12th – The Mars Global Surveyor Spacecraft has returned images that indicate a large ancient Ocean was present on the red planet.
• Mar 12th – Asteroid XF 11 could make us ware hard hats on 26th October 2028.
• Mar 13th – NASA to launch satellite by the year 200 which will provide continuous views of the Earth
• Mar 13th – Ancient creater chain found on Earth’s surface.
• Mar 13th – Comet Hale-Bopp holds the key to the creation of comet ices.
• Mar 13th – Mars Global Surveyor observes full evolution of Martian dust storms.
• Mar 13th – Juno is 0.9° North of Moon.
• Mar 13th – Penumbral Eclipse of the Moon (link removed as URL is invalid), at 04:20am UT.
• Mar 13th – RAS meeting at Saville Row, London starts at 4pm.
• Mar 13th – SET’98 week begins and ends on March 22nd. Events up and down the country.
• Mar 14th – Raw data from the now dead Mars Pathfinder mission available on the Internet.
• Mar 15th – Bright fireball seen over parts of Southern England. Reports suggest that it was “as bright as the full Moon”!.
• Mar 16th – Aspiring astronauts get to ride on the “vomit comet”.
• Mar 18th – New agreement protects Arecibo Radio Telescope astronomy frequency from interference.
• Mar 19th – Venus is 3° North of Uranus.
• Mar 19th – NASA to launch the Total Solar Irradiance Mission (TSIM) in 2001, to study the Sun/Earth interactions.
• Mar 19th – NASA to launch the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer mission to study the Sun’s atmosphere.
• Mar 20th – HST takes a look at NGC 7027 in Cygnus.
• Mar 20th – Vernal Equinox at 19:55pm UT.
• Mar 20th – LAS monthly meeting. Speaker Ann Bonell “What Happened to the Astronauts”?.Venue T.B.C.
• Mar 20th – Tiny teeth shed light on ancient comets. . Click Here.
• Mar 20th – Mercury at greatest longation (link removed as URL is invalid) : 19° East.
• Mar 20th – SPA Alston Hall Astronomy Weekend begins.
• Mar 22nd – Hubble captures the heart of star birth.
• Mar 22nd – Chondrites Meteorite fall in Texas, USA.
• Mar 23rd – Neptune 3° South of Moon.
• Mar 24th – Launch of the SPOT 4 spacecraft To-day.
• Mar 24th – Uranus 3° South of Moon.
• Mar 24th – Venus is only 0.09° South of Moon.
• Mar 26th – Jupiter is 0.8° South of Moon. Lunar Occultation at 11h:00m in DAYLIGHT!.
• Mar 26th – Sky & Telescope information for above HERE
• Mar 26th – VLT UT1 First Light. Click Here for news.
• Mar 25th – BAA SGM followed by Ordinary Meeting – Micheal Covington “Whats New in Astrophotography”. Venue Saville Row, London.
• Mar 25th – EL NINO is blamed for a longer day – 0.6 milliseconds longer.
• Mar 25th – NASA begins work on < a href=”http://sirtf.jpl.nasa.gov/sirtf/”>Space Infrared Telescope Facility, (SIRTF).
• Mar 26th – Building a Dobsonian Telescope plans on the internet.
• Mar 26th – New space mission will look back to the Big Bang.
  ESA Planck Mission.
• Mar 26th – The Comet Hale-Bopp Home Page has now collected 5,000 images. Taken from July 1995 – March 1998.
• Mar 26th – NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor to begin observations of Viking and Mars Pathfinder landing sites.Click Here.
• Mar 26th – Dust devils have been found on images returned by Mars pathfinder spacecraft.
• Mar 27th – Mercury Stationary.
• Mar 27th – Tasco Sales Inc is to buy Celestron International. (This is no April Fool joke!)
• Mar 27th – Pex Hill Observatory – Members meeting 7pm – 9pm.
• Mar 27th – Venus at greatest elongation: 47° West.
• Mar 27th – Very rare star atlas found in Manchester A.S. Library.Press release.
• Mar 27th – A Bull’s Eye for MERLIN and HST. Click Here.
• Mar 27th – HST pictures for study of Comet Hyakutake released.
• Mar 27th – Milky Way Galaxy may be smaller than we thought. Contact Dr M.Merrifield – mm@astro.soton.ac.uk for more information.
• Mar 28th – SPA meeting at London Planetarium at 10:00am.
• Mar 28th – River Severn – river bore on view this weekend.
• Mar 29th – Galileo spacecraft to encounter Jupiter’s moon Europa.
• Mar 30th – The Hunt is on for more Extrasolar planets. Click Here.
• Mar 30th – Mercury is 4° North of Mars.
• Mar 30th – Vesta is 1.2° North of Moon.
• Mar 30th – RAS National Astronomy Meeting at University of St Andrews, Scotland.(ends April 3rd).
• Mar 31st – UK astronomers find faint objects beyond Pluto. More Information Here.
• Mar 31st – Quasar discovered with X-Rays is long ago and far away. Click Here.
• Mar 31st – Oldest astronomical megalith alignment discoved in Southern Egypt by Science Team. Click Here.

THE NIGHT SKY DURING THE MONTH OF MARCH 1998

Will it be cloudy to-night?, ask the The U.K. Goverment Met Office Weather service.
To make your own star chart fo your location at any time,Click Here.

The Sun and Moon

All times are in GMT the same as U.T. Times For Observer in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, U.K.

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE TO BST

March 20th marks the date of the Spring Equinox when the Sun crosses the celestial equator in Pisces heading North.March is also the month when clocks are traditionally advanced by one hour in Britian to take us into British Summer Time, (BST). Therefore for this month you will have to add one hour to all times indicated on this web page to convert GMT/UT times to BST.

Latitude 53 degs 24 mins North.
Longitude +3.0 degs West.

---

              2nd          7th        12th      17th      22nd      27th       April 1st
SUNRISE    06:58        06:46      06:34     06:22     06:10     05:58       05:46
SUNSET     17:52        18:01      18:11     18:20     18:29     18:38       18:47

PHASES OF THE MOON DURING MARCH 1998
NEW MOON on 28th at 03h:15m	FIRST QUARTER on 5th at 06h:42m	FULL MOON on 13th at 04h:35m	LAST QUARTER on 21st at 07h:39m

Penumbral Lunar Eclipse ~ March 13th 1998

---

THE PLANETS THIS MONTH.

---

MERCURY.

Mercury is very well placed in the evening sky during March. Look to the West between the 17th and 23rd and you will find this bright planet over 10° above the horizon at the time of Civil Twilight. This Table should help in observations. On the 10th Mercury is just under 1° North of Mars.

---

VENUS.

The Altitude of Venus stats to decline slightly as the angle of the ecliptic changes with respect to the horizon. It also starts to dim slightly but it should be visible almost up until the time of Sunrise. On the 24th at 19:00 Venus is 28′ North of the Moon.

---

MARS.

Mars is briefly associated with Mercury this month. This practically, may be the last opportunity of locating Mars until after solar conjunction in May.

MARSWATCH – latest observations of the red planet.

---

ASTEROIDS.

Vesta is 0.1° South of the Moon on March 2nd, and 1.2° North of Moon on March 30th.
Juno is 0.9° North of Moon on March 13th. It reaches opposition on March 19th at Mag 9.1.

For More information on Asteroids Click Here.

---

JUPITER.

Jupiter will soon reappear in the dark sky after last month’s solar conjunction but before then there is an interesting daylight event to be aware of. At 11h:00m GMT on the 26th Jupiter will be occulted by the bright limb of the thin cresent Moon. The Moon will only be 24°: away from the Sun so be careful when sweeping the sky as you don’t want the SUN by accident! Looking at the unshielded SUN directly WILL CAUSE PERMANENT EYE DAMAGE.

Launched in October 1989, the Galileo Jupiter Probe entered orbit around the great planet on December 7th 1995. The Project Galileo Homepage will give you up-to-date information and the very latest images returned.

---

SATURN.

Saturn is approaching solar conjunction and is unfavourably placed for observations, setting at 19h:30m at the end of the Month.

---

URANUS and NEPTUNE.

Both outer planets are starting to appear in the morning sky but will be better seen in April and May.

---

PLUTO.

Pluto will be out of view until the end of March.

---

---

METEORS.

There are no showers during March.

---

 

COMETS.

• Comet 104P/Kowal 2 at perihelion on March 2nd (1.397AU).
• Comet Shoemaker-Levy 3 at perihelion on March 4th (2.817AU).
• Comet C/1997 J2 (Meunier-Dupouy) at Perhelion on March 10th (3.058AU).
  Plus these pages will give daily and weekly reports of this and other Comets progress.
• BAA Comet Section Home Page
• Comet Web Sites.
• NASA/JPL Comet Observations Home Page.
• The Astronomer Comet Page.

---

OCCULATIONS.

• March 3rd at 21h:21m Disappearance of 5 Tauri.
• March 4th at 20h:23m Disappearance of 71 Tauri.
• March 4th at 21h:33m Disappearance of Theta1 Tauri.
• March 4th at 21h:36m Disappearance of Theta2 Tauri.
• March 4th at 22h:26m Disappearance of 80 Tauri.
• March 4th at 22h:35m Disappearance of 81 Tauri.
• March 4th at 23h:03m Disappearance of 85 Tauri.

Society News Headlines

• Feb 1st – Saturn is 0.6° North of Moon.
• Feb 1st – Jodrell Bank radio telescope is to listen for ET.
• Feb 1st – NASA stopped all planning work on the Manned Mission to Mars project, because of funding problems.
• Feb 2nd – First International Conference on Comet Hale-Bopp, Canary Islands, Spain. (ends Feb 5th).
• Feb 2nd – Mercury 2° South of Neptune.
• Feb 2nd – ESA & EUMETSAT to fund new polar orbiting meteorological satellites. The first to be launched during 2003.
• Feb 4th – The Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE) spacecraft due for launch to-day.
• Feb 5th – Venus is stationary.
• Feb 5th – Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri) is 0.2° South of Moon.
• Feb 6th – Gamma-ray bursts may come from the most distant objects in the Universe. – RAS.
• Feb 6th – NASA studying space weather from Puerto Rico.
• Feb 6th – Reports indicate that the Lunar Prospector spacecraft has found evidence of frozen water on the Moon.
• Feb 7th – SPA A.G.M., University of Westminster, London.
• Feb 7th – More accurate ways to measure mass & densities of the first three largest asteroids.
• Feb 7th – Huge telescope array observes waltz of stars.
• Feb 7th – Happy 40th Birthday to David Galvin and very best wishes & clear skies for February 26th. GJG
• Feb 8th – Mercury 1.4° South of Uranus.
• Feb 8th – Celestsis company to launch more human remains into Earth Orbit.
• Feb 9th – UA Optical Scientists polish Quartz blocks for Gravity probe B spacecraft.
• Feb 9th – The recovery of Comet P/1998 B1 (Shoemaker-Levy8);55p has been reported. IAU Circular 6821
• Feb 9th – Collecting meteorites from Mars in the Antarctica.
• Feb 9th – Symposium on Mars sample return mission at AAAS meeting, Feb 12th – 17th.
• Feb 10th – ESA unveils its big XMM spacecraft.
• Feb 10th – Galileo spacecraft due to flyby Jupiter’s moon Europa.
• Feb 10th – HST images of shock wave from a fading supernova 1987A are released to-day.Click Here
• Feb 11th – Dr Adrian Russell named first Director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre.
• Feb 11th – Student signatures required for CD-Rom, which will be sent to Mars
• Feb 11th – Astronomers & Scientists prepare for Feb 26th Total Solar Eclipse.
• Feb 11th – New images from the NASA Global Surveyor spacecraft – show landing site for 1999 lander.
• Feb 13th – Voyager 1 spacecraft now most distant human-made object in space. On Feb 17th it will be 6.5 billion miles from Earth.
• Feb 13th – International Hale-Bopp conference at Tenerife – overview of finds.
• Feb 13th – Scientists have evidence to suggest that the 11 year solar cycle is in Synch with Earth’s lower stratosphere.
• Feb 13th – NASA name STS-95 shuttle crew to join John Glenn in his return to spaceflight.
• Feb 13th – Launch of Shuttle flight STS-90 is delayed for two weeks until April 16th 1998.
• Feb 13th – Budget boosts for USA astronomy.
• Feb 14th – Pallas: Conjunction with Sun.
• Feb 14th – BAA Comet Section Meeting 10:30am – 17:30am at IofA Cambridge.
• Feb 18th – Australia to share in “Heavenly Twins”. Click Here.
• Feb 18th – Scientists searches for the Moon’s core. Click Here
• Feb 19th – Hipparcos spacecraft makes an accurate 3-D chart of a star cluster.
• Feb 19th – Sentor John Glenn spins in Air Force centifuge. Image Here
• Feb 19th – New logo selected for NASA,s next mission to Mars. News Here.
• Feb 20th – Venus at greatest brilliancy.
• Feb 20th – LAS monthly meeting at Liverpool Museum at 7pm. 3rd Floor Space Gallery.( Take lift from Transport Gallery).
• Feb 20th – Iridium satellite flares – Prediction Service. Your lat/long coordinates are required.
• Feb 21st – BAA Ordinary Meeting – London. 2:30pm.
• Feb 22nd – Mercury at Superior conjunction.
• Feb 22nd – Prof Stephen Hawking and his new cosmic theory – “Open Inflation”. How time began and will never end.
• Feb 23rd – Venus 1.6° North of Moon.
• Feb 23rd – Jupiter: in conjunction with the Sun.
• Feb 23rd – Comet McNaught-Hughes at Perihelion (2.116 AU).
• Feb 24th – Uranus and Neptune are 3° South of Moon.
• Feb 24th – 30th Anniversary (1968), of the First Pulsar.
• Feb 25th – Cassini Saturn probe on course for its flyby of Venus on April 26th.
• Feb 26th – Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) is to close until the end of the year for major up-grade.
• Feb 26th – First one piece 8.4 meter diameter mirror is ready for cleaning.
• Feb 26th – Total Solar Eclipse of the Sun ( Not seen from U.K. ). LAS group travel to Carribean.
• Feb 26th – Follow the February 1998 Total Solar Eclipse LIVE!
• Feb 27th – Canada to build new Earth observational satellites, for launch in 2001.
• Feb 28th – Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle perihelion (0.977 AU).
• Feb 28th – Mars 0.7 ° North of Moon.
• Feb 28th – LAS Star Party Weekend at Croxteth Park and Hall.(ends March 1st).*Friday Feb 27th Cancelled*

THE NIGHT SKY DURING THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY 1998.

Will it be cloudy to-night?, ask the The U.K. Goverment Met Office Weather service.
To make your own star chart fo your location at any time, Click Here.

The Sun and Moon

All times are in GMT the same as U.T. Times For Observer in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, U.K.

Latitude 53 degs 24 mins North.
Longitude +3.0 degs West.

          31st Jan     5th Feb      10th      15th      20th      25th      2nd Mar
SUNRISE    07:59        07:50      07:41     07:31     07:20     07:09       06:58
SUNSET     16:53        17:03      17:13     17:23     17:32     17:42       17:52

PHASES OF THE MOON DURING FEBRUARY 1998
NEW MOON on 26th at 17h:27m	FIRST QUARTER on 3rd at 22h:54m	FULL MOON on 11th at 10h:24m	LAST QUARTER on 19th at 15h:28m

---

THE PLANETS THIS MONTH.

---

MERCURY.

Mercury is at superior conjunction on the 22nd an will therefore be out of view.

---

VENUS.

Venus shows nicely in the South East, rising at 05:09 on the 20th – over two hours before Sunrise. On the 23rd Venus is 2.5° North of the Moon.

---

MARS.

Mars is now in Aquarius and on the 9th lies a mere 31′ South of the naked eye star Lambda Aquarii Soon the red planet will be lost in the evening twilight and its 4.2″ diameter disk makes it a poor telescopic object.

MARSWATCH – latest observations of the red planet.

---

ASTEROIDS.

Pallas is in conjunction with the Sun on the 14th.

For More information on Asteroids Click Here.

---

JUPITER.

Jupiter is at solar conjunction on the 23rd, and will reappear in a dark morning sky in April.

Launched in October 1989, the Galileo Jupiter Probe entered orbit around the great planet on December 7th 1995. The Project Galileo Homepage will give you up-to-date information and the very latest images returned.

---

SATURN.

Saturn sets at 21:15 at the end of the month and so makes a fine evening object in the constellation of Pisces. On the 1st Saturn is 1° North of Moon.

---

URANUS and NEPTUNE.

Both outer planets are moving out Solar conjunction this month, and are unfavorable for observations at this time.

---

PLUTO.

Pluto will be out of view until the end of March.

---

---

METEORS.

February 3rd and 13th Alpha Aurigids ZHR is 12 per hour. (Unfavourable)

---

 

COMETS.

• Comet McNaught-Hughes at Perhelion on Feb 23rd (2.116AU)
• Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle at Perhelion on Feb 28th (0.977AU)
  Plus these pages will give daily and weekly reports of this and other Comets progress.
• BAA Comet Section Home Page
• Comet Web Sites.
• NASA/JPL Comet Observations Home Page.
• The Astronomer Comet Page.

---

 

OCCULATIONS.

• Feb 5th at 14h:00m Disappearnace of Theta 1 and Theta 2 Tauri – DAYLIGHT.
• Feb 13th at 03h:04m Reappearance of 56 Leonis .
• Feb 19th at 03h:59m Reappearance of Gamma Librae.

Clear & Dark Skies for 1998 from all at Liverpool A.S.

Society News Headlines

• Jan 1st – Mars 4° South of Moon.
• Jan 1st – Jupiter 2.5° South of Moon.
• Jan 1st – Public Open Night at the LAS Pex Hill Observatory. 7 – 9pm.
• Jan 3rd – Earth at Perihelion (0.983 AU from Sun.
• Jan 3rd – Mir crew regain control of the station after the motion control computer failed again. Crew reported to be in no danger.
• Jan 3rd – Quadrantids Meteor Shower Max.
• Jan 5th – Planned Lunar Prospector Launch. LAUNCH DELAYED 24hrs
• Jan 6th – Meeting of American Astronomical Society (AAS) opens in Washington D.C.(Ends Jan 11th.)
• Jan 6th – Mercury at Greatest Western Elongation (23°:).Table Here (link removed as URL is invalid).
• Jan 7th – Lunar Prospector Spacecraft launched successfully at 02:28:43 GMT to-day. Should reach the Moon by the weekend.
• Jan 7th – Lunar spacecraft carries ashes and special tribute to planetary geologist Eugene Shoemaker
• Jan 7th – Main results from Winter AAS meeting.
• Jan 7th – Old faithful is black hole.
• Jan 7th – X-Rays reveal gigantic star.
• Jan 7th – Comet Heujimin at Perihelion.
• Jan 7th – Huge galaxy may steal clusters of stars from nearby galaxies. Click Here for image.
• Jan 7th – Two observatories belonging to Patrick Moore are badly damaged by freak tornado, which hit Selsey, West Sussex.
• Jan 7th – HST images of spectacular auorae on Jupiter and Saturn.
• Jan 7th – HST team provides new data on possible fate of Universe.
• Jan 7th – COBE spacecraft reveals background infrared glow to Universe.
• Jan 7th – The black hole at the centre of the Milky Way.
• Jan 7th _ Another black hole found to eject mass equal to an asteroid.
• Jan 7th – Star birth pains can now be revealed. Click Here.
• Jan 7th _ Astronomers find the most massive star yet discovered. Click Here for image.
• Jan 7th _ Structure of tiny stars can now be confirmed.
• Jan 7th – Astronomers find hot ionized gas swirling around centre of a galaxy. Click Here for image. (link removed as URL is invalid)
• Jan 8th – Venus 4° North of Neptune.
• Jan 8th – The Ultimate fate of the Universe.
  Image Here. (link removed as URL is invalid)
• Jan 9th – Cosmonauts fix air leaks on space station Mir.
• Jan 9th – New Understanding of solar wind and its causes.
• Jan 9th _ Finder information for Comet Tempel-Tuttle.
• Jan 9th – Stardust spacecraft up-date.
• Jan 11th – BBC 1 Sky at Night with Patrick Moore. Subject TBC. Rept Sat Jan 17th.
• Jan 12th – Large structures of galaxies in the young universe. Click Here.
• Jan 13th – New Yorkers buy telescopes to spy on each other and not the night sky.
• Jan 13th – Privately funded Lunar Sample Return Mission is planned. Click Here.
• Jan 14th – Help design the logo for the December 1998 Mars Surveyor Mission. Click Here.
• Jan 15th – Planned Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour on mission STS-89. 8th Shuttle/Mir docking.
• Jan 15th – Aged 77 John Glenn is to fly in space again, aboard the space shuttle. Almost 36 years since his last flight in 1962.
• Jan 15th – Life signs in martian meteorite are from Earth, say USA scientists.
• Jan 15th – Astrophotographer David Malin from AAO will be in Liverpool for special Lecture. Details Here. (link removed as URL is invalid)
• Jan 15th – Geologist locate the Gold Basin Meterorite, which fell to Earth in Arizona at the end of the last ice age.
• Jan 16th – Special General Meeting of Liverpool Astronomical Society. Followed by:-
• Jan 16th – USA elementary school teacher, Barbara Morgan, has been selected to train as a mission specialist astronaut for the space shuttle.
• Jan 16th – LAS monthly meeting at NMGM-Liverpool Museum Lecture Room. 7 – 9pm.
• Jan 17th – Southern Area Group of Astronomical Societies (SAGAS) quarterly meeting – Chichester, West Sussex.
• Jan 17th – Comet 55p/Tempel-Tuttle near Earth fly-by.(0.357 AU).
• Jan 19th – Is a Colorado bolide a fragmant of Hale-Bopp?.
• Jan 20th – NEAR spacecraft on final approach to Eros after swingby of Earth. Click Here.
• Jan 20th – Cosmic threat to civilization – Ben Peiser Liverpool John Moores University.
• Jan 20th – A new atomic clock is to be placed on the New Spacestation ISS.
• Jan 20th – The MMT is to be converted to a bigger 6.5 meter single mirror. First light of new telescope is later this year.
• Jan 20th – A nest of massive supernovae found in “Starburst Galaxy”.
• Jan 21st – Pulsars wind up and down.
• Jan 21st – Jupiter 11′ South of Mars. (Very Close Conjunction).
• Jan 22nd – NEAR spacecraft flyby of Earth seen LIVE HERE.
• Jan 22nd – New launch date for Shuttle mission STS-89. See above.
• Jan 22nd – The RGO Library may come to Liverpool and be based at the JMU Astrophysics Group.
• Jan 22nd – Wobbly planet means new rethink on long term study of sea-level variations.
• Jan 22nd – Astronomers map the large-scale structure of the ancient Universe using Quasars.
• Jan 23rd – Launch of STS-89 successful at 02:55am GMT to-day. First shuttle mission of 1998.
• Jan 23rd – LAS members Evening at the Pex Hill Observatory. 7 – 9pm.
• Jan 24th – Details of Japans spaceflight activites budget.
• Jan 25th – Venus at Perihelion.
• Jan 26th – Venus 2.5° South of Mercury.
• Jan 26th – Fast-spinning Pulsar discovery provides evolutionary link.
• Jan 26th – Bell Aerospace to build ICESAT for NASA to be launched in July 2001.
• Jan 26th – NEAR spacecraft images of the Earth and Moon now available.
• Jan 26th – Astronomers find new type of solar activity.Click Here.
• Jan 27th – Venus 3.5° North of Moon.
• Jan 27th – New Satellite images of El Nino in Earth’s atmosphere,which could cause problems for Southern Hemisphere astronomers.
• Jan 27th – Dr Steven V.W.Beckwith becomes new director of Space Telescope Science Institute.
• Jan 28th – Four new GOES weather satellites to be placed in Earth orbit starting in Oct 2001.
• Jan 28th – Comet P/1997 C1 (Gehrels) Perihelion (3.564 AU).
• Jan 29th – 16 Nations to approve the International Space Station, due to be completed by 2003.
• Jan 29th – Astronomers have discovered a planet or brown dwarf star in orbit around Proxima Centauri.
• Jan 30th – Mars 1.5° South of Moon.
• Jan 30th – Photos of Mars Surveyor’98 Orbiter. available.
• Jan 30th – Three spacecraft seen together in the night-sky over parts of USA.
• Jan 30th – New ESO Infrared Instrument gets first light.
• Jan 30th – Team observes rare triple shadow transits on Jupiter.
• Jan 31st – A novel Dutch solar telescope is in operation.
• Jan 31st – Soyuz TM-27 docks with spacestation Mir.
• Jan 30th – AstroFest begins to-day.(Ends January 31st.)
• Jan 31st – 40th Anniversary of USA first artificial satellite – Explorer 1.

 

THE NIGHT SKY DURING THE MONTH OF JANUARY 1998.

Will it be cloudy to-night?, ask the The U.K. Goverment Met Office Weather service.
To make your own star chart fo your location at any time, Click Here.

The Sun and Moon

All times are in GMT the same as U.T. Times For Observer in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, U.K.

Latitude 53 degs 24 mins North.
Longitude +3.0 degs West.

            1st       6th       11th      16th      21st      26th       31st
SUNRISE    08:27     08:26     08:23     08:19     08:13     08:06      07:59
SUNSET     16:04     16:10     16:17     16:25     16:34     16:44      16:53

PHASES OF THE MOON DURING JANUARY 1998
NEW MOON on 28th at 06h:01m	FIRST QUARTER on 5th at 14h:19m	FULL MOON on 12th at 17h:24m	LAST QUARTER on 20th at 19h:41m

---

On the 4th the Earth is at Perihelion – the closest distance to the Sun in 1998. It is at a distance of 0.9832 (AU Astronomical Units).

THE PLANETS THIS MONTH

MERCURY.

Mercury is visible as a morning object but will rapidly head back towards the Sun. This Table gives more details. (link removed as URL is invalid)

---

VENUS.

Venus is confusingly visible both as an evening object and a morning object this month, though obviously not at the same time!. For the first half of the month Venus finishes off its evening appartion which began last year. It will be found in the South West shortly after Sunset. Rapidly passing inferior conjunction on the 16th it starts a morning apparition soon after whilst travelling through the constellation of Sagittarius. Look South East (azimuth 128°) at 06:40 0n the 27th to find the Moon lying 4° to the South.

---

MARS.

Mars sets at 19h:00m by the end of the month and is only 23° away from the Sun in the constellation of Capricornus. On the 21st, at 05h:00m, Mars is 11′ South of Jupiter but as this very close conjunction occurs below the horizon as seem from Liverpool, try and observe the evnings of the 20th and 21st to see how the two planets have changed their relative positions in a short space of time.

MARSWATCH – latest observations of the red planet.

---

ASTEROIDS.

Ceres at mag 9.2 can be found in Aquarius and Vesta at mag 7.8 in Cetusduring the month.

For More information on Asteroids Click Here.

---

JUPITER.

Jupiter is heading towards Solar conjunction next month, rapidly descends into the evening twilight, passing 2.5° of the Moon on the 1st and 1.5° South of the Moon on the 29th.

Launched in October 1989, the Galileo Jupiter Probe entered orbit around the great planet on December 7th 1995. The Project Galileo Homepage will give you up-to-date information and the very latest images returned.

---

SATURN.

Saturn is higher in the sky than both Jupiter and Mars and lies due South at 18h:30m at the start of the month. On the 5th the Moon passes 1° to the North.

---

URANUS and NEPTUNE.

Both outer planets are at Solar conjunction this month, and are unfavorable for observations at this time.

---

PLUTO.

Was in conjunction with the Sun on November 27th and will be out of view until the end of March.

---

---

 METEORS.

QUADRANTIDS 80 per Hour ZHR – max on the 4th (Favorable).

---

 

COMETS.

• Comet Neuijimin at Perhelion on Jan 7th.
• Comet Tempel-Tuttle near Earth Flyby on Jan 17th. (0.357 AU)
• Comet P/1997 C1 Gehrels at Perihelion on Jan 28th. (3.564 AU)
  Plus these pages will give daily and weekly reports of this and other Comets progress.
• BAA Comet Section Home Page
• Comet Web Sites.
• NASA/JPL Comet Observations Home Page.
• The Astronomer Comet Page.

---

 

 OCCULATIONS.

• Jan 10th at 17h:53m Disappearance of 130 Tauri.
• Jan 11th at 17h:39m Disappearance of 26 Geminorum.