Babe Among the Stars: Dark Nebulae
Created | Updated Jan 20, 2016
Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day. But when I follow at my pleasure the serried multitude of the stars in their circular course, my feet no longer touch the earth - Ptolemy
Dark Nebulae
The formation of dark nebulae is a mystery. They have no set form, and are constantly changing – a kind of creeping tentacle obliterating what lies beyond. Some have been given appropriate names but aren't officially catalogued. Perhaps the most famous example of a dark nebula is the Horsehead Nebula in Orion, which has its own h2g2 Entry. However, people in the Southern Hemisphere would probably disagree and declare it to be the Coalsack in Crux. Visible to the naked eye as a dark patch in the Milky Way, it was first documented by the Portuguese navigator Vincente Yanez Pinzon in 1499. Then there is the wonderfully-named Dark Doodad Nebula in the constellation Musca the Fly, which is approximately 700 light years distant and over 30 light years in length. It features in Maori legend and constellation lore. Another antipodean favourite is Bernes 157, over 500 light years distant in Corona Australis, which is currently shaped like a boomerang.
January 2016 Diary Dates
Comet Catalina will be viewable for Northern Hemisphere astronomers all month. The comet has a double tail and may be 5th magnitude brightness by January. It will spend the early part of January climbing northwards through Boötes. Then around mid-January it will be in the same region as two Messier objects - M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici) and M101 (the Pinwheel Galaxy in Ursa Major, creating a couple of opportunities for assistance in locating and viewing this visitor from the distant Oort Cloud.
All five naked-eye planets will appear together in the pre-dawn sky from about 20 January onwards until well into February.
- 01: Comet Catalina will skirt past the orange giant star Arcturus (alpha Boötes)
- 02: The Earth is at perihelion (closest to the Sun) at 91.4 million miles
- 02: The Moon is at apogee (furthest from Earth)
- 02: The 1.1km-wide asteroid 2004 MQ1 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 03: The Moon passes 1.3° north of Mars
- 04: Quadrantid meteor shower peak (and hardly any moonlight to spoil)
- 05: Venus passes 6° north of Antares (alpha Scorpii)
- 06: The 410m-wide asteroid 1999 JV6 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 06: The Moon passes 3° north of Venus
- 06: The Moon passes 3° north of Saturn
- 08: Venus and Saturn are within a tenth of a degree of each other
- 09: New Moon
- 10: The 5m-wide asteroid 2016 AQ164 will pass Earth within the orbit of the Moon (approx. 104,400km)
- 11: The 18m-wide asteroid 2016 AP131 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 12: The 5m-wide asteroid 2016 AH164 will pass Earth within the orbit of the Moon (approx. 27,000km)
- 12-15: Stargazing Live on BBC2
- 13: The Moon passes 3° north of Neptune
- 13: The 11m-wide asteroid 2016 AN165 will pass Earth within the orbit of the Moon (approx. 180,000km)
- 14: The Moon is at perigee (closest to Earth)
- 14: Comet Catalina passes M51
- 14: The 4m-wide asteroid 2016 AN164 will pass Earth within the orbit of the Moon (approx. 37,000km)
- 15: The Moon passes 1.5° south of Uranus
- 15: All four Galilean moons will be on one side of Jupiter
- 15: The 102m-wide asteroid 2015 YC2 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 16: Comet Catalina passes M101
- 19: The Moon passes half a degree north of Aldebaran (alpha Tauri)
- 21: The 37m-wide asteroid 2016 AF166 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 22: The 1.7km-wide asteroid 1685 Toro will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 23: Full Moon - the Wolf Moon, Old Moon, Ice Moon or the Moon after Yule
- 23: The 1.5km-wide asteroid 2001 XR1 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 25: All four Galilean moons will be on one side of Jupiter
- 27: The Moon passes 1.4° south of Jupiter
- 28: The 15m-wide asteroid 2015 VC2 will pass Earth beyond the orbit of the Moon
- 29: The Moon is at apogee (furthest from Earth)
- 29: All four Galilean moons will be on one side of Jupiter
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