This week in What’s Up is the close approach of the Moon and Jupiter and astronomical events that you can look forward to in 2022.

The planets are heading below the horizon soon, to return this summer. This means you only have a short window of time to see them before they’re gone for months. The planets aren’t terribly high, so the atmosphere will make getting a clear view challenging.

Something to look for this week is a close approach of the Moon and Jupiter. They are still pretty far apart, nowhere near the closeness of the Great Conjunction back in 2020, where you could see Jupiter and Saturn at the same time in the eyepiece. The close approach technically happened yesterday (the fifth), but the two bodies are still fairly close together.

The Moon is three days into its cycle, so only a small slice of it is illuminated. Over the next few days, it will get brighter and brighter. The first quarter phase is this weekend, specifically this Sunday [January 9]. The first quarter is the best time to view the Moon, as we’ve mentioned before. This is because the Sun’s light is almost parallel to the Moon, making for lots of contrasting shadows. 

In the few hours immediately around the quarter moon, you can see formations called the Lunar X, Lunar Y, and Lunar V. These aren’t actual shapes on the Moon but are formed by shadows from groups of craters on the Moon that form the apparent shapes of those letters. However, there isn’t much time to see these shapes, as the Sun fully illuminates the craters, and the shadow goes away.

The Lunar X, Y, and V happen every month, but there are other events in 2022 which happen only a few times or only once.

There isn’t anything terribly interesting for the first few months of 2022, but March 20 is Venus’ greatest western elongation. This is the point where it’s the furthest from the Sun and easiest to view. At western elongation, it is visible as the “morning star”, just before sunrise. Viewed in a telescope, you can see the phase of Venus at this point in time.

In April, there is a partial solar eclipse. Solar eclipses of all kinds are amazing sights, but partial solar eclipses are much less exciting than total solar eclipses. This particular partial eclipse is even less exciting; the greatest eclipse will only be visible in the southernmost part of Chile and in the Southern Ocean off the coast of Antarctica at 20:41 UTC on April 30. Some amount of eclipse will be visible most of the way up into Chile and Argentina.

In May is a total lunar eclipse which will be visible mostly in the eastern U.S., most of Central America, and all of South America.

In June is Mercury’s greatest western elongation. Mercury is hard to see because it’s so close to the Sun;  the only time to really see it is within a week of elongation. During western elongation, it is visible in the morning sky.

By late summer and heading into early fall, the gas giants are finally back to play. August 14 is Saturn’s opposition, where Earth is directly in between Saturn and the Sun. This is the best time to see the planet, though it is almost as good for a few weeks on either side of the event. My rule of thumb is that the atmosphere is much less of an issue if an object is at least 30 degrees above the horizon. This is easier if you live closer to the equator unlike me. Jupiter will follow, having its opposition on September 26. Like Saturn, this is the best time to see the planet.

Early October brings a rather special event – the Moon will pass in front of the planet Uranus for people in the western U.S. and Canada. Uranus will be in the constellation of Aries at a relatively bright magnitude of +5.7. Uranus will disappear behind the illuminated side and reappear a bit less than an hour later from the non-illuminated side.

Then, in late October and early November, another pair of partial solar/total lunar eclipses occur. The partial solar eclipse will be visible in Europe, Western Asia, and parts of Northern Africa on October 25. This partial eclipse comes closer to totality than the one in May but is still not total. The total lunar eclipse component will happen later, on November 7. This total lunar eclipse will favor the western half of the U.S. and Canada and East Asia.

To wrap up the year are two interesting events one can see in a telescope.

First, the occultation of Mars by the Moon will be visible from North America. It will happen on December 7, 2022, in the evening. The Moon will pass directly in front of Mars, which could make for some very interesting astrophotographs. After about an hour, Mars will become visible again. One day later on December 8 is the opposition of Mars. I’ve already talked about what opposition is several times during this show.

Remember, go outside and look up.

More Information

Astronomy Calendar — Upcoming Events (timeanddate)

Mercury: The Iron Planet (timeanddate)

Lunar occultation of Uranus (In-The-Sky.org)