Highlights of 2005 and a January Comet

Yeah, yeah, I know. We've made another trip around the sun. Still ... 2005. Already.

Looking ahead, a few night-sky highlights elbow each other aside for attention. The final 4/5ths of the Venus/Mercury quintuple conjunction occur on January 13, March 28, June 27, and July 7. The first in this series of five conjunctions happened just a few days ago, on the 29th of December. Just a day before the June conjunction, Saturn joins the pair of inferior planets in a small circle of sky with a diameter of only 1.37 degrees. Also, Venus reaches the southernmost declination of its eight-year cycle on November 6.

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower of May, and the Perseids of August, peak under moonless, or nearly moonless skies.

There is an annular-total eclipse of the sun on April 8, and an annular eclipse on October 3. The first is visible over the Pacific Ocean, the second over Africa and Iberia. And there is a partial eclipse of the moon on October 17, visible over northeast Asia, the Pacific Northwest, and the Pacific Ocean in between.

As for this, the first month of this new year, the highlight might be Comet C/2004 Q2 Macholz, one of two comets discovered last year by amateur astronomers rather than robots in space. (The other was Comet C/2004 Q1 Tucker.) But that's not what makes it a highlight, unless you're Don Macholz, its discoverer, though it is his tenth comet and that's pretty special, but I'm getting sidetracked. It's a highlight because it may reach naked eye brightness in January, perhaps as bright as a gauzy magnitude 4. Of course, comets are fickle ... I've dated a few comets in my time ... and it may not reach naked-eye brightness at all.

This comet was discovered on August 27, in the southern constellation Eridanus. It crossed the celestial equator on the 27th of December, in Taurus: it will pass just west of the Pleiades on January 7th; its tail will sweep across the cluster of stars. And this is when it might be at its brightest.

It reaches perihelion on the 25th of this month, and continues through Perseus, Cassiopeia and Cepheus. It will pass within 5 degrees of the north celestial pole on March 18, and moves beyond 1 a.u. of us Earth-bound stargazers on the 23rd. And all of this time, while it is high in the north sky, Comet C/2004 Q2 Macholz may remain at naked eye brightness.

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