BLOOMINGTON — Bloomington residents have two rare events to look up and forward to this January with two nighttime features: a one-night moon occultation, along with a multi-night planetary alignment later this week.
Indiana University’s Catherine Pilachowski, distinguished professor and Daniel Kirkwood Chair in IUB’s Astronomy department, provided insight on what to expect for the lunar entertainment, starting with the January 13 occultation.
“Sometime between 9 and 9:30 tonight, Jan. 13, there will be an occultation where the moon passes in front of Mars,” Pilachowski said. “There won’t be another one visible in the U.S. until 2035.”
While this is a single-night event, there’s more to look forward to this week with a six-planet alignment featuring Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
“Planetary Alignments are not uncommon, but this one is quite striking because of the visibility of four of the six aligned planets,” Pilachowski said. “The planets will lie in what is called an elliptic plane where it looks like the planets are in a uniform line.”
For a visual, NASA published an article outlining what the night sky will look like among the constellations.
“Looking towards the south from left to right, it will go, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus in the night sky. While still aligned, Uranus and Neptune will not be visible to the naked eye” Pilachowski clarified.
Experts have not weighed in on the possibility of werewolves but keep your eye out.
