What’s Up in 2022?

The Planets in 2022

Venus

At the beginning of the year, Venus will be making its transition from the evening sky to the morning sky. As Venus does this, it passes between the sun and earth, an event we call inferior conjunction. This happens on January 8. Because the orbital planes of Venus and the earth are tilted with respect to one another, Venus usually doesn’t pass directly in front of the sun, an event we call a solar transit. On January 8, Venus will be nearly five degrees above the sun. Venus will spend about nine months in the evening sky, passing through superior conjunction on October 22. At superior conjunction, Venus is again in the same direction in the sky as the sun, but it then passes the sun on the other side of its orbit. In either conjunction with the sun, Venus is lost in the solar glare and hence is not visible for a few weeks.

When near inferior conjunction, Venus is closest to earth, so Venus appears largest. If you view Venus through a telescope at that time, it will appear as a large, thin crescent before and after inferior conjunction. Therefore, as the year begins, Venus will be a beautiful sight through a telescope. Look for Venus low in the southwest after sunset by the middle of January. The angular distance between Venus and the sun will increase rapidly until the middle of February. If you have a telescope, try looking at Venus as often as possible during this time. You will see the angular size of Venus decrease as its crescent becomes thicker. Venus will appear half lit when it reaches its greatest elongation from the sun around March 20. The greatest elongation occurs when Venus is at its greatest angular distance for the sun as seen from earth. Venus will appear brightest on the morning of February 12. By late spring, Venus will appear tiny as its distance from earth continues to decrease. As its angular size decreases, Venus will appear more fully lit. Venus will not be so favorably visible in the sky until the summer of 2023.

Venus is bright enough to be seen during the day. This is possible only when Venus is appreciably far from the sun and the sky is very clear. The trick is to know exactly where to look in the sky and to get your eyes focused on infinity. This is most easily done when the waning crescent moon is close to Venus in the morning sky. You can easily see Venus and the moon before sunrise. Memorize the orientation of the two and the distance between them. You ought to be able to easily spot the moon a few hours later once the sun has risen. Look for Venus in the direction and distance from the moon where you saw them earlier in the morning. Keep in mind that the moon will move eastward (from right to left for people in the Northern Hemisphere), so the distance between Venus and the moon will change a little bit from earlier in the morning. It is best to do this before noon. The crescent moon will be close to Venus on the mornings of January 29, February 26, March 27, April 26, May 27, June 26, July 26, and August 26. However, you probably could attempt this in the morning on either side of these dates. Just keep in mind that Venus and the moon will be farther apart on those other mornings. Another trick while doing this is to stand in the shadow of a tall object, such as a building or tree, to shade your eyes from direct sunlight.

Mercury

Mercury and Venus are the two inferior planets, planets with orbits smaller than the earth’s orbit. Consequently, the circumstances of seeing Mercury are similar to those of Venus, although Mercury’s visibility changes more rapidly due to its smaller orbit and faster orbital motion. Also, Mercury is much smaller than Venus, so it appears smaller than Venus when viewed through a telescope. Furthermore, with its smaller orbit, Mercury is never seen very high above the horizon and always in relatively bright twilight, making Mercury far more difficult to spot. Mercury begins the year in the evening sky, with the greatest brilliancy and greatest elongation from the sun during the first week of January. Mercury will again be visible in the evening sky from mid-April to early May, late August, and again the last two weeks of December. Mercury will grace the morning sky in mid-February, mid-June to early July, and early October. However, be warned that Mercury will not be easy to see given the difficulties I mentioned above. You will require very clear skies and good exposure in the direction of sunrise (if Mercury is in the morning sky) or sunset (if Mercury is in the evening sky).

The Superior Planets

The other three naked-eye planets, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, are superior planets, meaning that they orbit farther from the sun than the earth does. This makes their visibility very different from the inferior planets. For one thing, superior planets can come in conjunction with the sun only one way—on the other side of the sun. Therefore, we simply say that the superior planets come in conjunction with the sun. Another difference is that being so far from earth, the superior planets do not go through lunar-like phases as the inferior planets do. Jupiter and Saturn are always fully illuminated as seen from earth. Mars is fully illuminated, too, though part of the time Mars appears slightly flattened, like a gibbous phase.

Mars begins the year in the morning sky, rising about two hours before the sun, so it will be in the southeastern sky. It will appear as a moderately bright star, with perhaps a tinge of orange or red. Mars won’t be very impressive because it is a small planet that begins the year on the far side of its orbit. For the first 11 months of 2022, Mars will get steadily closer to the earth, increasing in brightness the entire time. Its visible size, as seen through a telescope, will gradually increase too. Things will come to a climax when Mars reaches opposition on December 7. Opposition is when a superior planet is opposite the sun in the sky, rising when the sun sets and setting when the sun rises. As seen from a superior planet when at opposition, the earth is at inferior conjunction. A superior planet is closest to the earth near opposition, so late in the year will be the best time to view Mars through a telescope. However, since Mars’ orbit is so elliptical, the distance to Mars changes from one opposition to another. This year’s Martian opposition is mediocre, but it still will be worth a look through a telescope. After opposition, the distance between earth and Mars will begin to increase until Mars reaches conjunction with the sun nearly a year after opposition. The next opposition of the sun will not be until early 2024.

Jupiter and Saturn begin the year low in the southwestern sky, setting shortly after sunset. Since they will be so low in the sky, it will not be a good time to view these two planets with a telescope. Saturn reaches conjunction with the sun on February 4, and Jupiter is in conjunction with the sun a month later, on March 5. Either planet will be become visible low in the southeastern sky about a month after their conjunction with the sun. Since they are so low in the sky, it is best to view Jupiter and Saturn much later in the year. Saturn comes to opposition on August 13, while Jupiter comes to opposition on September 26. Since Jupiter and Saturn are so far away, their relative distance and hence apparent size do not change much from conjunction to opposition with the sun. Therefore, any time these planets are sufficiently high in the sky is a good time to look at them. That is, from early summer to late autumn, Jupiter and Saturn will be worthwhile to look at through a telescope.

Eclipses in 2022

There will be two partial solar eclipses and two total lunar eclipses in 2022. Because they are minimal partial eclipses, the two solar eclipses won’t be that interesting, nor will either one be visible from North America. The partial solar eclipse on April 30 will be visible from southern South America and parts of Antarctica. The partial solar eclipse of October will be visible in parts of Europe, the Middle East, western Asia, and the Arctic. I wouldn’t make any travel plans for these.

The first lunar eclipse is the night of May 15–16, 2022. The partial phase will begin at 10:28 p.m. EDT. Totality will last 11:29 p.m.–12:23 a.m. EDT. The partial phase of the eclipse will end at 1:55 a.m. EDT. If the weather is good that night, you can be sure that I will be watching, as should you. We plan to have an observing party at Johnson Observatory at the Creation Museum that night, weather permitting, of course. Keep an eye on the Creation Museum website for updates.

This eclipse has special meaning for me. The saros cycle is an 18-year, 11-1/3-day periodicity in eclipses. That is, one saros cycle after an eclipse, a very similar eclipse will happen. However, the one-third of a day means that the next eclipse in a saros family will happen one-third the way around the earth from the last one. The second eclipse in a saros family will be two-thirds the way around the earth from the first one. But the third eclipse after an eclipse in saros family will be seen roughly in the same part of the world as the original eclipse. I saw my first lunar eclipse on the night of April 12–13, 1968 (I was in eighth grade). That eclipse was number 31 in saros family number 131. The lunar eclipse that will happen May 15–16 this year is number 34 in saros family number 131. If you check the math, you will find that this eclipse is exactly three saros cycles (54 years, 34 days) later than the one in 1968. Therefore, the first lunar eclipse this year will be a near repeat of the first lunar eclipse I saw.

I say “near repeat” because the circumstances don’t exactly repeat. Like all good things, saros families must come to an end. The first eclipse of saros family 131 was a penumbral eclipse in May 1427, and the last, number 72, will be another penumbral eclipse in July 2707. That is how saros families progress: they begin with penumbral eclipses that grow deeper, eventually becoming partial eclipse, then total eclipses, followed by partial eclipses, and finally penumbral eclipses. As you may surmise from the member number of this saros family, we are nearing the middle of this saros family, with the maximum duration of totality (100 minutes) a few more eclipses away. As you may also surmise, there are many saros families going on at once. That is why we have a few eclipses every year. There are many different saros families operating at all times.

The second lunar eclipse is on the evening of November 8, at least here in the continental United States. The partial phase will start at 4:09 p.m. EST, and the total phase will begin at 5:16 p.m. EST. Since sunset that evening in the Cincinnati area is at 5:29 p.m. EST, the moon will rise already in total eclipse. Totality will end at 6:41 p.m., and the partial phase will end at 7:49 p.m. EST. I don’t mind going to bed early, but that is a bit early, even for me. We may plan an early evening observing event for this eclipse too.

Miscellaneous

At this point in my annual preview of the year ahead, I mention the Perseid meteor shower, one of the best meteor showers of the year. Alas, with a nearly full moon at its peak in early mid-August, 2022 will be a bad year for the Perseid meteor shower. If anything new comes along, such as a comet, I will issue some updates in a blog, so stay tuned.

As always, we have an excellent offering of astronomy-related programs here at the Creation Museum. Between April and October, we usually have Stargazer programs at Johnson Observatory, where people can view celestial objects with our fine collection of telescopes. We time these close to the first quarter moon so that we have some moon, but not too much moon. In case of cloudy weather, we have an exciting alternate indoor program in the Stargazers Planetarium at the Creation Museum. The first half is a live planetarium program, showing some of the things you may have seen had the sky been clear. The second half is a planetarium Q&A, where the audience is expected to provide input by telling us what they want to see and hear about or just try to stump the staff and me with their questions.

Speaking of the planetarium, we have prerecorded shows every day that the Creation Museum is open. During busy times of spring and summer, we offer some live programs of what the sky will look like that night. We also have our Heavens Declare Tour, where I show and tell a bit more about our meteorite collection, our old planetarium projector, and a quick tour of the observatory. We also do astronomy-related workshops. This year we are reviving our Sun Spotting program at the observatory, where guests can safely look at the sun. Since we were in sunspot minimum for a few years, we canceled that program for a while, but now that we are heading back to sunspot maximum, we are restarting the program.

Why don’t you and your family join us for one or more of our astronomy programs this year?