Astronomical phenomena January 2016.

2016 is full of surprises for observers worldwide. A lot of events will take place this year from occultations to eclipses.

Take your binoculars or telescope from the closet, because surely, in 2016 you will not have too many pauses between the events that will unfold in the sky.

Astronomical Calendar 2015 astronomical events.

January.
►02 January 2016 – the last quarter moon. 07:30.
►02 January 2016 – Moon at apogee. The moon reaches the furthest point from the Earth (404279 km from Earth) at 1:53 p.m..
►03 January 2016 – Earth at perihelion. Earth reaches the closest point to the Sun, 0.98330 AU, 01:00.
►03 January 2016 – Mars 1.5 ° S Moon at 20:45.
►03,04 January 2016 – Quadrantids. Quadrantids Meteor shower, get to have up to 40 meteors per hour, usually on 3 and 4 January, but may be visible from the 1st January to 5th. The highest rate of meteors per hour took place in 1932 (80 per hour). Meteors radiate from the constellation Bootes, near the North Star.
The source of this meteor shower was unknown until December 2003 when Peter Jenniskens of the Ames Research Center (NASA) found evidence that meteoroids come from 2003 EH1 , an “asteroid”, which is probably a piece of a comet which collapsed 500 years ago.This year, the last quarter the moon will make this event a favorable time for observation.
►08 January 2016 – Mercury perihelion. The planet will be at its closest point to the Sun at 20:00.
►10 January 2016 – New Moon. The moon will be directly between the Earth and Sun and will not be visible from Earth. This phase occurs at 3:30.
►12 January 2016 – Comet 116P / Wild reaches perihelion, the closest position of the sun. It has a 6.50-year orbit. Its return was observed 4 times.
►14 January 2016 – Mercury at inferior conjunction at 16:00.
►15 January 2016 – The moon reaches perigee, the closest point to Earth (369619 km from Earth) at 4:10.
►17 January 2016 – the first quarter moon. at 1:26.
►17 January 2016 – Comet PanSTARRS (2014 Y1) reaches perihelion, the closest position from the sun. It has an unknown orbit. Its return was seen 0 times.
►19 January 2016 – Comet P / PanSTARRS (2015 P4) reaches perihelion, the closest position of the sun. It has an orbit of 15.0 years. Its return has been seen 1 times. – See more at: http://lupuvictor.blogspot.ro/2015/12/astronomical-phenomena-january-2016.html