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01/13/2015 11:00 PMCall this the year of the dwarf planet-NASA spacecrafts will land on Ceres and Pluto in 2015. The Dawn spacecraft is scheduled to touch down on Ceres March 6, while the New Horizons spacecraft should reach Pluto July 14 after almost 10 years zooming through the solar system. Scattered throughout the rest of the year are the usual meteor showers, a few eclipses, objects in conjunction, and planets at opposition.
January
The Quadrantids meteor shower peaked as Jan. 3 became Jan. 4. This above-average shower comes through annually from Jan. 1 to 5 with up to 40 meteors per hour.
February
Break out the observing equipment. Jupiter will be at opposition Feb. 6. When a celestial body reaches opposition, Earth sits directly between that object and the sun, placing the object the closest it will get to Earth all year. Some of the details in Jupiter's cloud bands should be visible through a medium telescope (around six inches or larger), while a good pair of binoculars should show Jupiter's four largest moons as bright dots next to the planet.
Venus and Mars reach conjunction on Feb. 22. Conjunctions are neat events in which two or more objects appear incredibly close together in the night sky. The two bright planets will appear to almost touch in the west just after sunset. Mars's rusty glow will pop next to Venus's whitish-yellow color, caused by the sulfuric-acid clouds covering its hellish surface.
March
The Dawn spacecraft is supposed to reach the dwarf planet Ceres on the 6th. Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Its size and shape (round, 590 miles in diameter) classify it as a dwarf planet like Pluto. Dawn will spend several months studying Ceres and transmitting the first close-ups of a dwarf planet ever seen.
March 20 brings a total solar eclipse, but unless you're in the central Atlantic Ocean, Greenland, or northern Siberia, you won't be able to catch it.
April
That's okay, because April 4 brings a widely visible total lunar eclipse, and almost everyone is invited to the party. The moon will pass completely through Earth's dark shadow, or umbra, and Earthlings throughout most of North America, South America, eastern Asia, and Australia can see the moon try on a dark reddish hue.
April 22 to 23 brings the peak of the annual Lyrids meteor shower, which usually produces about 20 meteors per hour-some with bright dust trails lingering for several seconds.
May
Just two weeks later, on May 5 and 6, the Eta Aquarids meteor shower peaks. This is an above-average shower with the potential for up to 30 meteors per hour in the Northern Hemisphere. The meteors are dust particles, left behind by the famous Halley's comet, burning up as they pass through our atmosphere. The nearly full moon will take some dazzle out of the show.
On May 23, Saturn reaches opposition. A medium telescope will allow you to see Saturn's rings and a few of its brightest moons.
June
The summer solstice happens on June 21, which is great for warm-weather lovers and not so great for stargazers, since this also means the shortest night of the year.
July
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft should reach Pluto on July 14, but this is very much subject to change. Launched on Jan. 19, 2006, the first spacecraft to visit Pluto will provide the first close-up views of the dwarf planet and its moons. After passing Pluto, New Horizons will hit up the Kuiper belt, similar to the asteroid belt where Ceres lives-but is 20 times wider and up to 200 times more massive-and check out some of the other icy objects at the solar system's boundary.
Two weeks later, on July 28 and 29, the average-display Delta Aquarids meteor shower peaks with up to 20 meteors per hour.
August
The mediocre Delta Aquarids may be quickly forgotten when the Perseid shower peaks Aug. 12 into 13. The Perseids get up to 60 meteors per hour, and this year they have only to contend with a thin crescent moon.
September
Neptune reaches opposition Sept. 1, but since it's 2.7 billion miles away it will only show up as a tiny blue dot in telescopes owned by normal people.
Sept. 13 brings a partial solar eclipse, but again, travel to a faraway land is required to catch it -southern Africa, Madagascar, or Antarctica, to be exact.
Another total lunar eclipse arrives Sept. 28, and, like the one in April, it will be visible throughout much of the world-in this case, most of North and South America, Europe, Africa, and western Asia.
October
Oct. 8 and 9 brings the peak of the little baby Draconids meteor shower, which produces only about 10 meteors per hour.
On Oct. 11, Uranus reaches opposition, but at 1.6 billion miles, we have almost the same problem as we did last month with Neptune. The second-to-last (official) planet will only appear as a tiny turquoise dot in most average-people telescopes.
Oct. 21 and 22 brings the Orionids meteor shower, slightly more exciting than the Draconids because it produces up to twice as many meteors per hour. Like the Eta Aquarids shower in May, the Orionids meteors are actually dust grains left by Halley's comet. Meteors will radiate from the easily spotted constellation Orion, but can appear anywhere in the sky.
A couple conjunctions come after that. Venus and Jupiter will be within a degree of one another on Oct. 26 in the east just before sunrise. Two days later Mars joins the party, and Venus, Mars, and Jupiter will form a compact one-degree triangle in the east just before sunrise.
November
Two okay meteor showers pass by in November-the Taurids on the 5th and 6th and the Leonids on the 17th and 18th. The Taurids produce only about five to 10 meteors per hour but, unlike any other shower, they result from two separate streams of dust and debris-one from Asteroid 2004 TG10 and the other from Comet 2P Encke. The Leonids peak at up to 15 meteors per hour. This shower is also unique, because it has a cyclonic peak about every 33 years where hundreds of meteors per hour can be seen, which last happened in 2001.
December
The year 2015 says goodbye with a conjunction and two meteor showers. On Dec. 7, the moon and Venus will come within two degrees of one another in the east just before sunrise. Then, the Geminids meteor shower peaks on Dec. 13 into 14. The Geminids are considered the best of all meteor showers because stargazers can see up to 120 multicolored meteors per hour. Best of all, the moon will be in a crescent phase and will set early in the evening.
Finally, Dec. 22 and 23 bring the peak of the Ursids meteor shower, a minor event producing about five to 10 meteors per hour. This year the nearly full moon will be bright enough to hide all but the brightest meteors. Meteors will stem from the constellation Ursa Minor (the Little Dipper).
Contact Melissa at localuniverse@msn.com, @o_starry_night on Twitter, or visit www.facebook.com/localuniverse.