January, 2019 (The Darkness, and Art)

“Darkness is not a symbol of negativity, but the state, where we can concentrate on the real light of life.” - Samar Sudha 

Observation: The heaviest snowfall for the year, so far, took place throughout the hours of last night and on through the afternoon of Sunday, the 20th of January, 2019 (today). A bright afternoon despite the cloud cover and snow. The light was a brilliant white. It was a cold day with hints of warmer temperatures throughout the environment... Nothing interesting or notable for observation, except the expressions of light and dark, which January contains, and is representative of, in its placement on the 12-month calendar... 

Sunset: 3:55 pm, Sunday, January 20th, 2019

Moment Of Darkness: On January 20th, 2019, begins in the 54th minute of Four O’Clock, (4:54) sometime between the minutes of 4:56 and 4:57 is the moment of darkness, and at 5:03 it is “dark” out...

Sunrise: 8:08 am, Monday, January 21st, 2019

4:00 pm 32 F, Precipitation 59%, humidity 100%, wind 0 mph, hi/lo - 35/32, freezing rain

🌕🥀~FULL MOON ~🥀🌕 (For the 21st, 22nd, 23rd, And 24th of January:

Moonphase: Full Moon 100 % visible 

Moonset: 8:56 am

Moonrise: 4:28 pm

Moonphase: Full Moon 100% visible 

Moonset: 9:42 am

Moonrise: 5:53 pm

Moonphase: Waning Gibbous 98%

Moonset: 10:15 am 

Moonrise: 7:24 pm 

Moonphase: Waning Gibbous 93% 

Moonset: 10:40 am

Moonrise: 8:55 pm )

- The dawn sky features the two brightest objects in the night sky after the Moon. (Venus and Jupiter.) 
- Venus is the brilliant Morning Star, while Jupiter, which is much bigger but also much farther. 
- The Moon passes them twice during the month, adding to the early morning spectacle. 
- The Moon passes through Earth’s shadow, creating a total lunar eclipse.

January 20: Lunar Eclipse

- A total lunar eclipse will shine through American skies tonight. It gets under way at 9:34 p.m. CST, when...  the lunar disk first touches Earth’s dark inner shadow. It will take the Moon about an hour to become fully immersed in the shadow, creating the total eclipse.

- January 21: Gamma Cass

Gamma Cassiopeiae, the middle point of the letter M or W formed by Cassiopeia, is a busy star system. The main star is surrounding itself with a disk of gas and dust, it’s interacting with an invisible companion, and it’s building up to an impressive demise.

- January 22: Moon and Regulus

 The star Regulus stands just a whisker away from the Moon tonight. They climb into good view by about 8:30 or 9 p.m., with the lion’s bright heart to the right of the Moon.

-January 23: Milky Way Mapping

Textbook views of the Milky Way show a bar of stars in the middle with several spiral arms wrapping around it. But that picture is incomplete. In fact, astronomers are still trying to develop a complete and accurate diagram of our home galaxy.

- January 24: Venus and Jupiter

- The planets Venus and Jupiter, the brightest points of light in the night sky, will stand side by side in the southeast at dawn tomorrow. Venus is the brighter of the two, with Jupiter to its left. The star Antares is farther along the same line.” - Local Community Planner