2010 will provide great opportunities to enjoy the night sky. Astronomers – professionals and amateurs alike will definitely enjoy it and even non-astronomy buffs will love it.

For reference:

Magnitude: determines the brightness of an object in the sky. Smaller numbers represent brighter objects, with the brightest stars and planets represented by negative numbers.

Degrees: Distances in the sky, from our point of view, are measured in degrees. Your fist on an outstretched arm measures about 10 degrees of sky and your little finger is about 1 degree.

Jan. 15 – Annular Eclipse

An annular (ring) eclipse of the sun will take place over parts of Africa, India and China. The annular phase lasts a maximum of 11 minutes and 8 seconds. According to eclipse expert Fred Espenak of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, this is the longest annular eclipse of the 3rd Millennium – its duration will not be exceeded until the year 3043!

Jan. 29 – Mars Close Approach

Mars will be only 61.7 million miles from Earth, closer than it will be again until March 2014. Peaking at magnitude -1.3, Mars will outshine all stars and other planets except Sirius and Jupiter. And no, it won’t be as large as the moon – it will never be.

Feb. 16 – Venus and Jupiter Tandem

Venus and Jupiter come within about 0.5-degrees of each other this evening. That’s about half the width of your little finger on an outstretched arm. Too bad this will happen when the two planets are just 9 degress from the sun (your fist on an outstretched arm is 10 degrees). It might be hard to spot this lovely pair but if you would like to give it a try, then – immediately after sunset – concentrate on that part of the sky just above and to the left of where the sun has just set. Using binoculars sweep around this part of the sky.

Mar. 28 to Apr. 12: Venus and Mercury Duo

The two worlds make for an attractive pair in the west-northwest sky soon after sunset. Between these two dates these two planets are within 5 degrees of each other, Venus appearing to the left and slightly above the dimmer Mercury. On April 3, they will appear closest together, just a little over 3 degrees apart.

Jun. 6: Mars and Regulus

Orange-yellow Mars slides less than a degree north of the bluish star Regulus, a pretty conjunction easily seen in the middle of the evening sky. By then, Mars will have shrunk to a tiny ochre dot even in large telescopes but it will still be an amazing sight.

Jun. 26: Partial Lunar Eclipse

This eclipse favors the Hawaiian Islands, western Alaska, Australia, New Zealand, eastern portions of Malaysia and Asia.

Jul. 11: Total Solar Eclipse

The eclipse will happen mostly on water. It will pass within 15 miles of Tahiti (think cruise ship) and hits on tiny Easter Island, famous for its strange humanoid megalithic statutes. From this speck of land in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean, the sun will be totally eclipsed for 4 minutes 45 seconds. Now think of taking a photo of the totally eclipsed sun in the background and a huge monolith in the foreground. The only other landfall is near the very end of the totality track, over Patagonia. Don’t worry though, it will still be as seen as a good partial solar eclipse from many parts of the world.

Aug. 8: Planetary Trio

Mars, Saturn and Venus will form a trio, fitting in a circle less than 5 degress in diamater on August 8. It will again happen quite low on the sunset horizon but easier to spot than the Venus-Jupiter tandem.

Aug. 12: Perseid Meteor Shower

One of the best known and most reliable of the annual meteor displays reaches maximum with no moonlight to interfere. Under dark, clear skies, a single observer might see as many as 90 meteors per hour. If you aim to catch one night sky event this summer, make it this one.

Sep. 21: Jupiter, Big and High

Jupiter reaches the middle of the midnight sky, that is, at opposition (magnitude -2.9). In this part of its orbit Jupiter is nearer than its average distance, because in 2011 it will reach its perihelion on Mar. 17; so in a telescope the great banded globe appears practically as large as it can ever get; nearly 50 arc-minutes wide or 1/36 the apparent width of the full moon.

Late Oct: Close Encounter with a Comet Hartley 2

Comet Hartley 2 will pass to within 11.2 million miles of the Earth on Oct. 20, just a week before it makes its closest pass by the sun. As a result, this comet should briefly become a naked eye object, perhaps becoming as bright as magnitude +4 or +5 – visible from rural locations but perhaps not from cities.

Dec. 14: Geminid Meteor Shower

Even though the moon is at a waxing gibbous phase, it will set soon after midnight, leaving the sky dark for a view of potentially up to 120 meteors per hour. For those willing to brave the cold, this event is well worth planning for.

Dec. 20-21: Total Eclipse of the Moon

This year’s New Year lunar eclipse is not much of a sight for many people but this year-ends total lunar eclipse will be much better. North America has a ringside seat for this must-see total lunar eclipse. For the Eastern U.S. and Canada, this will be a predawn event. For the western U.S. and Canada, it comes during the middle of the night of Dec. 20-21, while for Alaska and Hawaii it occurs during the mid-to-late evening hours of the 20th. Totality will last 1 hour and 14 minutes. Western Europe will see the moon set during totality, while conversely, in Japan, the moon will rise during totality.

Don’t know how to spot these planets and stars in the sky? Easy, just go to www.skyviewcafe.com. It’s a free tool that will let you plot the sky from your location easily.