The most spectacular planetary sighting this year will be Mercury transiting the sun on November 8th. When Mercury reaches inferior conjunction, between the sun and Earth, its path will actually cross the face of the sun as seen from Earth. When viewed through a telescope with a solar filter, Mercury can be seen as a black dot moving across the sun. It will be visible from South America, North America (except the western coast), eastern Asia, and Australia. The best planetary conjunction occurs on December 9th, when Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter gather in the eastern sky before sunrise.

Another comet will be visible with the naked eye from April until July, passing through many constellations. Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann will reach its closest point to Earth on May 13th and reach perihelion (closest point to the sun) on June 7th. From April through July, the comet passes in order through Hercules (the Hero), Lyra (the Harp), Cygnus (the Swan), Pegasus (the Winged Horse), Pisces (the Fish), and Cetus (the Sea Monster).

The best meteor shower is the Orionid meteor shower on October 21st. The radiant (the point from which the meteors appear to emanate) is Orion (the Hunter). Orion rises in the east during a new moon phase, which is the ideal condition for viewing. The best time to watch is when Orion is overhead and Earth is directly in the stream. Expect to see about 20 meteors per hour. The Leonid meteor shower on November 17th may be spectacular too. The viewing conditions aren’t as good as the Orionids, due to a waning crescent moon, but there may be heavy activity and outbursts with a hundred or even hundreds of meteors visible per hour. Other good meteor showers may be the Quadrantids on January 3rd during a waxing crescent moon and the Eta Aquarids on May 5th during a first quarter moon.
Neither of this year’s two solar eclipses can be seen from Northwest Indiana. On March 29th, a total solar eclipse will occur and can be seen from northern Africa, Turkey, and into Asia. A second solar eclipse occurs on September 22nd. The partial solar eclipse can be seen across South America, the southern Atlantic Ocean, and the tip of Africa. There are no lunar eclipses occurring this year.

The moon has an 18.6-year orbital cycle marking the extremes of its orbit around Earth, at its northernmost and southernmost points, with declinations of 28.6 degrees north and 28.6 degrees south. It’s called the “major lunar standstill”. This year, the northern standstill will occur on April 4th when the moon will appear unusually high as it passes almost overhead. The southern standstill will occur on September 29th when the moon will appear unusually low as it crosses the southern sky. The next “major lunar standstill” will occur in 2024.

NASA’s plans include a January launching of New Horizons that will go to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Space Shuttle Discovery will be launched in May or later on mission STS-121. It will have a 7-man crew and go to the Space Station. Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled for launch on June 30th on mission STS-115, which will go to the Space Station too. Several satellites are scheduled for launch throughout the year. Many of them will study the Earth.

Other countries have scheduled launches for 2006. ARABSAT 4, a communications satellite, will be launched on January 30th from the Cosmodrome. On March 22nd, a Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled on a mission to the Space Station. It will deliver the MA-8 spacecraft for use as an emergency escape pod at the Space Station for the next 6 months. On April 10th and June 30th, Soyuz spacecraft are scheduled to deliver more supplies to the space station. More launches are listed at spaceflightnow.com.