The largest object located in the main asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) is the dwarf planet named Ceres. At 590 miles across and with it’s spherical shape Ceres was once referred to as a planet. It’s probably the planet you’ve never heard of and over time it was demoted to asteroid status until 2006 when it was properly branded a “dwarf planet” by the IAU. This mysterious and elusive world was discovered in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, an Italian Catholic priest, mathematician, and astronomer.
Jupiter’s four large moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) are hard to miss, and a favorite telescopic target of backyard observers. They are commonly referred to as the Galilean Moon’s due to the fact that they were discovered by Galileo Galilei over 400 years ago.
It just so happens that on the night of January 23-24th (Friday night into Saturday morning) these four large moons will be putting on a must see show. A triple shadow transit!
The video above from NASA outlines that transits and events as they unfold on the night of January 23rd. I have listed them below giving the Central Standard times.
Current amateur astronomy information such as points of interest and events in the night sky, star party dates, educational information, telescopes buying tips and much more.
