2023 will not be an astronomical year very rich in major events, except discovery, always possible, of a spectacular comet. The cometary year will however begin with the appearance at the end of January of comet C/2022 E3 ZTF, the subject of the next column, and for which the most optimistic forecasters predict visibility at the limit of the naked eye.
Expected in July 2025, the next solar maximum is likely to be very intense. The next three years will therefore be very favorable to its observation with probable many visible spots without telescopes but with eclipse-type glasses. This intense activity also increases the probability of being able to observe rare aurora borealis from our region.
On October 28, we will be offered a partial lunar eclipse between 8:03 p.m. and 12:27 a.m. It will be a small eclipse with only 12% of the Moon’s diameter in the Earth’s shadow at the time of maximum at 10:14 p.m. It will be the only one this year from home.
On November 9 the planet Venus will be occulted by the Moon between 10h49m to 11h54 at a good height in the sky making this observation easy even in broad daylight.
Shooting stars from August 8 to 12 from the Perseid cluster will be observable in the first part of the night in a moonless sky.
Also in August, the 31st will be the day of the Blue Moon corresponding to the second Full Moon of that month.