Newsgroups: sci.astro

Here's my annual adaptation of the Sky and Telescope Magazine
Sky-Gazer's Almanac, for 1993, from the Jan 1993 issue, in calendar(1)
format.  All times are for the Mountain zone:  MST = UTC - 7, MDT = UTC
- 6, add 2 hours for Eastern time.  I leave out a few events I think are
really uninteresting to the casual observer like me.

A typical question is, "why are the sunrise/set and twilight min/max
dates not on the solstices?"  It is because of the "equation of time",
that is, the Sun runs "early" or "late" due to the ellipticity of the
Earth's orbit.  Of course, the solstices and equinoxes themselves drift
about 1/4 day later per year (versus the calendar) until we throw in a
leap day every fourth year to reset the calendar to them.

(I no longer have time to keep up with sci.astro, so if you need to
discuss this posting with me, send me mail.)

Jan  3  Earth perihelion, 8pm MST, 91,401,800 miles
Jan  4  latest sunrise of the year, northern hemisphere
Jan  7  Mars at opposition
Jan  7  latest morning twilight, northern hemisphere
Jan 19  Venus greatest elongation, 47 degrees, evening
Feb  1  Neptune 1d5m N of Uranus, morning
Feb 20  Mercury greatest elongation, 18 degrees, evening
Mar 20  spring begins, 7:41am MST
Mar 29  Jupiter at opposition
Apr  5  Mercury greatest elongation, 28 degrees, morning
Apr 25  Mars aphelion
May 21  73.6% partial solar eclipse, Canada and western US
Jun  4  total lunar eclipse starts 6:12am MDT, visible from NA
Jun 10  Venus greatest elongation, 46 degrees, morning
Jun 14  Jupiter aphelion
Jun 14  earliest sunrise of year, northern hemisphere
Jun 17  Mercury greatest elongation, 25 degrees, evening
Jun 17  earliest twilight of year, northern hemisphere
Jun 21  longest day of year, 15h01m at 40N, northern hemisphere
Jun 21  summer begins, 3:00am MDT
Jun 24  latest evening twilight, northern hemisphere
Jun 27  latest sunset of the year, northern hemisphere
Jul  4  Earth aphelion, 4pm MDT, 94,505,000 miles
Jul 11  Uranus and Neptune at opposition
Aug  4  Mercury greatest elongation, 19 degrees, morning
Aug 19  Saturn at opposition
Sep  5  Jupiter and Mars 1 degree apart, evening
Sep 22  fall begins, 6:22pm MDT
Sep 23  Jupiter and Mercury 2 degrees apart, evening
Oct  4  Mars and Mercury 2 degrees apart, evening
Oct 13  Mercury greatest elongation, 25 degrees, evening
Oct 31  Neptune 1d6m NW of Uranus
Nov  6  Mercury transits Sun for Asia, E Africa, Japan, Australia
Nov  8  Venus and Jupiter 1/2 degree apart, morning
Nov 13  92.8% partial solar eclipse for Australia/Antarctica
Nov 14  Venus and Mercury 1 degree apart, morning
Nov 22  Mercury greatest elongation, 20 degrees, morning
Nov 28  total lunar eclipse, N and S America, total 11:02-11:50pm MST
Dec  4  earliest end of evening twilight, northern hemisphere
Dec  7  earliest sunset of year, northern hemisphere
Dec 21  shortest day of year, 9h20m at 40N, northern hemisphere
Dec 21  winter begins, 1:26pm MST

Annual astro:

Jan  3	Quadrantids, range Jan 1-6, peak Jan 3-4, ZHR 100
Apr 21	Lyrids, range Apr 19-25, peak Apr 21-22, ZHR 12
May  5	Eta Aquarids, range May 1-8, peak May 5-6, ZHR 40
Jul 28	Delta Aquarids, range Jul 15 - Aug 15, peak Jul 28-29, ZHR 20
Aug 12	Perseids, range Jul 25 - Aug 18, peak Aug 12, ZHR 60
Oct 21	Orionids, range Oct 16-26, peak Oct 21, ZHR 20
Nov  3	Taurids, range Oct 20 - Nov 30, peak Nov 3, ZHR 12
Nov 17	Leonids, range Nov 15-19, peak Nov 17-18, ZHR 10
Dec 13	Geminids, range Dec 7-15, peak Dec 13-14, ZHR 60
Newsgroups: sci.astro