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General Introduction To the Year 2005

2005, for afficionados, is a Martian campaign year. Mars comes at its opposition, that is at is nearest Earth. And this year, like in 2003, this opposition is perihelic. Mars is at its nearest Sun as it is at its nearest Earth at the same time, making that Mars will be reaching an important 20.2" of apparent diameter. For more casual observers, it's a good opportunity to begin to look at Mars. On the other hand 2005 will grant the observers with an hybrid eclipse in April (visible as annular in Panama and Columbia), an annular eclipse in October (Africa) as Moon will be occulted by penumbra only in April and occulted only partially in October. Venus in 2005 will be a fine evening star starting before mid-year. Jupiter will be about Spica of the Virgin all year long as Saturn will remarkably hover about cluster M44 -the Beehive, since September. As far as space is concerned, Japanese Hayabusa craft is to arrive at its target-asteroid during summer as a new NASA orbiter for Mars will be launched in August. Cassini is continuing its 4-year tour of the Saturn's system as as by year's beginning, on January 14th, the ESA Huygens probe it's carrying will descend into Titan's atmosphere