The International Astronomy Center reported that the new year will witness many distinguished astronomical events, the most important of which are three lunar eclipses, two solar eclipses, in addition to several meteor showers, indicating that 2020 will also witness a distinctive association at the end of the year between Jupiter and Saturn.
The center’s director, Mohamed Shawkat Odeh, confirmed that the first solar eclipse this year will be on June 21, which is a annular eclipse in both the Sultanate of Oman, Yemen and minor parts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, while it will be a partial eclipse in the UAE and the rest of the Arab countries. He explained that the second eclipse will be complete on December 14th, and it will not be seen from the Arab region in any way.
Moon disk
Odeh added in press statements yesterday: «As for the lunar eclipses, the first will be partial on January 10, as it will lose 90% of the moon’s disk, but it will not be noticeable to people because it is a semi-shadow eclipse, while the second eclipse will be semi-shadow and also partial And that on the fifth of next June, and it will lose 58% of the moon, and this is not a large percentage, which makes it more difficult to observe, to the point that many may not notice any change in the luminosity of the moon easily, and the eclipse will be seen from the Arab region with the eastern region being better » .
As for the third eclipse, it will also be - according to Dr. Awda - almost a partial shadow, on the fifth of next July, and it will lose 37% of the moon, and it will be seen from West Africa only, and it will not be noticeable in the naked eye due to the lack of what will be reduced from a disk the moon.
Important events
Regarding the main meteor showers phenomenon during 2020, Odeh stated that the first shower is the meteor shower of “quadruples” relative to the old stellar group “tetra morales”, and reached its peak yesterday (08:20 am GMT), while the second important meteor shower this year It is the abundance of meteors "Eta Al-Dlawiyat" relative to Aquarius, as the radiation point is located in Aquarius, and its climax will be on the fifth of May next (9:00 pm GMT), and it is expected to see 50 meteors per hour, peak time when monitoring from an ideal location It is completely dark, and the best spots this year to see the showers are the central and southern regions I West Asia, and this includes the far eastern regions of the Arab world.
The director of the International Astronomy Center continued: “The third meteor shower is the most popular meteor shower. It is the meteor shower of Perseus, relative to the Perseus group in which the radiation point is located, and its climax will be on August 12 (one hour until four o'clock in the morning GMT), and it is expected to see 110 meteors per hour peak time when monitoring from an ideal location is completely dark, and the Arab region is suitable to monitor this storm on Wednesday night ». As for the last major showers this year, according to Awda - it will be the meteor shower of twins, relative to the Twin Towers (Gemini) in which the radiation point is located, and the peak of the showers will be on December 14th (00:50 GMT), and it is expected to see 150 meteors in The time is peak time when observing from a perfect and completely dark place, and the Arab region is suitable for monitoring this show, and this meteor shower is the best meteor show during the year ».
Coupling every 20 years
One of the distinctive astronomical events during the new year will be the conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn on December 21st (01:22 noon GMT), as the pairing is simpler than the occurrence of two bodies near Outwardly from each other as seen from Earth, noting that Jupiter's association with Saturn occurs almost every 20 years. He said: «On this day when we will look to the west about half an hour after sunset, we will see two bright semi-adjacent bodies, the brightest is Jupiter and the other is Saturn.
• 4 meteor showers in Asia and the Arab region will witness this year.