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Image by Graham Green

January Sky

The Planets

Mercury is best seen at the beginning of the month towards the south-east at around an hour and a half before sunrise; it will be very low in the sky with a magnitude of -0.3.

Venus now appears in the south-western sky after sunset, easily seen throughout the month with a magnitude of -3.9 by the month’s end.

Mars crosses the border of Leo and into Virgo by mid month and is visible in the early dawn sky.  Mars brightens from mag. +0.7 to -0.5 throughout January as its disc size slowly increases from 9 to 11 arcseconds.  Towards the month’s end and under ideal conditions using a reflecting telescope no smaller than 6 inches or a refractor no smaller than 4 inches, interesting features can be made out such as the northern polar cap and the quite large feature of Syrtis Major.

Jupiter is dominant in the southern evening sky at a bright mag.-2.4 and still offers a lot of ‘surface’ detail through a telescope!

Saturn makes its appearance in the morning sky in the constellation of Virgo, lying close to Spica.  Now is a good time to see its shadow cast upon its rings.  Saturn is around mag.1.3 and the rings are nicely presented with a tilt of 15 degrees.

Uranus remains to be seen in Pisces in the south-west at a magnitude of +5.9.  Find this green coloured world in the dark evening sky, a little north of the midpoint between Omega Piscium and Iota Ceti.  

Neptune is best seen through binoculars or a telescope, located in Aquarius near Iota Aquarii at mag 7.9.  Although the planet will be low in the sky, take a look at Neptune on the 12 – 13th as it will be close to Venus.  Neptune’s largest moon Triton will be challenging to spot at mag. +7.8.

Meteors

This month we have the Quadrantids reaching their peak in the early hours of the 4th from 03:30 UT until dawn.  The ZHR is expected to reach 120.  The shower’s radiant is situated to the north of Boötes.  The shower, early as it is, is a worthwhile sight to get up for!

Comets

The 7th magnitude comet C/2009 P1 Garradd is located in the constellation of Hercules this month; binoculars are ideal for observations – best seen on the 1 – 5th and 17 – 31st at around 05:00 UT.

A second but slightly fainter Comet C/2006 T1 Levy appears in Pegasus.  The bright Moon interferes for the first half of the month but from 13 – 28th dark skies will aid observations.

Check out http://www.heavens-above.com/ for further details on the above comets’ positions.

Moon - Watch   

Full Moon: 9th January     New Moon: 23rd January

The gibbous waxing Moon pairs up with Jupiter on the evening of the 2nd.  The 95% lit Moon occults Alpha Cancri on the 11th at 05:30 UT and reappears at 06:00 UT (times vary depending on location).  The Moon and Mars rise together late evening on the 13th.  Another occultation by the Moon on the 19th but this time with the globular cluster of M80 in Scorpius, beginning at 05:10 UT and reappearing at 06:10 UT low in the south-east (times vary depending on location).  The 2% lit waxing crescent Moon will be visible from around 17:00 UT on the 24th.  The crescent Moon and Venus shine together in the evening sky on the 26th.  Mag. +5.9 Uranus and the Moon pair up at 18:30 UT on the 27th. 

The Sun

Earth arrives at its closest point in its orbit to the Sun on the 5th.