The next few weeks mark our last good views of Saturn as it begins to set earlier in the evening. By the end of January, the ringed planet will disappear below the horizon by about 7:30 P.M. local time.
For now, Saturn is still 30° high in the southwest an hour after sunset and sets around 9 P.M. local time. It glows at magnitude 0.9, making it easy to find amid the faint stars of Aquarius the Water-bearer. The nearest star with roughly the same magnitude lies to the lower left (south) of the planet – that’s 1st-magnitude Fomalhaut in Piscis Austrinus.
Sunday, December 31
Jupiter ends the month standing stationary against the stars of Aries at 10 A.M. EST. This ends its retrograde loop; now the gas giant will begin moving east. The bright planet is visible all evening, rising before the Sun sets and setting around 2 A.M. local time. By an hour after sunset, it stands some 50° high in the southeast, above the magnitude 2.5 star Mekar in Cetus.
Early risers today can spot another bright planet standing above a bright star: Venus sits 10.5° above the famous red giant Antares in Scorpius today. Look for the two an hour (or slightly more) before sunrise – they are in the southeast, with Venus about 20° high and Antares some 8° above the horizon, directly below it. Venus is the clear winner in terms of brightness, shining at magnitude –4. Antares is still a bright star, though, at magnitude 1.1 – it the 15th brightest sun in our sky, in fact. You may be able to spot its brilliant red hue with your naked eyes; the color will certainly come through in binoculars or a telescope.
Under magnification, Venus appears 14″ wide and in a gibbous phase, some 78 percent lit. By tomorrow, the planet will close in on another of the Scorpion’s stars, standing less than 1° north of magnitude 2.6 Beta (β) Scorpii.
Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:44 P.M.
Moonrise: 9:22 P.M.
Moonset: 10:31 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (80%)
Monday, January 1
The Moon reaches apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its orbit, at 10:28 A.M. EST this morning. It will then sit 251,599 miles (404,909 kilometers) away.
Following in Jupiter’s footsteps, Mercury is stationary today at 11 P.M. EST. The solar system’s smallest and speediest planet has started to pull away from the Sun; you might catch a brief glimpse of it in the morning sky about 30 to 40 minutes before sunrise, when it is some 8° high in the southeast and glowing at magnitude 0.5. You’ll need a clear horizon and likely binoculars to aid your search – make sure to put any optics away well before the Sun will rise from your location, which may differ slightly from the times given below.
Regardless of whether you can spot Mercury, you’ll certainly see Venus, still magnitude –4. A full hour before sunrise it is nearly 20° high and now less than 1° north of magnitude 2.6 Beta Scorpii.
Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:45 P.M.
Moonrise: 10:21 P.M.
Moonset: 10:53 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (72%)
Tuesday, January 2
Did you know that our orbit around the Sun isn’t perfectly circular, but just slightly elliptical? Today, Earth reaches perihelion, the closest point to the Sun in its orbit around our star, at 8 P.M. EST. At that time, the Earth-Sun distance is just 91.4 million miles (147.1 million km). The average distance between the two is 93 million miles (150 million km) – this distance is defined as one astronomical unit, or AU. We’ll reach aphelion, Earth’s farthest point from the Sun, in early July.
Orion may get most of the attention in the winter sky, but it’s not the only constellation worth studying on chilly evenings. To the Hunter’s north is Auriga, a large, roughly circular constellation whose brightest star is magnitude 0.1 Capella. This constellation holds three Messier objects: all young, open clusters of stars. They are M36, M37, and M38.
M36 is a 12′-wide group of about 60 suns that shines at magnitude 6.3. It’s located just over 5.5° west-southwest of 3rd-magnutde Theta (θ) Aurigae, but it’s probably easier to locate by instead looking 6° northeast of bright magnitude 1.7 Beta Tauri, also called Elnath.
M37 lies about 3.7° east-southeast of M36. This next cluster is just a touch fainter (magnitude 6.2) but twice as wide and contains more than eight times as many stars.
Finally, let’s jump to M38, which sits 2.3° northwest of M36. This is the faintest of the three at magnitude 7.4, though its nearly as wide as M37.
Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:46 P.M.
Moonrise: 11:20 P.M.
Moonset: 11:13 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (63%)
Wednesday, January 3
Last Quarter Moon occurs at 10:30 P.M. EST. Because the Moon won’t rise until after midnight, this evening is a great time to enjoy one of the wintertime sky’s most stunning sights: the Orion Nebula (M42).
This huge, active star-forming region is visible to the naked eye as a slight fuzzy patch around what appears to be a single star of magnitude 4.7, which lies just below (south-southwest) of the easternmost star in Orion’s Belt, magnitude 1.7 Alnitak.
But this magnitude 4.7 star is actually four stars crammed into a space just 22″ apart; these are the stars of the Trapezium Cluster, visible with any small telescope. Surrounding them is the gauzy haze of the Orion Nebula, which stretches nearly 1.5′ at its widest and glows at magnitude 4. Its gases have birthed and are now being sculpted by the bright stars of the Trapezium, as well as many other suns still embedded within the nebula.
Take some time with this object however you are observing it – with binoculars, a telescope, or by taking images. This breathtaking region of stellar birth and evolution is a treasure trove for astronomers seeking to understand the life cycles of stars and the clouds they grow from, and it also paints a beautiful picture in the cold, dark winter sky that everyone can enjoy.
Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:47 P.M.
Moonrise: –
Moonset: 11:33 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (54%)
Thursday, January 4
The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks this morning, with the best viewing opportunities in the few hours of darkness before dawn. The maximum zenithal rate for this year’s Quadrantids is expected to be around 80 meteors per hour, though this rate is calculated for a time when the shower radiant is directly overhead. It won’t be that high early in the morning, so observers should expect rates closer to 25 to 30 meteors per hour – still well above the sporadic background rate (which is just a few meteors per hour on nights when there is no shower).
The Quadrantids’ radiant sits in an area of the sky now claimed by Boötes the Herdsman. It is some 60° high in the east about 90 minutes before sunrise, about 30° to the left of the bright red giant Arcturus, Boötes’ brightest star. Other bright stars in the area include Vega and Deneb, both closer to the horizon.
This shower is named for the now-defunct constellation Quadrans Muralis, which was first created in 1795. It did not survive the 1922 adoption of the modern constellations by the International Astronomical Union, which gave us the 88 official star patterns we recognize today.
The Quadrantid meteor shower is known for producing the occasional fireball, or particularly bright meteor, so keep an eye out for these as you try to stay warm on this chilly early January morning. Although the Moon hangs in the morning sky as well, it is a thin crescent in the south that won’t interfere with the shower much.
Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:48 P.M.
Moonrise: 12:20 A.M.
Moonset: 11:53 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (44%)
