January Sky Notes

The Torbay Astronomical Society will be holding public and outreach observing sessions at the Observatory in the grounds of Torquay Boys’ Grammar School and at locations on the seafront (weather permitting). We also plan to stream a live broadcast of observing sessions to the National Astronomy Week website and have arranged a full observational evening open to the general public, for Thursday 6th February, when members will have a variety of telescopes in operation (weather permitting) and will be available to answer questions about astronomy in general. As usual, if the weather is inclement, the meeting will proceed with question and answer sessions, discussions about buying telescopes or equipment and short presentations. All taking place in room PL4.

The title of the NAW is “Chasing the Moon” and the idea is to use the Moon as a guide to finding each of the planets as it passes by them through the week, being close to Saturn as a slim crescent on 1st through to a First Quarter Moon close to Mars on 9th. In some parts of the country this will actually be seen as a rare event called an “occultation”. The Moon will pass right in front of Mars which will then not be visible until the Moon moves away some time later. Observers try to accurately time this event. Whilst it is not predicted to be a complete occultation from our latitudes, it will be interesting to see just how close Mars seems to come to the Moon. Again, the distances involved are vastly different and this is a purely line-of-sight effect.

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Sky Notes

Please note all times given in this article are in GMT and as the clocks have changed that is the current time.

Sky Schedule

Sun: At the start of the month there is just 8 hours of daylight but as January progresses the length of day will increase by 1 hour and 15 minutes. On 3rd the Earth will be at its closest point in its orbit to the Sun: it is Winter in the Northern Hemisphere because the North Pole is tilted away from the Sun, spreading its energy over a greater surface area.

Mercury:  Mercury is not visible this month..

Venus:  Venus can be seen in the early evening sky in the South-West and close to the horizon. By mid-month it lies very close to Saturn, on the border of Pisces and Aquarius. On 10th it reaches its greatest eastern elongation (distance from the Sun as seen in the sky).

Mars:  Mars rises in the Eastern sky about an hour after darkness falls and can easily be seen forming a “line of three” with the bright stars, Castor and Pollux, in Gemini. The red planet is then visible all night. The Moon passes close to Mars on 14th.

Jupiter:  Jupiter lies quite high in the South-East and dominates the evening sky. It is visible throughout the night. The giant planet can be found above the “V-shaped” pattern of stars that form the Bull’s head. This pattern is a widely spread star cluster called “The Hyades”. To the right, and slightly higher than Jupiter lies another, much more  closely bound, cluster known as the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters. This cluster is also in the constellation of Taurus. The Moon lies close to Jupiter on 10th.

Saturn: Saturn is seen against the background stars bordering Aquarius and Pisces, low in the south-west. The Moon is close to Saturn on 4th. From 15th – 20th, Saturn enjoys a dance with Venus, (closest approach on 18th) as the latter planet passes by the former in the same area of sky. However the true distances of each planet are vastly different to each other and this is purely a line-of-sight effect. All of the bright planets (and some of the fainter ones) can be seen in the night sky over the next couple of months (see main article). The Moon will also pass by each of the planets as the month progresses.

Uranus and Neptune: Uranus is visible almost all night long throughout January and is seen against the background stars bordering Aries and Taurus. It lies below, and to the right of the Pleiades star cluster, in a similar position to Jupiter on the other side of the cluster.  At magnitude 5.8 it is visible in binoculars.  Look for a tiny greenish disc compared to the pinpoints which are the stars. Neptune is seen against the background stars of Pisces in the South-West (below and at about the 8’o’clock position to the asterism known as the Circlet which represents one of the fish).  At magnitude 7.9 it will require large binoculars or a small telescope to find it.  Neptune displays a smaller and truly blue disc compared to that of Uranus although it will appear only as a bluish star to most small instruments 

Meteor Shower:  The only meteor shower this month occurs from 1st to 6th January. The meteors seem to radiate from a point near the end of the handle of the Plough but is known as the Quadrantids meteor shower as it is named after a now defunct constellation, Quadrans Muralis.

Moon: The First Quarter Moon occurs on January 6th with Full Moon on 13th, Third Quarter then follows on 21st January and Full Moon occurs on 29th.