The Moon will be at First Quarter on the 4th, rising at 11am and setting at midnight. She’ll be Full on the 11th, rising at 4.40pm and setting at 8.45am next morning. She’ll be at Last Quarter on the 18th, rising at 1.15am and setting at 10.30 next day. New Moon will be on the 26th, rising at 8.30am and setting at 7.30pm.
The first and last weeks are for Lunaphiles and the middle two for deep sky observers and astrophotographers.
Planets. The 1st of this month continues the end of December’s situation in the west with Jupiter and Mercury going down an hour after the Sun, followed by Neptune and very bright Venus. Behind them are the Moon and Uranus. During the first week the Moon leaves them to travel eastwards and the planets string out with Jupiter getting closer to the Sun and Venus moving further away, till by the 15th, Jupiter is too close to the Sun for safe observing.
Mercury can be seen during the first half of the month, setting some 30mins to an hour after the Sun, it'll be fraught with twilight problems, but worth a try. Perhaps the 6th to the 8th is the best time to seek it.
Neptune sets 4 hours after the Sun on the 1st, and one hour after on the 31st, in late twilight. Uranus sets from 6 hours after the Sun on the 1st, to 3 hours by the 31st. So there’s time yet to observe these blue/green worlds and possibly the moons of Uranus too, but a good telescope and a camera are the best tools for them.
The sky belongs to Venus this month with some 4 hours centre stage, a very bright Evening Star. By mid month she’ll be showing less then half phase, easy to see in big binoculars or small telescopes. On the 22nd, she plays a dodging game with Uranus over the last two weeks of January, getting to within a degree on the 22nd, and joined by the Moon on the 29th and 30th.
Over on the eastern side we have an almost apologetic Saturn, without its ring system. At m0.9, much fainter and more easily mistaken for a yellow star. It rises at 10.30pm on the 1st and 8.30pm on the 31st, and gets quite high in the sky, high enough for photographers and visual observers to catch the very narrow rings, about a 1° tilt (0° in September). A benefit here is that the moons will be easier to see and will also be visible transiting the disc and being occulted by it, just as happens with the moons and Jupiter’s disc.
Mars is too close to the Sun all month to be observed.
Meteor showers. January is a busy month for meteors but the Quadrantids, from the 1st to the 5th, peaking on the 3rd, is the most prolific, boasting up to 120/hour. All the other showers are in the region of 5/hour at the zenith. The radiant is in Bootes, which comes up in the early hours, but looking for meteors should not be done by looking towards the radiant. Look instead towards the zenith to see the most and the longest paths to lead back to the radiant, so you can judge if they’re Quadrantids or from Sporadia.
What else? Orion is high in the south all night this month but getting low in the early hours. The Great Orion Nebula is a sight not to be missed in binoculars, a telescope view will amaze you particularly with suitable filters added. Binoculars were made for scanning the Milky Way, extending across the sky through Monoceros, Orion, Gemini, Auriga, Perseus and Cassiopeia. Coming up in the early hours is Leo and Coma Berenices, galaxy country. Though Ursa Major, up all night throughout the year, has more than its share of galaxies. Unfortunately most are quite small and faint and need a good telescope to do them justice, by eye or camera.
The ISS passes over Doncaster on the
21st from 18:23 in the SW to 18:26 in the SSE getting 28° high
22nd from 18:49 in the WSW to 18:51 in the SSW getting 37° high
Iridium Flares to be seen from Doncaster
4th at 17:07:06, 10° high in the SW
4th at 17:38:22, 17° high in the WNW
5th at 17:23:21, 20° high in the WNW
15th at 17:26:00, 27° high in the SSW
15th at 18:52:13, 37° high in the SSE
Check www.heavens-above.com for more details.
And for detailed sky charts drop me a note at our website www.donastro.org.uk