Sky Events

January Sky Events:

January 2   New Moon.  

January 4:  SAS star party at Cedar Hills Observatory.  Quadrantid meteor shower at peek.  Saturn is very close to the Crab Nebula.

January 10:  First quarter moon.  Venus at greatest western elongation.

January 13:  Geminid Meteor shower peeks tonight.

January  17: Saturn will be visible all night. 

January 18:  Full moon.

January  25: Last quarter Moon.

January 28: SAS monthly meeting at the Library Center on South Campbell.

 

Saturn is the 'star' of this month for planets this month.  With the planet rising before sunset, it will be high in the nighttime sky for great viewing.  As the month begins, it will be making its way closer to M 1, the Crab Nebula, during the month.  

Jupiter rises about two hours after Saturn.  It will be in the constellation Gemini.  The moons of Jupiter will be putting on an interesting show during this month.  They will appear to be edge-on to our sight of view.  The moons will be passing in front of each other during the month.  Please check the January issue of Astronomy or Sky and Telescope.

 

Eridanus is a constellation that often gets overlooked.  It winds from the western 'belt' of Orion, then winds towards the south.  It's brightest star is below the horizon.  It does have several bright objects.

NGC 1535 is a fairly bright planetary nebula that can be easily found about 4 degrees east of gamma Eridanus.  It has a very bluish color. It should be easily visible in an 8" telescope.

NGC 1084 is a small galaxy that is located just over two degrees west of eta Eridanus.  With a 10 inch telescope and averted vision, this galaxy stands out well.

NGC 1407 is a fairly bright and large galaxy that is located about 6 degrees southwest of gamma Eridanus.  Look for at very tight group of 3 stars just to the south of this galaxy.

 Taurus is known for one of the brightest Messier objects, and for the most famous of the supernova remnants.  

M 45 is one of the several Messier objects that can be seen with the unaided eyes.  It is also known as the Pleiades. It contains at least 6 stars that can be seen, and at other times, 7 to 8 stars.   This object is best viewed with a pair of binoculars.

M 1 was the first object that Charles Messier listed in his list of 109 or 110 objects.  It is located just one and one-half degrees northwest of zeta Taurus.  This supernova remnant can be hard to find.  It is only a round object in smaller telescopes, but a 16 inch telescope will start to reveal an oval shaped object.

NGC 1746 is an open cluster that is made up of at least 3 different open clusters.  It should be easily spotted with a 6" telescope.  Use a wide-view eyepiece to view this.  It is located towards the center of the constellation, just about 7 degrees southwest of beta Taurus.

Another pretty open cluster in Taurus is NGC 1647.  It is rather small, but compact.  It is located about 3 degrees northeast from alpha Taurus, known as Aldebaran.