What's Up?

This page shows a brief summary of what interesting things we can see in the sky this month.  

A more detailed version of 'What's Up' this month is available as a downloadable Word document right at the bottom of this page. 

Always the darkest month of the year, the sky is dominated by Orion and his retinue, worth a trip into the country just to see them; Uranus Conjoins with Mars.

The Sun - is at sunspot minimum, and has been quiet of late. 

The Moon

The phases of the Moon are as follows:

• Last Quarter - 6th January
• New - 13th January
• First Quarter - 20th January
• Full - 28th January

Darkest nights for observing will be from the 10th to the 17th January.

Becomes an evening object this month, ok in last two weeks, best on 24th January.

A morning planet in the sunrise and getting lower each day.

Still the best and brightest planet, highest about 7:00 pm in Pisces.

 Still low in the Southwest, best about 5:00 pm before he sets in the dusk.

Still close to Jupiter from which he is easy to find.

Easy to find this month, visible all night near Mars (see 'Conjunction' below). 

Between Mars and Jupiter, but getting lower every night.

On the 1st Uranus is 10 degrees left of Mars, on the 31st it is 6 degrees right but on the 18th it will be less than 2 degrees below Mars and in the same telescope field of view.

Comets

No bright comets visible month.

Asteroids

No bright asteroids visible this month.

Meteors

The Quadrantid meteor shower of January 3rd and 4th spoiled by a bright Moon.

Deep Sky 

Good Objects this month are :

• With 7x50 wide angle binoculars sweep the milky-Way from Cassiopeia through Perseus and Auriga to Procyon. Enjoy the Hyades and Pleiades at the same time.

• M57 the Ring Nebula in Lyra between Gamma and Beta Lyrae, not all that difficult. but better in bigger telescopes, you will need a 12 inch or bigger to see the central star.
• M32 The Great Andromeda Galaxy can be easily found from Pegasus or Cassiopeia.
• M15 in Pegasus is the best Globular cluster this month and M27, the Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula is the best planetary nebula. look for the 'Coat hanger' while you’re there.
• Try some Caldwell Objects for a change.
• C13 The Owl Cluster in Cassiopeia is not difficult for binos or small telescopes. Draw a line from epsilon CAS through delta for about half the distance to find chi CAS which is in the middle of this open cluster also known as NGC457.
• C14 we all know as NGC 869 and 884 the double cluster or sword handle in Perseus.