Derby and District Astronomical Society
January 2008 Sky Notes
The evening skies this month are dominated by the constellation Orion which rides high in the south. The three bright stars of Orion's Belt may
be used as pointers to other bright winter stars. Extending an imaginary line left (east) from Orion's Belt one comes to the dazzling Sirius,
the brightest star in the sky. Sirius appears to flash different colours as the star is relatively low down as seen from the UK and as such the
light has to pass through a relatively long path through our turbulent atmosphere. Extending our imaginary line from Orion's Belt in the
opposite direction (west) one finds the reddish star Aldebaran in Taurus. Aldebaran is accompanied by the Hyades star cluster and continuing
our imaginary line further we arrive at the diminutive sparkle of the Pleiades star cluster (M45). The bright reddish star Betelgeuse marks the
upper left of Orion as seen from the UK and to its right is Bellatrix. Extending a line from Bellatrix through Betelgeuse to the left (east)
one comes to the bright white star Procyon in Canis Minor. The lower right portion of Orion is marked by the brilliant white star Rigel and
extending another line from it through Betelgeuse and upwards one comes to the stars Castor and Pollux - The Twins of Gemini. High above Orion
are the stars of Auriga, the brightest being the yellowish star Capella which is almost overhead at this time of year. The constellation Leo
is now rising above the eastern horizon and is currently host to the planet Saturn. In the north The Plough is practically standing on its tail
with the 'W' of Cassiopeia to the west of it across the celestial pole. In the west the autumn stars of Pegasus, Andromeda and Aries are sinking
to the horizon and will soon be lost from view.
Mercury begins the year hidden by the glare of the Sun but then pulls away for a somewhat unfavourable evening apparition as January
progresses. The planet reaches a greatest eastern elongation from the Sun on the 22nd January and may be glimpsed very low in the south west
after sunset around this time. Venus is still a morning object rising around 5 am (that's 3 hours before the Sun) at the start of the month.
Venus is quite close to the star Antares during the second week of January. The planet will become lost in the glare of the Sun towards the
end of January. Mars is recently past opposition and is a -1.5 magnitude object in
Taurus. It is highest around midnight and through the telescope some detail should be visible on the 15 arc-second diameter disc. Jupiter is too
close to the Sun to be visible this month. Saturn is a +0.7 magnitude object in Leo and rises around 9 pm at the start of the month and by 7 pm
at the end of January. The planet is about 9 degrees to the 'lower left' of the star Regulus as they rise in the eastern sky.
The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks around 06:40 UT the 3rd January and so the best time for viewing it from the UK is in the still-dark pre-dawn
skies on that date. This year at the peak the Moon will be thin waning crescent and should not interfere with viewing conditions.
The Moon is new on the 8th, at first quarter on the 15th, full on the 22nd, and at last quarter on the 30th.
The following charts show the sky as it appears from the UK on the 1st January at 23:00 GMT. The stars will have risen to the same position an hour earlier on the 15th January at 22:00 GMT and by 21:00 GMT on the 31st January. The charts show the sky looking north, east, south and west respectively. You may have to scroll to see the whole of each chart. The sky maps were generated using Stellarium 0.9.0, which can be obtained for free at http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/.
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