January guide for astronomy fans – what to look for in the sky as you enter the new year

Currently, the most recommended leisure activities are those that can be enjoyed in the fresh air and away from the crowd – in nature. Astronomical observations are, as always, a great reason to escape the city for a few hours. What in the sky, if they are not covered by clouds, can we see in January? Astronomical Dedicated Portal Provides Monthly Summary “Starspace.LV“.

The closest planet to Mercury, Mercury, is visible in the second half of January after sunset. You should look southwest, and the best place to observe would be where the horizon is free, for example, by sea. Venus, on the other hand, can be seen in the early morning before sunrise, but it is already very close to the horizon and difficult to observe. In the second half of January, it was very difficult to observe Venus due to the sun.

Mars is still clearly visible, which we can notice early on, but it will soon disappear after midnight. To find Mars, look up at the sky in the southwest after sunset. According to StarspaceLV, Pisces will move from the galaxy to Mars in early January, but by January 20 it will have reached Uranus. Of course, unlike Mars, it is not possible to see Uranus with the naked eye – you need very powerful telescopes, or, you need an amateur telescope.

It’s hard to see the gas companies Jupiter and Saturn in January – they set up soon after sunset.
You can see Neptune, but it will be “too short” with the telescope – you will need a smaller telescope. “Starspace.LV” suggests that it would be better to postpone Neptune’s observations until autumn, when visibility would be much better.

One of the most beautiful scenes in the night sky is always the meteor flowing. However, January is not very plentiful in this regard. The peak of the highest quadrant flow is already over, and observations are disturbed by cloudy skies, but the peak of the Delta Sandrant flow is expected to attract attention on January 15th and 16th. The radiation from this stream is in the constellation of Cancer and does not interfere with moonlight observations. True, this is a small flow, meaning no more than five meteors can be seen in an hour. A similar situation prevailed at the Perenike Hair Flow, which peaked on January 18th and 19th. Radiation wakes up before midnight, but our head is at dawn. They are at high meteorites (about 65 kilometers per second), but no more than five meteors per hour are expected. Taking care of good luck does not hurt anyone.

“January is a good time to get to know Gemini’s constellations – it’s easy to find. Here’s how to do it – you need to find the constellation Orion, and then you need to connect the regal (leg) with the Bethelk (shoulder). If this line is stretched upwards, it will reach the sum of the Gemini constellations. Of course, you can use the mobile zoomed reality app to help you find stars, stars, planets and other objects in the sky. There are many and varied such apps in the official Android and iOS app stores – paid and high quality free versions.

The brightest of the twin stars are Castor and Pollux. The most popular object in the Gemini constellation is the open galaxy M35, which can be perceived with the naked eye and is well visible through a telescope or small telescope, writes “Starspace.LV”. Below is another open star cluster, NGC 2158, but this is already very hard to see because it is four times farther away than the M35. In the constellation of twins there is a remnant of a supernova – IC443, which is informally called the Jellyfish Nebula. Burnova may have erupted several thousand years ago, perhaps even tens of thousands of years ago, but has a neutron star at its center.
Not far from Castor’s “knee” is Mepsuta, another open star cluster – NGC 2266, which contains many older stars. This collection looks especially sexy in long exposure pictures that are of interest to astronomical photographers.

Turning to the Pollux page, “Starspace.LV” indicates that its “waist” is marked by the double star Wassets (Delta Geminorum). Near this star is the planetary nebula NGC 2392, also known as the Eskimo nebula, although this effect can only be seen in long exposure images. Halfway between Pollux and Castor is an interesting planetary nebula – NGC 2371/72, which William Herschel considered in 1785 to be two separate objects. An OIII filter is recommended to see this fog.

One major challenge that requires at least a 10-inch telescope to cook is the spiral galaxy NGC 2357. The binary galaxy is full of open galaxies. In addition to the ones already listed, you can also find NGC 2355 and NGC 2395 located at the “foot” of Amani. Another planetary nebula is the Abel 21 or Jellyfish Nebula, bordering the Little Dog galaxy. It is also recommended to use filters (OIII or narrow bands) to see this fog.

Finally, we can turn to Castor, the richest star system – it has six stars. The telescope shows three stars, each a pair of two stars indistinguishable from the telescope. Custer is just 52 light years away.