The Night Sky in January 2026
The winter solstice is over a new year has arrived and our days will gradually lengthen, we can still enjoy the winter constellations and over the month we will start to see those of spring starting to rise.
In other countries such as China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and other S E Asian countries their ‘new year’ takes the form of the Spring Festival. This is actually a Lunar New Year and is marked as the second lunation of the after the Winter Solstice. This does not start until the 17th Of February and it is a Horse Year.
There are a number of events this month, let’s hope for some clear skies.
The Moon: As we start January the Moon reaches full phase on the 3rd. The new phase starts on 18th January
On the 27th January the waxing gibbous Moon will occult the Pleiades commencing at 20:30 UT.
In North America the 1st nation Peoples referred to it as the ‘Wolf moon’ because of it association with the wolves howling in the deep winter nights. It has also been called ‘The Moon After Yule’ or the ‘Ice Moon’
Meteor Showers: The Quantarids, peak on January 3rd to 4th. https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/quadrantids.html
This is meant to be one of the strongest meteor showers of the year, let’s hope we have clear skies. As the Moon is at full phase this will impact the visibility of the shower.
No visual aids needed, best observed after midnight as this is when our part of the Earth is facing the direction of travel around the Sun and therefore we are likely to get more collisions with the tail of debris associated with asteroid 2003 EH1
Why are they called the Quantarids ?
Before the International Astronomical Union formalised the constellation, we use today there were many other constellations, more properly, asterisms, named by the astronomers that plotted their positions in the night sky. One of these was Quadrans Muralis, named after a wall mounted sextant like device used to plot star positions. It was the invention of the French astronomer Jerome Lelande in 1795. The famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe used such a device to make his incredibly accurate observations before the telescope. It was also much used by Arab, Indian and Chinese astronomers.
From https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/quadrantids.html
The Planets
Mercury: Is close to the Sun and not visible
Venus: Is only 1° away from the Sun and will not be visible.
Mars: Is effectively 6° close to the Sun and like Mercury & Venus not visible.
Jupiter: Goes into retrograde motion back through Gemini. For those with a wide field telescope on 2nd January it is within 1° of NGC 2372. It reaches opposition on 10th January and will be 4.2 au distant but still shining at -2.7 magnitude.
Also on the 2nd January Callisto will make and appearance from behind Jupiter at 02:00 UT
On the 11th at 17:50 UT Europa will make a transit across Jupiter, in this transit, Europa and it’s shadow will combine at one point. Io will do a similar touching transit on the 13th between 03:39 ~ 06:03 UT
On the 26th Callisto will make a transit followed by its shadow.
(in-the-sky.org)
Saturn: Saturn’s rings will be only at 1° at the start of the year, but as the year progresses the tilt will become more obvious.
The 9th January will see a shadow transit of Titan, it starts in daylight but completes at 22:22UT
On 17th January 20:23 Triton will reappear from behind Saturn’s disc.
Uranus: Is in Taurus and in retrograde motion
Neptune: A evening object in Pisces, visible until midnight. It is an 8th magnitude object, best seen on moonless nights.
The best constellations this month
Looking south the evening sky in January is dominated by four major constellations early evening.
Orion is an easy constellation to spot with its distinctive square crossed in the middle by the three starts of his belt. Hanging down from his belt is his sword and with averted vision there is a fizzy area. Small telescopes and binoculars will reveal a slightly green cloud of gas and 4 stars in the middle. This is M42 the Orion nebula. Larger telescopes will reveal more structure and cameras will bring out the colour even after short exposures.
Our eyes are poor at detecting colours in Deep Sky Objects (DSO) as they are more sensitized to the green wavelengths.
As a sky marker the Orion’s belt is useful as it lies just below the celestial equator
The brightest star in the sky is Sirius which can be seen below Orion. This lies in the constellation of Canis Major, Orion’s hunting dog. It is a double star with a small companion called the Pup, a white dwarf.
Use Orion’s belt as a pointer to Taurus the Bull . The head of Taurus the Bull, also called the Hyades. A good V shaped cluster of stars which look beautiful in binoculars. Further up to the right is another cluster of stars, the Seven Sisters or the Pleiades. In New Zealand these are a summer constellation and mark the star of the Māori new year. They also appear in many other sky legends around the world and it is a common thing that they are nearly always female in the legends.
Up to the left of Orion is an oblong of four stars, this is Gemini, the Twins.
The brightest two are Castor & Pollux. M35 is a nice binocular open cluster of stars 2,900 light years away and a size almost that of a full Moon. Messier 35 – Wikipedia
To the north we can see the major constellations of Ursa Major & Minor, Cassiopeia, Draco and Cephus. Ursa Minor is now in its vertical position
Look North to pick out Auriga, the Charioteer. Lying between Gemini and Perseus
It is home to three Messier objects, M36,37,& 38, all clusters plus IC405 the Flaming Star nebula.
There are also three NGC objects, 1893, 1907, 1931 plus IC410. I might give that a go with a wider field camera to see if I can bag them all.
Keep looking up and I’ll see you at our meetings.
Frank Dutton.
