The Night Sky in January 2025
The winter solstice is over 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.
There are a number of events this month, let’s hope for some clear skies.
The Moon
On January 29th The lunar new year starts, the first sighting of the Moon in 2025. In China a significant celebration, this year is the year of the Snake. Unlike our star signs which are all along the ecliptic, that path the planets follow, none of the Chinese ones are associated with any asterisms. However the Chinese did use the Moon in their cosmology as it circuited the 28 Xiu the so called Mansions they divided the nights sky with radiating lines from the North polar star region.
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’
Other Lunar events: On January 3rd the Moon will be in its 1st quarter and 1˚˚ from Venus.
There is also a Lunar occultation on January 4th of Saturn, visible from the UK. Starting at 17:18 UT and finishing at 18:26 UT see https://in-the-sky.org/news.php?id=20250104_16_100
Meteor Showers: The Quantarids, peak on January 3rd to 4th.
https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-quadrantid-meteor-shower
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 in the l1st quarter it will not wash out the meteor display. 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.
It now forms part of Boötes and Draco.
From the Celestial Atlas by Alexander Jamieson, 1822.
The Planets
Mercury: Will be very low, just 4˚ above the horizon in the south east as a morning object.
Venus: Best seen around January 10th and hour after sunset in the southwest hitting +4.4 magnitude and as previously mentioned very close to the Moon on the 3rd January.
Mars: Makes its closest approach to the Earth on January 12th. It will be in the constellation of Cancer at a magnitude of -1.4. It will make a good object to image in medium to large telescopes and those refractors with a longer focal length. The actual opposition occurs on 16th January. It will not be as apparently large as in previous oppositions but it is high in the sky and the skies will not be washed out.
Jupiter: Jupiter was in opposition last month and is visible throughout the night at present. It is magnitude -2.6 and in retrograde motion in Taurus and 5˚ north of Aldebaran. It will be getting smaller as the distance between us grows larger.
Saturn: I have already mention the Lunar occultation on 4th January. As it is in the south to southwest in the evening it no longer reaches peak altitude. Hw event starts at 17:20 GMT and Saturbn exits at 18:30 GMT. The Moon that night is a waxing crescent. It also occults 84 Aquarius, one of the stars of the constellation Aquarius.
You can bag both Saturn and Venus on the 18th January as they will be 2.2˚ apart. A binocular pairing.
Uranus: Is in Aries and at 6th magnitude it is reasonably close to Jupiter to aid location.
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 mplus 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.
