Well, time moves on, into another year as we brace for (according to some) the most depressing month of the year. At least we get it over and done with and can enjoy the rest of the year – I am sure it will be a great one…
However, January is my favourite month, with crisp cold days and a refreshing feeling after the indulgence of Christmas – anyone else starting back at the gym this month?
Moving on, though, to less stressful things; looking at the night sky can be a great way to relax after the hard work of the week. Looking up at the stars can be a great way to practice mindfulness, especially as to let your eyes adjust to the dark and stargaze properly you must put away your phone!
Some ways to do this: Mindful Stargazing – Mark Westmoquette
Right from the start of the year, the cosmos delivers. The first astronomical event of the year is a lovely meteor shower, the Quadrantids. The peak on the 3rd and 4th of January, and are one of the highlights of the year for meteor shower chasers. The meteor shower is an active one, where you will have the chance to see up to 110 meteors per hour at the peak. The Quadrantids this year even have the chance to outshine the Geminids, the most active shower of the year (which takes place in December). While the Geminids were drowned out by the full moon in 2024, the Quadrantids are only a few days after the last new moon of the year gone by, and will be streaking across a dark sky. Fingers crossed for a clear few hours – this meteor shower, unlike others peaks for only a few hours.
Mars, showing some of the features on its surface, including Olympus Mons, the Valles Marineris and the polar ice caps. Image Credit: Stellarium/Anna Taylor
The Quadrantids meteor shower appears to radiate from the constellation of Boötes (you might find this unusual as showers are normally named after the constellation they radiate from, but these are named for an obsolete constellation, which has been absorbed into Boötes). The parent body of this meteor shower has been the subject of debate; one suggestion was that it could be the minor planet 2003 EH1. This minor planet is thought likely to be an extinct comet, which is a comet whose ice has all evaporated, leaving it no tail (comets only achieve their signature appearance when they approach the sun, which evaporates the ice, producing the tail that streams off the comet).
The evening star in the sky at greatest eastern elongation. Image Credit: Stellarium/Anna Taylor.
On the 10th of January we have the best view of the ‘evening star’ that we will get for a while; at this date Venus is at its furthest from the sun in the sky and so we will get a nice view of our next-door neighbour.
Full Moon December 2024. Image Credit: Stellarium/Anna Taylor.
The full moon will take place this month right around the mid-point of the month, on the 13th January. This month the name given to the moon is the ‘wolf moon’ as wolves get hungry this time of year and you can hear them howling (if you live in a country that still has wolves in the wild). The new moon, the opposite end of the cycle, will take place on the 29th of January.
But we are treated with the best view of not just one planet this month but two, as Mars reaches opposition on the 16th of the month. At this point the planet will be at its closest approach to the Earth at this point and therefore at its brightest in the sky. If you have a telescope, this would be a great time to look for details on the surface of the red planet, and even snap a pic!
Constellations that make up the Winter Circle. Image Credit: Stellarium/Anna Taylor
Some of the constellations that we can view in the night sky this January are spectacular, but I am going to focus on a prominent asterism in the winter sky, the Winter Hexagon, also known as the winter circle. This asterism is made up of 6 stars from different constellations.
The stars that make up the winter circle are Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Castor, Pollux, Procyon and Sirius. These are from well known winter constellations Orion, Taurus, Auriga (less well known I’ll admit), Gemini, Canis Minor and Canis Major.
Rigel is a huge blue supergiant star that makes up the left foot of Orion, and when you look closer you will see that it is a multiple star system! Rigel is one of the most luminous stars in the sky. It fluctuates in brightness but has an average magnitude of 0.13 (the lower the brighter). When this star runs out of fuel it will go supernova and reach a magnitude of -11 – nearly as bright as a quarter moon. This probably won’t happen anytime soon though – maybe in a few million years!
The Winter Hexagon (this one doesn’t include Castor but most do). Image Credit:
Two of the stars in the winter hexagon though, belong to a single constellation. Castor and Pollux are both members of the zodiac constellation Gemini (I’m sure you noticed that the numbers didn’t match up when I listed the stars and constellations, right?). These two stars make up the heads of the twins that Gemini represents, the eponymous Castor and Pollux. These stars are the two brightest stars in the constellation of Gemini, with Pollux only marginally outshining Castor. Pollux is the closest red giant star to the sun. Castor is an interesting star as it appears to be a single star until you look with a telescope, whereupon it will reveal itself as a sextuple star system!
The Winter Circle/Hexagon. Image Credit: Earthsky.org
Procyon and Sirius are bright stars in the dog constellations, Canis Major and Canis Minor. Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky overall, and marks the collar of the larger dog, while Procyon (meaning after the dog – interestingly also the genus name of raccoons). Procyon is also a very bright star, at eighth brightest in the night sky.
Aldebaran is known as the red eye of the bull due to its position in the constellation of Taurus, under the extensions that represent its horns. Aldebaran is noticeably red in the night sky, while the name means ‘the follower’ – it appears to follow the Pleiades through the sky.
Capella, the least well known of the stars in the Winter circle, belongs to the constellation of Auriga, and the 6th brightest star in the night sky (we have some heavy hitters in the winter circle – an all-star lineup, you might say). Another incognito multiple star system, Capella is actually four stars. It was the brightest star in the sky for a while, 200,000 years ago, preceded by Aldebaran, before we had Sirius to fill that spot (though there was another brightest star in between – the southern hemisphere’s Canopus).
So take a chance to peep some of the best skies of the year in January, and keep your eyes peeled for the Aurora to appear, in a year of heightened solar activity. Have fun!
source: armaghplanet.com