Sky Guide January 2016

What to look out, and up, for in January.


For the beginners and young astronomers this month we take a look
at the magnificent winter constellation of Orion with the belt
and sword bordered by four magnificent stars. We take a look at a
(cosmologically) near term supernova hopeful, a five star
multiple star system, and the finest nebula of them all in small
telescopes or binoculars.


Next we round up the planets that are visible in January: Jupiter
rising early to show us some lovely transits of its moons, with
Mars Saturn and Venus providing breathtaking views for the night
owls. Saturn and Venus give us a rare close conjunction too in
January.


Next we take a look at the phases of the moon this month and
prepare for a conjunction with gas giant planet Jupiter and an
occultation with bright star Aldebaran in Taurus.


The Quadrantids provide us with a nice meteor shower early in
January which can often give us more meteors per hour than any
other meteor shower.


Comet C2013 US10 Catalina continues to reveal itself to northern
hemisphere observers and passes some deep sky objects to add to
the excitement.


Finally, we end on our deep sky challenge in the constellation of
Gemini with a planetary nebula and open clusters to tease out –
including the topical Jedi Knight cluster.