Skywatch Line for Friday, January 16, through Sunday, January 18, written by Sam Salem
This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Friday, January 16, through Sunday, January 18, written by Sam Salem.
On Friday, Sun rises at 7:25am and sets at 4:40pm; Moon sets at 10:44am and rises a 11:59pm.
On Friday morning, the thin waning crescent Moon will be moving away from the red star Antares and slipping closer to the morning sunrise.
New Moon occurs at 2:52pm on Sunday. New Moon rises and sets with the Sun.
Jupiter, magnitude –2.7, shines in the Pollux stick figure of the Gemini twins. It was at opposition last weekend. It rises in the east-northeast around sunset, dominating the eastern sky early in the evening, then the high southeast. Jupiter is highest in the south around 11pm. It’s a big 47 arcseconds wide across its equator this week and remains nearly as big all January.
Saturn, magnitude +1.2 at the Aquarius-Pisces border, is high in the southwest at nightfall, lower left of the Great Square of Pegasus. It descends through the evening and sets in the west around 10pm.
Uranus, magnitude 5.6 in Taurus 5° south of the Pleiades, sits high in the southeast. At high power in a telescope, it’s a tiny, non-stellar dot, 3.8 arcseconds wide.
Neptune, magnitude 7.9, is a dim speck just 2.3 arcseconds wide 4° above Saturn.
Use a finder chart to identify Uranus and Neptune among similar-looking faint stars.
Locate the Cancer constellation in the east, closer to the horizon and to the lower left of Gemini early in the evening, as the constellations rise. Cancer, Latin for “crab,” is a faint zodiac constellation located between Gemini and Leo. It is known for its dim stars. Cancer constellation holds at its heart the beautiful Open Cluster, Beehive or M44. In Greek myth, it’s the crab Hera sent to distract Hercules during his fight with the Hydra, placing it in the sky after its defeat. The Beehive Cluster is also called Praesepe, derived from the Latin word for manger. Shining at 3rd magnitude, M44 may appear as a misty patch of light with naked eyes.
Trace out the Milky Way arching across the dark sky. In early evening the Milky Way extends up from the west-northwest horizon along the vertical Northern Cross of Cygnus, farther up and over to the right past dim Cepheus. Continue through Cassiopeia high in the north, then to the right and lower right through Perseus and Auriga. Next, move down between the feet of Gemini and Orion’s Club, and on down toward the east-southeast horizon between Procyon and Sirius.