the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
Psalm 8:3,4
(From Astronomy and Sky & Telescope Magazines)
Right after dark, face east and look very high. The bright star there is Capella, the Sun-colored Goat Star (it's spectral type G2). To the right of it, by a couple of finger-widths at arm's length, is a small, narrow triangle of 3rd- and 4th-magnitude stars known as The Kids.
Venus passes 3° north of Saturn at midnight EST. The pair shine together in the early-evening sky, still 30° high in the southwest an hour after sunset and lingering for several
Venus is much brighter at magnitude –4.6, sitting just to the upper right of 1st-magnitude Saturn. Both are in Aquarius, near that constellation’s border with Pisces and hanging below the Circlet asterism.
Monday, January 20
The Moon reaches apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its orbit, at 11:54 P.M. EST. At that time, our satellite will be 251,219 miles from our planet.
Tuesday, January 21
The Moon is exactly last quarter at 3:31 p.m. EST today; 12:31 p.m. PST. But it doesn't rise until around 1 a.m. tonight, about half a day later. So by the time you see the Moon up in the early-morning hours of Wednesday, its terminator will appear not straight but very slightly concave.
With no Moon in the evening sky, it’s time for us to track down fainter targets. Let’s start with asteroid 15 Eunomia, currently hanging out just inside Taurus’ border near where this constellation meets that of Auriga.
Visible most of the night, Eunomia is 65° high two hours after sunset and ripe for observation. Two bright points of light will guide the way, as Eunomia currently forms the apex of a flattened triangle, with the magnitude 1.7 star Elnath 6.5° to its east-southeast and magnitude –2.6 Jupiter 8° to its southwest.
The Pleiades and Hyades are the most famous star clusters in Taurus, which is now high overhead and hosting Jupiter.
Thursday, January 23
Again, our focus is on fainter targets as the Moon keeps out of the evening sky. The distant planet Neptune hangs in Pisces the Fish, moving oh-so-slowly against the background stars there.
To up your chances of finding it, let the sky grow fully dark after sunset. Find the Circlet of Pisces, an oval-shaped asterism of seven stars about 30° high in the west 90 minutes after
Friday, January 24
Mars is still barely more than 2° from Pollux as it is slowly retrograding westward:
The stick-figure-dog-shaped constellation Canis Major the Big Dog is easy to spot, standing on the tip of its tail in the southeast a few hours after sunset, directly below Orion the Hunter. Canis Major contains the brightest star in the sky, magnitude –1.4 Sirius, which marks the nose of the dog.
Saturday, January 25
Orion is now high in the southeast right after dark, and he stands highest and upright due south around 9 p.m. Orion is the brightest of the 88 constellations, but his main pattern is surprisingly small compared to some of his dimmer neighbors.
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