This Week's Sky at a Glance : Some night sky sights for January 10 – 18

 

Friday, January 10

Look left of the Moon at nightfall for the Pleiades, as shown here. The Pleiades are straight above the Moon by about 8 or 9.

Bright Capella high overhead, and bright Rigel in Orion's foot (both magnitude 0), are at almost the same right ascension. So they cross your sky’s north-south meridian at almost the same time. Capella now passes closest to straight overhead around 10 p.m., depending on how far east or west you live in your time zone. (It goes exactly through the zenith if you're at latitude 46° north: Portland, Oregon; Montreal; central France.) Whenever Capella is passing closest to the zenith, Rigel always marks true south over your landscape. 

Saturday, January 11

Aldebaran shines below the Moon at dusk, as shown here. It swings around to the left of the Moon by about 11 p.m.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot transits Jupiter’s central meridian around 9:30 p.m. EST.

Venus is at inferior conjunction, passing 5° north of the Sun today.  

Sunday, January 12

The bright gibbous Moon shines in a particularly starry part of the sky. After dinnertime, look upper right of the Moon for Aldebaran, below the Moon for Betelgeuse in Orion's leftmost corner, farther upper left of it for Capella, and far lower left of the Moon for bright Jupiter in the middle of Gemini.

  Monday, January 13

Betelgeuse is lower right of the Moon this evening. Jupiter is to the Moon's lower left, with Pollux on beyond. Look far under the Moon for Procyon.  

Tuesday, January 14

Jupiter shines left of the nearly full Moon early this evening. Ganymede, the largest and brightest moon of Jupiter itself, slowly emerges out of eclipse from Jupiter's shadow around 10:21 p.m. EST. With a telescope, watch for this happening just off Jupiter's eastern limb.  

 Wednesday, January 15

Full Moon (exact at 11:52 p.m. EST). This is the smallest full Moon of 2014. Jupiter shines above it in early evening. As the evening grows late, Jupiter swings to the Moon's upper right.  

 Thursday, January 16 

As the Moon climbs up in the east, spot Procyon to its upper right, bright Jupiter higher above them, and Sirius far right of the Moon in the southeast, under Orion.  

Friday, January 17

As the stars come out, face north and look very high overhead for Cassiopeia, oriented now like a flattened letter M. As the night proceeds, it swings down in the northwest tilting sideways.  

Saturday, January 18

This the Big Dipper's time of year to swing up from the low north-northeast after dusk to stand on its handle in the northeast by about 9 p.m.