Chart for the whole sky in January Stars and planets in the January evening sky
Chart for the southern sky in January Interesting objects in the January southern sky
Chart for the north sky in January Interesting objects in the Summer North Sky
Jupiter, bright and golden, is low in the western sky, setting in the southwest before midnight. Sirius, the brightest star, is high in the east at dusk. Left of it is Orion, containing 'The Pot' with Taurus and the Pleiades/Matariki further left toward the north. Mars rises in the northeast in the late evening. It is apricot coloured and nearly as bright as Sirius. Canopus, the second brightest star after Sirius, is southeast of the zenith. Cruz, the Southern Cross, and the Pointers are low in the south.
Jupiter is bright but low in the western sky. It sets in the southwest around 11 p.m. in mid month. It is on the far side of the sun from us now, some 860 million km away. It shows a disk in a small telescope with its four large moons looking like stars lined up on either side.
In January we, on Earth, catch up with Mars and pass it by on the 29th. It brightens as we get closer. At the beginning of January, Mars rises in the northeast around 11:30. By month's end it is up at 9:20. Then it becomes an evening star on the opposite side of the sky from Jupiter. At its closest Mars is still 100 million km away. In a telescope it is small, less than half as wide as Jupiter. Mars is often called the Red Planet. When brightest its colour is more orange to apricot.
The brightest stars are in the east half of the sky at dusk. They are spread from Taurus and Orion in the north, through Canis Major and around to Crux and the Pointers in the south. Canopus, the second brightest star, is southeast of overhead.
Sirius is the first star to appear at dusk, high in the east. Left of Sirius, as the sky darkens, are Rigel and Betelgeuse the brightest stars in Orion the hunter. Between them, but fainter, is a line of three stars: Orion's belt. To southern hemisphere star watchers, the line of three make the bottom of 'The Pot'. Left of Orion is the V-shaped pattern of stars making the face of Taurus the Bull. Left again, toward the north and lower, is the Pleiades/Matariki star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters and Subaru. From northern New Zealand the bright star Capella is on the north skyline.
Sirius, 'the Dog Star', marks the head of Canis Major the big dog. A group of stars to the right of it make the dog's hindquarters and tail, upside down just now. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky both because it is relatively close, nine light years away, and 23 times brighter than the sun. Procyon, in the northeast below Sirius, marks the smaller of the two dogs that follow Orion.
Rigel, directly above Orion's belt, is a bluish supergiant star, 70 000 times brighter than the sun and much hotter. It is 800 light years away. Orange Betelgeuse, below the line of three, is a red-giant star, cooler than the sun but hundreds of times bigger: a ball of extremely thin hot gas.
The V-shaped group making the face of Taurus the bull is called the Hyades cluster. It is 150 light years away. Orange Aldebaran, Arabic for 'the eye of the bull', is not a member of the cluster but on the line of sight, half the cluster's distance. The Pleiades/ Matariki cluster, pretty to the eye and impressive in binoculars, is 400 light years from us.
Low in the south are Crux, the Southern Cross, and Beta and Alpha Centauri, often called 'The Pointers'. Alpha Centauri is the closest naked-eye star, 4.3 light years away. A telescope shows it is a binary star: two stars orbiting each other. Beta Centauri, like most of the stars in Crux, is a blue-giant star hundreds of light years away. Canopus is also very luminous and distant.
The Milky Way is in the eastern sky, brightest in the southeast toward Crux. It can be traced towards the north but becomes faint below Orion. The Milky Way is our edgewise view of the galaxy, the pancake of billions of stars. The thick hub of the galaxy is hidden by the sun at this time of year. The nearby outer edge is the faint part below Orion. Binoculars show many star clusters and a few glowing gas clouds in the Milky Way.
The Clouds of Magellan, LMC and SMC are high in the southern sky. They are easily seen by eye on a dark moonless night. They are two small galaxies about 160 000 and 200 000 light years away. The larger cloud is about 5% the mass of the Milky Way galaxy, the smaller cloud 3%.
Saturn (not shown) rises due east after midnight. It looks like a lone medium-bright star.
Chart produced by Guide 8 software; www.projectpluto.com. Labels and text added by Alan Gilmore
Large and Small Clouds of Magellan (LMC and SMC) appear as two luminous clouds, easily seen by eye in a dark sky. They are galaxies like the Milky Way but much smaller. Each is made of billions of stars. The Large Cloud contains many clusters of young bright stars seen as patches of light in binoculars. Both clouds are about 160 000 light years away, very close by for galaxies.
47 Tucanae, looks like a faint fuzzy star on the edge of the SMC.
It is a globular cluster, a ball of millions of stars. A telescope is needed to see a peppering
of stars around the edge of the cluster. Though it appears on the edge of the SMC it is
one-tenth the distance, 15 000 light years away, and is has no connection to the Small Cloud.
Globular clusters are mostly very old 10 billion years or more; at least twice the age of the
sun. Omega Centauri, very low in the south, is a similar cluster.
The Tarantula nebula is a
glowing gas cloud in the LMC. The gas glows in the ultra-violet light from a cluster of very hot
stars at centre of the nebula. The cloud is about 800 light years across. It is easily seen in
binoculars and can be seen by eye on moonless nights.
This nebula is one of the brightest known. If it was as close as the Orion nebula then it would be as bright as the full moon.
Canopus is the second brightest star. It is 14 000 times brighter than
the sun and 300 light years away. Sirius, low in the east on spring evenings, is the brightest
star in the sky.
Alpha Centauri the brighter pointer, is the closest naked-eye star, 4.3 light-years away. Alpha Centauri is a binary star: two stars about the same size as the sun orbiting around each other in 80 years. A telescope that magnifies 50x shows the pair. (A very faint star, Proxima Centauri, orbits a quarter of a light-year, or 15 000 Sun-earth distances, from the Alpha pair.)
Coalsack nebula, is a cloud of dust and gas about 300 light years away, dimming the more distant stars in the Milky Way. Many similar 'dark nebulae' can be seen, appearing as slots and holes in the Milky Way. These clouds of dust and gas eventually coalesce into clusters of stars.
The Jewel Box is a compact cluster of young bright stars about 7000 light years away. The cluster formed less than 10 million ago. To the eye it looks like a faint star close by the second-brightest star in Crux. A telescope is needed to see it well.
Eta Carina nebula a luminous
spot in the Milky Way below Crux is a glowing gas cloud about 8000 light years away. The thin
gas glows in the ultra-violet light of nearby hot young stars.
The golden star in the cloud, visible in binoculars, is Eta [Greek η] Carinae. It is
estimated to be to be 60 times heavier than the sun and a million times brighter but is dimmed
by dust clouds around it. It is expected to explode as a supernova any time in the next few
thousand years.
Many star clusters are found in this part of the sky.
The Southern Pleiades is a newish name for a cluster of stars off the
top end of the 'False Cross'. To the eye it looks like a comet without a tail. It is much
fainter and smaller than the real Pleiades in Taurus but a nice sight in binoculars. The cluster
is about 1200 light years away.
Chart produced by Guide 8 software; www.projectpluto.com. Labels and text added by Alan Gilmore
Taurus the Bull and Orion the Hunter are prominent in our northern evening sky. Fainter and lower are Gemini the Twins and Cancer the Crab. The constellation pictures are upside to us; they were devised by northern hemisphere skywatchers. The face of Taurus is outlined by the V-shaped Hyades cluster. The brightest star in this group is orange Aldebaran, the name meaning 'the eye of the bull' in Arabic. Taurus's long horns extend down our sky. The Pleiades cluster rides on the Bull's back.
The Pleiades / Seven Sisters / Matariki / Subaru, (left) and many other names, is a cluster of stars well known in both hemispheres. Though often called the Seven Sisters, most modern eyes see only six stars. Dozens are visible in binoculars. The cluster is about 440 light years away. Its brightest stars are around 200 times brighter than the sun. It formed about 100 million years ago.
The Hyades cluster is 152 light years away. Its brightest stars (not
Aldebaran!) are about 70 times brighter than the sun. The cluster is about 700 million years
old. Aldebaran is
not a member of the cluster but simply on the line of sight. It is 65 l.y. away and 150 times
brighter than the sun. Aldebaran is a giant star about 25 times bigger than the sun though only
five times heavier. Its orange colour is due to its temperature, around 3500° C.
The sun is 5500° C.
Orion, in the northern hemisphere view, has a shield raised toward
Taurus and a club ready for action. The line of three stars makes
Orion's Belt. The line of faint stars above and left of the belt form
Orion's Sword in the northern view, hanging from his belt. To most
southern hemisphere sky watchers the belt and sword form
The Pot or The Saucepan.
The Orion Nebula is visible in binoculars as a misty glow around the
middle stars of Orion's Sword or the handle of The Pot. It is a vast cloud of dust and gas about
1300 l.y. away and more than 20 l.y. across. Ultra-violet light from a massive, extremely hot
star in the cloud causes it to glow. Some stars in this region are around a million years old.
The sun, by contrast, is 4.6 billion years old. Stars continue to form in a giant cloud behind
the glowing nebula. There are many bright and dark nebulae in this region. The Horsehead
nebula, a favourite of astronomy books, is beside the right-hand star of Orion's Belt, but too
faint to be seen in small telescopes.
Rigel is a blue 'supergiant' star around 40,000 times brighter than the
sun and 800 l.y. away. Its surface temperature is around 20,000°C, giving it a bluish colour.
Betelgeuse is a red giant star 250 times bigger than the sun -- wider
than earth's orbit! -- but only around 20 times heavier. It is mostly very thin gas surrounding a
hot dense core. It is around 10,000 times brighter than the sun, about 400 light years away, and
has a surface temperature around 3000°.
Sirius is the brightest star, though the planets Venus and Jupiter, and sometimes Mars, are brighter. Sirius appears bright because it is both brighter than the sun -- 22 times brighter -- and relatively a close 8.6 l.y. away. Sirius was often called 'the dog star' being the brightest star in Canis Major, one of the two dogs that follow Orion across the sky.
The Praesepe cluster or Beehive cluster, low in the northeast in the later evening, marks the shell of Cancer the crab. The cluster is some 600 light years from us. It formed in a gas cloud about 700 million years ago.