Jared May: What's Up, January 25-February 2
What’s Up This Fourth Week of January
The first month of the new year is just about over and the cold weather is unrelenting. On a positive note, there may be a few clear nights toward the middle and the end of the week. Temperatures during these clear nights, with windchill, will be in the single digits. So as always, be sure to dress warmly to prevent frostbite and limit your stargazing sessions to a few minutes at a time.
Sunset this week is right around 5:45 PM so be ready to stargaze an hour later. During some of the clear nights this week be on the lookout for some early-morning planets and a reminder of the summer skies, the third-quarter moon, and the Winter Triangle. I will also include a short section on the status of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
If you are awake anytime this week before sunrise, look over in the east and southeast skies between 6:15 AM and 7:15 AM to find two neighboring planets. Closest to the sun and the brightest of the two is Venus., which only recently was an evening object. Look just 15° further south to find a fainter but noticeably red planet. You guessed it – Mars. Using a pair of binoculars or a telescope should reveal the phase of Venus and perhaps the polar ice caps on Mars! If you find Mars closer to 6:15 AM, you may notice that it is nestled in between two popular summer deep-sky objects – the Lagoon Nebula and the Trifid Nebula.
Mars passes through the same field of view as the great Lagoon Nebula (M8) and the smaller, blue and red, “Trifid” nebula (M20.) A great photographic opportunity for those observing the morning.
Venus and Mars are striking in the morning sky. Look east an hour before dawn.
If you follow the line made with Venus and Mars further south, you will come right below a bright red star that is shining about as bright as Mars. This is Antares, a red supergiant that usually hangs in the southern skies mid-summer. This region of the sky is home to the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex which is a very large and colorful collection of nebulae that make for a great astrophotography opportunity.
Most often thought of as a “Summer” star, Antares is now peeking up over the morning horizon.
Tuesday, January 25th, marked the third-quarter moon. This is good news for stargazers because the moon and its blinding glow will stay below the horizon until around 1 AM. As the moon progresses towards its new-moon phase, it will rise later and later. To keep with the theme of early-morning objects, the third-quarter moon through the new moon are best seen just before or just after sunrise since it is in the same region of the sky as the sun.
The position of the moon in the early morning sky.
After the sun has set and the stars have all come out, a “Summer Triangle” of the winter (appropriately named, “Winter Triangle”) can be easily spotted. This triangle is comprised of Betelgeuse, Procyon, and Sirius. Betelgeuse and Sirius are easy to spot because one is the red “shoulder star” of Orion and the other is the brightest star in the night sky (respectively). Seeing the Winter Triangle may make you nostalgic for the warm summer nights under the Sumer Triangle of Altair, Deneb, and Vega.
Back in the evening, is the “Winter Triangle” with Sirius, Betelgeuse, and Procyon at its corners.
The JWST made worldwide headlines when it launched nearly a month ago, so what is it up to now? On January 24th, the 10-billion-dollar space telescope will arrive at its parking spot for the rest of its life, Lagrange point 2. This is a special semi-stable orbital point about a million miles away from the earth. Just because it has arrived, does not mean it is ready to start doing science. It still must precisely align its 18 hexagonal mirror segments and its secondary mirror using 132 actuators that make tiny adjustments. This process will likely take around three months. The JWST should be imaging and doing science this summer.
Dress in several layers and set your telescopes and binoculars outside around sunset for an hour to let them thermally equilibrate with the outside temperature. Once all the stars are out, sit outside and explore the cosmos. Your naked eyes will allow you to see around 4,000 stars while a telescope or binoculars will allow you to see 25x more stars and deep-sky objects. From those 100,000 objects, try picking out the early-morning planets, Antares, and the Winter Triangle all while safe from the moon’s glow.
Clear Skies!