The Night Sky in January
Jupiter and Uranus remain well placed in January, Jupiter obvious as darkness falls, a bright star-like object located high above the south-west horizon. Binoculars show its bright dot with the potential to see several smaller dots either side of it; its four largest moons. A low-tech way to steady binoculars is to use an upturned broom with a cloth over the bristles. Rest your hands on the cloth and the view should be much steadier. Uranus is a lot dimmer and located slightly east of Jupiter, the apparent gap between these planets is slowly closing.
If you have access to a small telescope, there’s a conveniently located comet visible early next month. Known as 144P/kushida, it slowly tracks towards the sideways V-shaped Hyades open cluster during January, passing along the southern arm of the V between February 4-10. The Hyades is easy to find. Simply extend the line of Orion’s belt up and right as seen from the UK to locate the bright orange star Aldebaran. This sits at the end of the southern arm of the V, the cluster stars fairly easy to pick out under relatively dark skies to the right of Aldebaran.
Orion dominates the night sky to the south during January. In mythology he was a boastful hunter who claimed he could kill any living creature on Earth. This angered the Gods, who sent a scorpion to teach him a fatal lesson. The scorpion is represented by the constellation Scorpius, located on the opposite side of the sky to Orion. Morning planet Venus sits near Antares, the primary star in Scorpius, between January 5-10. The name means “the rival of Mars”, attributed because as a red-supergiant star, Antares, appears distinctly orange. This is the same class of object as Betelgeuse in the upper-left corner of Orion, a star that also looks orange.
Returning to Orion, directly south of the hunter’s feet lies a small pattern resembling the symbol for infinity but with ears. Locate it by extending Orion’s belt down and left to locate bright Sirius; a name which comes from the Latinised version of the Greek Seirios, meaning glowing. As the brightest star in Canis Major the Great Dog, Sirius is also known as the Dog Star. The Ancient Greeks believed the presence of Sirius near the Sun during summer made days hotter, which is where “the dog days of summer” comes from.
Head right from Sirius into the infinity with ears territory. This is the constellation Lepus the Hare, the outgunned prey of Orion and his hunting dogs Canis Major and Minor. Several orange stars have been mentioned already, namely Betelgeuse, Antares and Aldebaran. Although described as red, visually they appear orange. There’s a star in Lepus known as Hind’s Crimson Star, which appears much redder. Also known as R Leporis, this carbon star varies in brightness over a period of 427 days and is currently rising to peak when it should be on the threshold of naked-eye visibility, binoculars being the best option.
There’s another easy-to-find red star near the Saucepan asterism above the northeast horizon. Imagine the saucepan’s handle as part of a circle. The middle-bright star Cor Caroli sits approximately where the centre of the circle would be. From here look for Chara, a slightly dimmer star currently above Cor Caroli. Go from Cor Caroli to Chara, then turn 90-degrees to the left travelling for the same distance as the Cor Caroli – Chara line to reach Y Canum Venaticorum, also known as La Superba. Through binoculars, the star glows with a beautiful deep orange hue.