Everything you always wanted to know about astronomy
January
By Bruce Dennis

As promised, Mars will be big and bright all night in the beginning of January. You can also check on Saturn before your watch strikes twelve. As the month grows older, Mercury will be the subject of our study, high in the early-evening sky (about 7 PM). Before February 1st, Jupiter and Venus will be very close together just before Sunrise. The Quadrantid Meteor Shower peaks about January 3rd, and will be very brilliant this year. Also in early January, you'll probably be able to see (if there are no clouds) Comet 8P/ Tuttle (high, from dusk until about 10 PM). Mars nearly 'touches' the full Moon on January 19th, around 7 PM. A lot of excitement is happening up there this month - be sure you don't miss any of these moments!

Mercury will begin to peek out of the Sun's glare during the second week of January. You'll be able to see it very close to the horizon. Messenger, an unmanned spacecraft sent to Mercury from the Earth, will visit the planet on the 14th - the first time we've attempted to visit Mercury in 33 years. There is a good reason for this: it is so hot on Mercury's surface, that no life (or metals) that we are aware of, can exist for more than a few seconds. So why bother spending all that time and money? We've spent the last 33 years checking out the Moon, Mars, moons of other planets, and our own Earth. Now it's Mercury's turn. During the 3rd week of the month, at about 30 minutes after Sunset, look in the west-southwest and you should easily see Mercury.

On New Year's night (the 1st) as the Sun sets, Mars is well above the horizon in the East. It'll be high in the South at midnight and then it'll get lower every night as it marches across the sky. But Mars is moving away from us so it becomes smaller and dimmer quickly. While it is moving around the Sun, Mercury goes from retrograde motion (it seems to be moving to the West from night to night) to its regular motion (Eastward) on the 30th.

Saturn will rise about 9 PM on January 1st. By February 1st, it rises about two hours earlier. At about midnight, you should be able to observe the ringed planet with your telescope. You'll be able to see the rings now because you're not looking at them edge-on. As you'll recall, the rings have been hard for us to see for the past couple months, because we've been looking at their edge. Considering that Saturn is roughly a billion miles from us and the rings are only a few inches thick, no wonder we haven't gotten a good view of the edge. About midnight is the best time to view Saturn. A colder, thinner atmosphere is always more stable and better for viewing - whether it's with the naked eye, a pair of binoculars, or wi th a telescope.

Jupiter and Venus, the two brightest planets in the early-morning of January, take turns being the center of attention. First, Venus is clearly visible at dawn, but Jupiter is too low (this is around the first of the year) to be seen. With every morning, we will discover that Venus gets a little lower and Jupiter a little higher. By February 1st, they are only a distance apart equal to the thickness of a piece of paper. After February 1st, they will switch places and once again get further apart.

The crescent Moon is the thickness of your finger from Venus on January 5th. On the night of January 17th/18th , the Moon passes through the Pleiades (7 Sisters). The Earth is closest to the Sun in its yearly orbit on January 2nd. On this date, it is 91 million miles from the Sun. This is about 3% closer than in July. Then why don't we have warm Winters and cold Summers? Maybe the tilt of the Earth's axis has something to do with the seasonal temperatures. Ask a student. Watch the skies. Happy viewing.

Bruce Dennis is a retired science teacher from Haverling High School