January 2009 astronomy

Planet watching isn't the most exciting this month. Mars and Jupiter are too close to the sun to see. Mercury is at perihelion not long after its greatest elongation, so it doesn't get very far into the evening sky. Your best chance to see it is on the 4th. Venus is at its highest on the 14th. The planet will start the month below a crescent moon, cross Aquarius during the month, and meet a crescent moon in Pisces toward the end of the month. Saturn remains beneath the triangle of Leo, rising in late evening. If you can view Saturn through a telescope, remember to do that a few times this month. For now, it looks like the rings are getting easier to see. The angle will increase slowly until about May, then the view will shift for the edge-on view that's coming in September which will be no view at all without a very good telescope and very good eyes to match.

Orion and Gemini rise in the east after sunset. Sirius follows not long after. Leo rises in late evening.

The Quadrantid meteor shower is expected to peak around the 3rd or 4th. This meteor shower has a sharp peak, meaning it takes only a few hours to go from having virtually no show at all to the peak and back to virtually no show. Sky & Telescope magazine predicts a 12:50 peak on the 3rd.

The earth will be at perihelion, a mere 91.4 million miles from the sun, on the 4th.

The moon will be in the Pleiades and occult Alcyone on the 7th. That'll be visible from the far northern reaches of Europe and Asia. The moon also occults Al Niyat and Antares on the 21st.

An annular solar eclipse will be visible along a path south of Africa, into the Indian Ocean, and across Malaysia. Parts of Africa, Asia, and Australia will see partial phases.