In the Sky This Month

Aldebaran, the star that marks the eye of Taurus, the bull, will be quite close to the Moon throughout the night. They will be high in the sky at nightfall and set in the wee hours of the morning.

Cancer, the crab, is in the east this evening. It rises as darkness falls and is well up in the east by mid-evening. Its most interesting object is a cluster of stars known as the Beehive. To the unaided eye, it looks like a tiny smudge of light.

The Red Planet Mars stands to the upper right of the Moon as night falls, shining like a bright orange star. The Moon is at apogee today, which is its farthest point from Earth for its current orbit. Tides are less dramatic when the Moon is farther away.

Mars is in great view tonight. The planet is high in the south as night falls, above the Moon. It looks like a bright orange star. It will stand a little closer to the upper right of the Moon as they set in the wee hours of the morning.

Messier 3, a family of half a million stars about 34,000 light-years away, is in the constellation Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs, and is easily visible through binoculars. It is in good view in the east-northeast by midnight and stands overhead at dawn.

The planet Mercury will lurk low in the evening sky over the next couple of weeks. It will lose a little bit of its brilliance each night, but it also will climb a little higher for the next few nights, making it a bit easier to find.

Procyon, the brightest star of Canis Minor, the little dog, is the eighth-brightest star in the night sky. On January nights it’s low in the east not long after nightfall. It’s well to the left or upper left of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.

Two bright stars in this evening’s southern sky show that stars come in a rainbow of colors. The stars are Rigel and Betelgeuse, in Orion. Rigel is blue, Betelgeuse red. If you stare at Rigel for a few seconds, then switch to Betelgeuse, the contrast is dramatic.

The planets Mars and Uranus are teaming up in the evening sky. Mars looks like a bright orange star in the south at nightfall. Uranus, which is too faint to see without binoculars, is to the left of Mars tonight but will snuggle closer to it over the next week.

A couple of planets lead the Moon down the sky after sunset. Both are bright but low in the sky, so you need a clear horizon to spot them. Mercury is to the lower right of the Moon, with Jupiter to the lower right of Mercury. Binoculars will help you pick them out.