Winter Summer Triangle
The Summer Triangle, formed by the brilliant stars Deneb, Vega, and Altair, shines in the wintertime as well. In January it lights up the northwestern sky in early evening, then reappears in the northeast before sunrise.
Saturn Conjunction
The planet Saturn is in conjunction today as it passes “behind” the Sun as seen from Earth. It will return to view, in the dawn sky, in a few weeks.
Moon and Regulus
Look for the Moon climbing into good view this evening. It has a bright companion: Regulus, the brightest star of the lion. It will be below the Moon as they climb into view, and closer to the Moon at first light tomorrow.
Hyades
Many stars are members of clusters, bound together by their gravity. The closest cluster is the Hyades, a collection of about 100 stars. Together, they form the wedge-shaped face of the bull, which stands high overhead this evening.
Penumbral Eclipse
A minor lunar eclipse takes place today. It occurs as the Moon passes through Earth’s faint outer shadow. The shading is so faint that most people won’t notice it. It will be visible mainly from the eastern hemisphere.
Mars and Antares
Mars and Antares are in the southeast an hour or two before sunrise tomorrow, with the planet Mars above the star Antares by less than the width of your fist held at arm’s length. Both bodies look like moderately bright orange stars.
Zeta Tauri
The Moon pays a call on one of the horns of the bull tonight. As night falls, the star Zeta Tauri is quite close to the right or upper right of the Moon. It’s so close that you might need to blot out the Moon with your hand to see it.
Moon and Aldebaran
Aldebaran, the bright eye of Taurus, the bull, is close to the right of the Moon this evening. Astronomers have plotted five stars that appear close to Aldebaran. Most of the stars aren’t related to Aldebaran, though, and perhaps none of them are.
Milky Way
The Milky Way arches high overhead tonight, from cross-shaped Cygnus in the northwest, to Perseus and Cassiopeia overhead, to near the bright star Sirius in the southeast. It is the combined glow of millions of stars in the disk of our home galaxy.
Close to the Sun
Earth reaches a point in its orbit today called perihelion, where it stands closest to the Sun for the year. Our planet is about 1.5 million miles closer to the Sun than the average distance.