By Duncan Lunan

The Moon will be Full on January 10^th, and New on January 24^th.   It will pass through the Hyades Open Cluster in Taurus on January 7^th.  On January 9^th the star Mu Geminorum will be occulted by the Moon, just after 5 p.m., reappearing at 5.50 p.m..  On 10^th January there will be a penumbral lunar eclipse, when the lower part of the Moon’s disc grazes the outer part of the Earth’s shadow, reaching its maximum at 7.11 p.m..

This quarter also features an elaborate sequence of conjunctions of the Sun, the Moon and all the planets including the Earth  (every time), beginning below.   These events are coincidental line-ups as all the bodies go round the Sun at different distances and speeds.   Occasionally they are all found in the same region of sky or even the same constellation, and then there are predictions of the end of the world, but they’re of no actual significance  (though they look good)  and we’re all still here.   If all the planets lined up with the Sun, as often shown in Solar System graphics, then there could be destructive resonances and collisions;  but that can’t happen, as the late Prof. Archie Roy demonstrated, because the Solar System has ‘statistical stability’ which keeps all of the planets from being on the same side of the Sun at the same time.   When they’re all roughly in line with the Earth, as some orbit between us and the Sun and some orbit beyond us, a little thought reveals that some or all of them must be on the other side of the Sun from us at the time.

The planet Mercury is at superior conjunction behind the Sun on 10^th January, and low in the evening sky in late January  (near the Moon just a day after it’s New), better seen to the lower right of Venus in the first half of February.

Venus is brilliant in the evening sky, moving from Capricornus to Aquarius near its boundary with Pisces, setting at 7.30 p.m. at the beginning of the year, 8.30 p.m. at the end of January.   On January 27^th Venus appears close to Neptune, 4 minutes of arc away to the upper right of Venus  (both in the field of view of a telescope at 100x magnification).   The Moon appears near Venus on January 28^th.

Mars passes through Libra, Scorpius and Ophiucus in January, rising at 4.40 a.m., and near the red star Antares, ‘the Rival of Mars’, in mid-month, 5 degrees from it on the 17^th.  The Moon appears near Mars on January 21^st.

Jupiter is invisible in January after conjunction with the Sun on December 27^th.

Saturn is invisible in January, at conjunction behind the Sun on the 13^th.

Uranus in Aries sets at 1.30 a.m. in January, and is near the Moon on the 4^th.   On January 11^th Uranus will reach its stationary point, after which its apparent movement against the background stars reverses as the Earth pulls ahead of it.

Neptune in Aquarius sets at about 9 p.m. in January, passed by Venus on January 27^th.  Both are near the Moon on the 28^th.

The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on the night of 3^rd to 4^th January, and will be best seen after 1 a.m. once the Moon has gone down, though the peak is expected around 8 to 9 a.m. when observers in North America will still be in darkness.

Comet 2017 T2 PanSTAARS will pass the Double Cluster in Perseus over 24^th to 30^th January and should be visible in small telescopes, though it won’t be at its brightest until early May.

On December 23^rd the EarthSky astronomy and space news site  (highly recommended;  www.earthsky.org)  released the interesting news that Betelgeuse, at the top left of Orion, is ‘fainting’.   As a red giant star, bigger than the orbit of Jupiter and near the end of its life, Betelgeuse varies in brightness over several different cycles and the unusual dimming may be due to several of those coinciding.   However the star is going to go supernova, probably sometime in the next 100,000 years, and at only 430 light-years from us it will be very brilliant when it does.

Duncan Lunan’s new book “From the Moon to the Stars”, a collection of space travel stories old and new relating to the Moon and Project Apollo, is now available from the publishers at https://othersidebooks.wordpress.com, as well as on Amazon or through booksellers;  details of that and his other books are on Duncan’s website, www.duncanlunan.com.