Special to CosmicTribune.com, January 1, 2024

Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report.

MONDAY, JANUARY 1

■ After the noise and celebration at the turning of midnight tonight, step outside into the silent, cold dark. The waning gibbous Moon will be shining high in the east, with the Sickle of Leo floating about a fist at arm’s length above it. In the south Sirius will be shining at its highest, with the other bright stars of Canis Major to its right and below it.

Sirius is the bottom star of the bright, equilateral Winter Triangle. The others are Betelgeuse in Orion’s shoulder to Sirius’s upper right, and Procyon the same distance to Sirius’s upper left. The Triangle now stands upright on Sirius, just about in balance

■ If your sky is reasonably dark, trace out the winter Milky Way arching across the sky. In early evening it extends up from the west-northwest horizon along the vertical Northern Cross of Cygnus, up and over to the right past dim Cepheus and through Cassiopeia high in the north, then to the right and lower right through Perseus and Auriga, down between the feet of Gemini and Orion’s Club, and on down toward the east-southeast horizon between Procyon and Sirius.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 2

■ After dinnertime now, the enormous Andromeda-Pegasus complex runs from near the zenith down toward the western horizon. Just west of the zenith, spot Andromeda’s high foot: 2nd-magnitude Gamma Andromedae (Almach), slightly orange. Andromeda is standing on her head. About halfway down from the zenith to the west horizon is the Great Square of Pegasus, balancing on one corner.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3

■ Last-quarter Moon tonight (exact at 10:30 p.m.). The Moon, in Virgo, rises around midnight or so. As the hours advance into the morning of Thursday the 4th, Spica comes up to twinkle less than a fist under the Moon as shown below. They’re higher by the beginning of dawn.

■ The Quadrantid meteor shower should peak during these same early-morning hours of Thursday, moonlight and all. The Quads are often considered elusive because the shower’s main part lasts only about six hours. But this year, those hours should be centered on about 4 a.m. EST. That’s in the good pre-dawn Quad-watching hours for North Americans, especially easterners.

The shower’s radiant is in the obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis in northern Boötes, climbing the northeastern sky during that time. Position your meteor-watching lawn chair to keep the glary Moon out of your eyes, and watch whatever part of your sky is darkest.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 4

■ Orion strides upward in the east-southeast after dinnertime. Above it shines orange Aldebaran, 1st magnitude, with the large, loose Hyades cluster in its background. Binoculars are the ideal instrument for this cluster given its large size: its brightest stars (4th and 5th magnitude) span an area about 4° wide. Higher above, the showier Pleiades are hardly more than 1° across if you count just the brightest stars.

The main Hyades stars famously form a V. It’s currently lying on its side. Aldebaran forms the lower tip of the V.

With binoculars, follow the lower branch of the V to the right from Aldebaran. The first thing you come to is the House asterism: a pattern of stars like a child’s drawing of a house with a peaked roof. The house is currently upright and bent to the right like it got pushed.

The House includes three easy binocular double stars that form an equilateral triangle, with each pair facing the others. The brightest pair is Theta¹ and Theta² Tauri. You may find that you can resolve the Theta pair with your unaided eyes.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 5

■ At this coldest time of the year, Sirius rises around the end of twilight. Orion’s three-star Belt points down almost to its rising place; watch there. Once Sirius is up, it twinkles slowly and deeply through the thick layers of low atmosphere, then faster and more shallowly as it gains altitude. Its flashes of color also moderate and blend into shimmering whiteness as it climbs to shine through thinner air.

Jupiter shines in southern Aries.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 6

■ It’s a busy evening among Jupiter’s moons with four pairs of events. And they include a double shadow transit!

– At 5:47 p.m. EST, Io disappears into occultation behind Jupiter’s western edge. Just 9 minutes later, Ganymede emerges from in front of the same edge. These two events will only be visible from the Eastern and Atlantic time zones, and the sky there may still be bright with twilight (depending on where you are).

– At 8:27 p.m. EST, Europa exits Jupiter’s west limb. Nine minutes later Europa’s tiny black shadow, trailing behind, comes onto Jupiter’s opposite limb.

– At 10:13 p.m. EST, Io emerges from eclipse by Jupiter’s shadow a small distance off the planet’s east edge. Seven minutes later Ganymede’s shadow crosses onto Jupiter’s opposite edge, thus beginning a 35-minute period of two shadows in transit at once.

– At 10:55 p.m. EST, Io’s shadow leaves the western limb. Just over an hour later, at 11:58 p.m., Ganymede’s larger shadow does the same.

And on Jupiter itself, the Great Red Spot (neither very great nor particularly red these days) should cross the planet’s central meridian around 11:05 p.m. EST.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7

These moonless evenings are a fine time to explore telescopic sights in Eridanus west of Orion — including the sky’s least-difficult telescopic white dwarf star, many interesting doubles, and a fine, globular planetary nebula.

  The sky: January 1-7; Jupiter’s moons put on a show on the 6th