Special to CosmicTribune.com, January 8, 2024

Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 7

■ Sirius and Procyon in the balance. Sirius, the Dog Star, sparkles low in the east-southeast after dinnertime. Procyon, the Little Dog Star, shines in the east about two fists at arm’s length to Sirius’s left.

■ On Monday morning the 8th, the waning crescent Moon will occult 1st-magnitude Antares low in the southeast during darkness or dawn for the western U.S. and Canada. The occultation will happen in full daylight for most of the rest North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. In a bright sky the event may be a tough catch even with a telescope, depending on the atmospheric seeing (usually poor in the daytime but often excellent around sunrise) and also the clarity of the air.

The waning crescent Moon hangs with Venus, Mercury, and Antares in the dawns of Jan. 7th through 9th.

MONDAY, JANUARY 8

■ If your sky is even moderately dark, try tracing 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 9

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

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10

■ Here it is the cold bottom of the year, but the Summer Star, Vega, is still hanging in. Look for it twinkling over the northwest horizon during and shortly after nightfall. The farther north you are the higher it will be. If you’re as far south as Florida, it has already gone goodbye.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 11

■ Orion continues his upward march in the southeast as the hours and the weeks proceed, and his figure is beginning to rotate clockwise — as all constellations on the southern side of the sky always do. Accordingly, his three-star Belt is starting to turn away from vertical.

■ New Moon (exact at 6:57 a.m. EST on this date).

FRIDAY, JANUARY 12

■ In this coldest time of the year, the dim Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) hangs straight down from Polaris after dinnertime, as if, per Leslie Peltier, from a nail on the cold north wall of the sky.

The Big Dipper, meanwhile, is creeping up low in the north-northeast. Its handle is very low, but its bowl is nosing up toward the upper right.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 13

■ The waxing crescent Moon forms a long triangle with Saturn and Fomalhaut in late dusk, as shown above.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 14

■ The Moon, Saturn, and Fomalhaut now form a similar triangle to the one they did yesterday, but mirror-reversed along the axis between the planet and star.

■ The Gemini twins lie on their sides these January evenings, left of Orion. Their head stars, Castor and Pollux, are farthest from Orion, one over the other. (Castor is the top one.) The feet of the Castor stick figure are just left of the top of Orion’s (very dim) Club.

  The sky: January 7-14; Featuring the Milky Way this week