Awesome Astronomy

What to look out, and up, for in January! Ralph, Paul & Jen pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: The Red Planet Mars, makes a welcome return to our skies The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on the night of 3rd/4th January Dwarf planet Ceres is at opposition on 31st January in Cancer Mercury is at greatest wester elongation on 2nd January And comet C/2017 T1 Heinze reaches mag 7-9 on 6th January Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – Messier 42, the Great Nebula in Orion Jen – NGC 2244 and the Rosette Nebula in Monoceros. Paul – NCG 2903, Barred Spiral Galaxy in Leo And we finish this sky guide with January’s moon phases.