Path of CeresJan. 110TAURUS^3020NE2°Aldebaran HyadesωηM45κεNGC
1647τρ πγδθ(^1413)
1°
N
E
Path of Mars
28 23 Jan. 19
Kaus SAGITTARIUS
Borealis
μ
31
NGC 6469
M20
NGC 6544 M8
NGC 6553
NGC
6520
NGC 6583
M28
NGC
6642
NGC 6638
M22
WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 39
LOCATING ASTEROIDS I
Ceres serenades the Bull
THE FAMOUS DUST CLOUDS surrounding the Pleiades (M45)
spread far and wide. They hide many distant stars, helping us
locate and track dwarf planet 1 Ceres this month.
The 600-mile-wide interplanetary rock has fallen behind Earth
and is slowly fading from magnitude 7.8 to 8.3. This is pretty easy
for the smallest telescope from the suburbs, but binocular users
will have a tougher time picking out the faint dot.
If you place the Pleiades on the northern edge of your
binocular field, to their south you’ll see a slightly unequal pair of
6th-magnitude stars: 13 and 14 Tauri. Ceres will be the next
brightest dot south of these. It’s a slow mover, so it might take a
couple of nights to notice the shift against the widely separated
anchor stars. Give the search a rest from the 12th to the 14th, as
the Moon swells toward Full phase between the Pleiades and
Aldebaran.
A treat for small scope users is the five-night passage of
44 Nysa across the Moon-sized sparse star cluster NGC 1647 from
Jan. 28 to Feb. 3. You can get there by picturing flipping the Hyades
to the other side (northeast) of Aldebaran. At 10th magnitude, Nysa
is a perfect clone of several of NGC 1647’s cluster members, but
within three hours you can pick up its movement relative to the
background.
2-for-1 in Taurus (^)
and by Jan. 31, it stands 4°
northeast of Phi Aquarii
and lies very close (5') to a
6th-magnitude field star. At
a huge distance of 2.9 billion
miles from Earth, its disk spans
only 2" through a telescope.
Use high magnification on a
steady night of seeing in order
to see its bluish-green disk.
Uranus lies about 60° high
in the southeastern sky soon
after sunset and remains vis-
ible until the early morning.
It’s a binocular object among
the stars of Aries the Ram,
shining at magnitude 5.8 in a
sparse region of the sky. It is
about 11° southeast of Hamal,
the brightest star in Aries, and
5.3° northwest of Mu (μ) Ceti.
Uranus moves westward dur-
ing the first half of the month,
reaches a stationary point
Jan. 18, and resumes an
easterly trek for the remainder
of the month. Uranus spans
nearly 4" in a telescope and
sports a distinctive greenish-
blue hue. This distant ice giant
lies 1.8 billion miles away.
While six planets congre-
gate in the evening sky in early
January, you have to wait until
the predawn hours to catch
Mars. The Red Planet rises
before 6 A.M. local time all
month and brightens margin-
ally from magnitude 1.5 to 1.4
during January. Mars is cross-
ing a stunning region of the
sky and is worth watching
through low-power, wide-field
telescopes as it glides past
numerous nebulae. It’s a
challenging object through a
telescope, spanning only 4".
Mars lies in Ophiuchus as
the new year opens, standing
less than 6° northeast of
Antares. It crosses into
Sagittarius by Jan. 19, about 4°
west of the Trifid (M20) and
Lagoon (M8) nebulae. The
morning of Jan. 25, Mars
stands less than 1° south of the
Trifid and roughly half a degree
away from the Lagoon. On
Jan. 26, Mars is less than a
Moon’s width from the
northeastern edge of the
Lagoon Nebula — a fine sight
through binoculars.
Don’t miss the amazing
waning crescent Moon on
Jan. 29, standing 3° south of
Mars an hour before sunrise.
They’re joined by Venus, only
10.5° to Mars’ northeast. Check
out these two planets in the
midst of the Milky Way. Our
galaxy’s plane lies at a fairly
shallow angle with respect to
the southeastern horizon, but
observers with suitably clear
skies will have fine opportuni-
ties for scanning the region
with binoculars or capturing
some spectacular wide-field
photos. The Red Planet ends
the month 1.3° northwest of
Mars and the Milky Way (^)
M28, a dim globular cluster
(magnitude 6.8), while a
brighter (magnitude 5.1) globu-
lar cluster, M22, lies 3.5° due
east of Mars.
GET DAILY UPDATES ON YOUR NIGHT SKY AT
http://www.Astronomy.com/skythisweek.
Martin Ratcliffe is a
planetarium professional with
Evans & Sutherland and enjoys
observing from Wichita, Kansas.
Alister Ling, who lives in
Edmonton, Alberta, is a longtime
watcher of the skies.
1 Ceres makes a tight turnaround beneath the Pleiades (M45) this
month, while 44 Nysa crosses NGC 1647 to its east in late January.
Astrophotographers take note: The Red Planet is tracking through a rich
field near our galaxy’s center rife with targets late this month.