Title: January Skywatch Highlights
Location: Hawaiian Islands
Date / Time: January 2009
Comments: Behold our Winter skies! It's wonderful to view Orion & his faithful hunting dogs, as well as Taurus, Gemini, Pegasus, Andromeda & other Winter constellations in our night skies. Following the JUPITER/MERCURY conjunction in early January (see below), both of these planets will be setting with the Sun. & by mid-month leave VENUS to BLAZE alone, high in the Southwestern sky at dusk. On Jan. 14th, Venus reaches its greatest distance from the Sun, 47 degrees, & appears brighter than any other point of light in the sky. Throughout the month, Venus will brighten steadily to a magnitude of minus 4.7 by month's end, and will set in the west at approximately 9:30 PM. Watch after sunset on Jan. 29th, when a small crescent Moon lies 6 degrees west of Venus. By mid-month, look for SATURN to rise due east at around 10 PM, and by 9 PM at months end. Saturn appears as the most conspicuous object between Regulus, Leo's brightest star, and Virgo's luminary star Spica. Saturn's glorious ring system is barely viewable because it currently tilts nearly edge on to our line of sight from Earth. MARS passed on the far side of the Sun in early December & will remain out of sight throughout January. Mars will not be viewable until early March when it returns to our predawn sky. The Southern Cross, in the constellation Crux, is viewable in the early morning, prior to dawn. You'll need a cloudless view of the southern horizon. At mid-month,the Southern Cross rises around 3 AM & by 2 AM at the end of the month. Note at this time of morning, that Hawaii is one of the few places where we can see all the way from the North Star, Polaris (Hokupa'a), to the Southern Cross, a Polynesian navigational "star line" called Ka Iwikuamo'o, "The Backbone." For further details & a January sky map, visit Bishop Museum Planetarium www.bishopmuseum.org/planetarium (bishopmuseum.org).

Maintained by Roz Reiner - Kauai, Hawaii

 

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