Night Sky Highlights for January-March 2022
Solar System
Quadrantid Meteor Shower
Peaking on the morning of January 4
At its best, this shower produces up to 40 meteors an hour, and this year the view should be favorable with a crescent Moon setting early in the evening on the peak night. The radiant for this shower is in Bootes, which is highest in the sky during the hours before dawn.
Mercury
Mercury makes a nice appearance in early January, when it can be seen low in the southwest shortly after sunset. It will be farthest from the Sun on January 7. A week later, Mercury (magnitude 0.6) will be just a few degrees to the lower right of Saturn (magnitude 0.7) for a few days around January 13. Although the twilight sky will still be bright, this should be an interesting conjunction to observe with the naked eye, binoculars, or telescope.
Venus
After passing near the Sun at the beginning of the year, Venus emerges in the eastern sky before dawn in late January. It will remain as the brightest object in the predawn sky through the rest of the winter.
Mars
The red planet will be low in the southeast just before dawn throughout the winter months. It will be far from Earth and will appear as a small disk through a telescope, only 4 or 5 arcseconds in diameter. During February and March, it will hover slightly below the much brighter Venus.
Jupiter
If you want to observe Jupiter with its four Galilean moons this winter, do so in the early evening in January. It will be the brightest object in the southwestern sky after sunset. In February and March it will be too close to the Sun to observe.
Saturn
Saturn can still be seen immediately after sunset in early January, but it will be very low in the sky and difficult to observe well. After passing behind the Sun in February, it reappears in the eastern sky before dawn in March, joining Venus and Mars.
Uranus
Uranus is in Aries, and it will visible in the evening sky throughout the winter, but it will be getting closer to the Sun as spring approaches. At about magnitude 5.7, this planet is easy to spot with binoculars if you know exactly where to look. See the link below Neptune for a finder chart.
Neptune
Neptune is in Aquarius, and in January it will be high enough in the the evening sky after sunset to observe with a telescope. In February and March it will be too close to the Sun to observe. To find Neptune, you will need a go-to scope or a finder chart such as the one in this article from the Sky & Telescope website:
www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/planets/ice-giants-neptune-and-uranus/
Deep Sky Objects
There are so many fascinating objects to observe through binoculars or a telescope on clear winter nights. It takes a bit of determination to brave the cold, but one advantage of this time of year is that darkness comes so soon that we can observe in the early evening, or even before dinner. Here are a few targets worth going out to look for. Each object has a link to a star-hop chart to help you find it.
Messier 1 (Crab Nebula)
Supernova remnant in Taurus
Messier’s list starts off with a bang–literally. M1 is a remnant of a star that exploded as a supernova in the year 1054, when it became so bright is was visible in the daytime for several weeks. The nebula is now much dimmer (magnitude 8.4) and through a telescope its surface brightness is pretty low, but when you look at it, think about the incredible energy that was released from that star almost 1000 years ago. Star-hop chart
Messier 35 and NGC 2158
Open clusters in Gemini
These two clusters at very different distances provide a unique 3-dimensional perspective. Messier 35 is about 2800 light years away and it is a great sight through any telescope. NGC 2158 appears as a faint patch of light about 1/4 degree to the west of M35. It is about 5 times farther away and easy to overlook. With a large scope and high magnification, NGC 2158 can be resolved into faint pinpoints of light. Star-hop chart
Messier 36, 37, and 38
Open clusters in Auriga
These three bright open clusters are within a few degrees of each other, and they are all bright enough to spot with binoculars. Through a telescope at low power, these clusters present a nice variety. Messier 36 is a small group of about 60 blue-white stars. Messier 37 appears about twice as large and has many more stars, densely packed. Messier 38 is about the same size as M37, but its stars are more widely spaced. Star-hop chart
Messier 78
Reflection nebula in Orion
About 1600 light years away, this nebula appears as a dim oval surrounding two magnitude 10 stars. At magnitude 8.3, the nebula is not hard to observe through almost any telescope. Once you find it, try to spot a smaller and dimmer reflection nebula, NGC 2071, just about 1/4 degree north of M78. Star-hop chart
Messier 79
Globular cluster in Lepus
This globular cluster is small but bright. Through a small telescope, the outer sections can be resolved into individual stars, and large scopes will show individual stars close to the dense nucleus. Strings of stars around the periphery give the cluster a star-like shape. Star-hop chart
NGC 2477 (Caldwell 71)
Open cluster in Puppis
Messier 72 is a distant globular cluster, about 55,000 light years away. It is bright enough to be seen as a hazy ball in small scopes, but a large aperture is needed to resolve any individual stars. About 1.5 degrees east of M72 is M73. This object is definitely not a spectacular sight, but we can give it four stars because that is exactly what it is, a small asterism of four stars in a Y shape. Messier included it in his catalog because he thought the group was engulfed in a faint nebulosity (it is not). Star-hop chart
Gamma Andromedae (Almach)
Double star in Andromeda
Almach is a very pretty double star with contrasting colors similar to those of Albireo in the summer sky. The brighter star (magnitude 2.2) is yellow and the dimmer star (magnitude 5.0) is blue. The two stars are separated by 9.8 arcseconds (compared to 34 arcseconds for Albireo). The pair is about 390 light years away. Star-hop chart
Beta Monoceros
Triple star in Monoceros
This star system is easy to see with the naked eye (magnitude 3.8). Through a telescope at medium to high power, it can be resolved into three blue-white stars, approximately equal in brightness. The separation between the A and B components is 7.4 arcseconds, and the separation between the B and C components is only 2.8 arcseconds. The group is about 680 light years away. Star-hop chart