Sky Guide January 2018

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.