The winter season offers us a look through a window to the universe that reveals some of the brightest stars and most notable constellations. A recognizable feature in this region is the large Winter Hexagon asterism. During the primetime evening hours, it dominates the southern sky, stretching from just above the tree line all the way to the zenith, directly overhead. The stars that create this hexagonal shape include Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Pollux, Procyon, and Sirius. These stars are all labeled on the star map below. Adding to the brilliant stars in this region is the edge-on view of our Milky Way galaxy which appears like a waterfall, running almost directly through the middle of the Winter Hexagon.

A great collection of celestial treasures can be found in the sky this month. Positioned on Taurus the bull’s back is the Pleiades star cluster. Consisting of young, brilliant blue stars, it is a wonderful naked-eye target. Binoculars reveal its true beauty. In 1054 AD, stargazers noticed a brilliant “guest star” near Zeta Tauri. Eventually it faded from view but today, when we aim our telescopes at this location, we see a spectacular supernova remnant called the Crab Nebula.

Shining in the western sky at magnitude -4 is Venus, the “Evening Star,” with Jupiter at magnitude -2 positioned above. To the unaided eye, they appear as the brightest starlike objects in the sky and slowly approach one another as the month progresses. The moon joins this fabulous duo on February 22nd. Located high in the southern sky is the brilliant and reddish Mars. Be careful not to confuse this planet with nearby Aldebaran, which also shines an orange-red color.

The “Green Comet,” officially known as Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), has been a popular target for astronomers recently. Comets are very unpredictable, but it might be visible with the unaided eye for the first part of the month. If not, binoculars will reveal this celestial visitor. When viewing this comet, keep in mind that it will not be seen “blazing across the sky.” Instead, it will gradually move from night to night and appear in binoculars as a fuzzy patch in the sky. This comet has an orbital period of 50,000 years, which means the last time it passed by Earth, the Neanderthals were still roaming the lands and humans were just migrating out of Africa.

Stargazing has proved to be a challenge lately, mostly due to the cloudy skies. Scheduled observing events for both my high school and the grade school space and astronomy clubs were sadly canceled.

I have had some luck observing from my driveway even on the partly cloudy nights. For quick “between the clouds” observing sessions, I often focused on double stars. As a beginner astronomer, I learned how to use my telescope and navigate the sky by viewing double stars.

My observations included Meissa, designated Lambda Orionis, which marks the head of Orion and has a separation of 4.4 arc seconds. I resolved the two individual stars at 240x. The two stars had beautiful color contrast, one shining blue and the other orange. Another spectacular orange-blue double is 32 Eridani, for which I needed 150x to resolve the components. Almach was another target of mine, which has a separation of 9.8 arc seconds. I easily resolved the components at 120x and revealed one as a deep blue and the other red.

Double-star expert Sissy Haas once compared observing double stars to viewing a rainbow or waterfall, and I absolutely agree!