The winter season brings not only cold temperatures, but also some of the finest stargazing opportunities of the year. At this time, mighty Orion the hunter can be found high in the southern sky. This constellation is well known both in the northern and southern hemispheres due to its location on the celestial equator. Orion resembles its namesake, displaying a club in one hand, shield in the other, and a sword hanging from his belt. This constellation is a wonderful guidepost. Its three belt stars point southeast to Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Sirius is part of Orion’s big hunting dog, Canis Major. Northeast of Sirius lies the bright star Procyon in Canis Minor, the little hunting dog. In the other direction, the belt stars lead to the constellation Taurus the bull. Together, Rigel and Betelgeuse point northeast to the bright stars Castor and Pollux, the Gemini brothers.

Venus, shining at magnitude -3.9, is visible low in the southwestern sky with the first-magnitude Saturn found nearby. Each day, Venus appears a little higher and eventually overtakes Saturn for the celestial high ground in the later days of the month. Jupiter is located high in the southwestern sky in the early evening, and the waxing crescent moon will pass by these planets for three days, beginning on the 23rd. Shining brilliantly in Taurus, Mars remains a good telescopic target, but its apparent size steadily decreases as the month progresses.

The Quadrantid meteor shower runs annually from January 1st to the 5th and peaks on the evening of the 3rd into the following morning. This shower produces about 40 meteors per hour and is caused by Earth traveling through dust grains left behind by comet 2003 EH1, which is now extinct. The meteors radiate from Boötes but can appear anywhere in the night sky, and are best viewed from a dark place after midnight.

Twenty years ago on January 23rd, NASA received the final radio signal from Pioneer 10. This unmanned space probe took the first close-up photos of Jupiter and made many discoveries about both the planet and its moons. Pioneer 10 was also the first spacecraft to be placed on a trajectory that carried it into interstellar space. Originally, this spacecraft was expected to last 21 months but continued to operate for 30 years.

Recently, I’ve been observing quite often with my younger sister, Krystyna. Our 8-inch Dobsonian telescope was the perfect instrument to use as it was easy to set up and operate without too much heavy lifting.

On several occasions, the moon was the main target of the evening. Krystyna has been working on completing an observing program for a handful of years now, and she needed to view a few features on the moon in order to complete it. On some nights, my father and I also enjoyed holding our iPhones to the eyepiece and competed with one another to see who could get the best photo.

Mars has also been an object of interest as it reached opposition and closest approach to Earth last month. A still atmosphere on a few nights allowed for high-powered observations of this world and my best views were at 240x magnification. Much detail was apparent and the darker regions on this red-colored planet were pronounced, especially the Syrtis Major Planum region. Along with viewing the Red Planet, we pointed the telescope at the two gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn. They are always fun targets and in addition to observing the planets, we used the Sky Safari app on our phones and were systematically viewing their moons. Throughout the colder evenings, the planets have been convenient targets and allow for warm-up time between each observation.

The featured object for January is “The Kids,” an asterism consisting of three stars in a distinctive triangle-shaped pattern, found in Auriga the charioteer. This target is located near Capella, the brightest star in Auriga. Capella has been nicknamed “The Goat Star,” with The Kids representing baby goats carried by the charioteer.