For Jan. 2010, the first two weeks find the moon waning in the morning sky. The waning gibbous moon passes six degrees south of Mars on Jan. 3, with both rising about 9 p.m. in east. The last quarter moon sits high in the sky about six degrees south of Saturn overhead on the morning of Jan. 6. The new moon is on Jan. 15, and creates an annular solar eclipse visible in the Indian Ocean.

The waxing crescent moon passes north of Jupiter in the southwestern evening sky on Jan. 17, with first quarter on the 23rd, and Full Moon on Jan. 30 to end the month. For northern Indian tribes, this was the Wolf or Snow Moon – before global warning, obviously.

Mercury and Venus lie too close to sun for good viewing this Jan. Mars will be coming to opposition on Jan. 29, rising in the east at sunset, and closest and largest in the scope until 2012. Its red disk will reveal surface detail and polar caps with moderate sized amateur scopes at 200X and higher. It will be the brightest think in the eastern evening sky for all of the winter of 2010.

The square of Pegasus dominates the western sky. The constellation Cassiopeia makes a striking W in the NW. She contains many nice star clusters for binocular users in her outer arm of our Milky Way, extending to the NE now. Her daughter, Andromeda, starts with the NE corner star of Pegasus’’ Square, and goes NE with two more bright stars in a row.

It is from the middle star, beta Andromeda, that we proceed about a quarter the way to the top star in the W of Cassiopeia, and look for a faint blur with the naked eye. M-31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is the most distant object visible with the naked eye, lying about 2.5 million light years distant. Overhead is Andromeda’s hero, Perseus.

Yellow Capella, a giant star the same temperature and color as our much smaller Sun, dominates the overhead sky. It is part of the pentagon on stars making up Auriga, the Charioteer (think Ben Hur). East of Auriga, the twins, Castor and Pollux highlight the Gemini. UWF alumni can associate the pair with Jason and the Golden Fleece legend, for they were the first two Argonauts to sign up on his crew of adventurers.

South of Gemini, Orion is the most familiar winter constellation, dominating the eastern sky at dusk. The reddish supergiant Betelguese marks his eastern shoulder, while blue-white supergiant Rigel stands opposite on his west knee. Just south of the belt, hanging like a sword downward, is M-42, the Great Nebula of Orion, an outstanding binocular and telescopic stellar nursery.

A lesser known but also photogenic stellar nursery is the Rosette, east of Betelguese. It contains the nice binocular cluster NGC 2244, but the flowery pattern of glowing pink hydrogen shows up best in long exposure photos with larger scopes. The cluster forms from the inside out, as hot new stars light up the cocoons of gas and dust and push them outward.

Last but certainly not least, in the east rise the hunter’s two faithful companions, Canis major and minor. Procyon is the bright star in the little dog, and rises minutes before Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Sirius dominates the SE sky by 7 p.m., and as it rises, the turbulent winter air causes it to sparkle with shafts of spectral fire.

At eight light years distance, Sirius is the closest star we can easily see with the naked eye from West Florida. You must be in south Florida to spot Alpha Centauri on June evenings. Below Sirius in binoculars is another fine open cluster, M- 41, a fitting dessert for New Year’s sky feast.

For more information on the Escambia Amateur Astronomers and our local star gazes for the public, visit our website at www.eaaa.net or call our sponsor, Dr. Wayne Wooten at PJC at (850) 484-1152, or email him at wwooten@pjc.edu.