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[Energetic music]

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[Preston Dyches]
What's Up for January?

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Some moderate meteor activity,

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several great pair-ups
of the Moon and planets,

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and how just four minutes a day

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can make a big difference
in your view of the universe.

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The year kicks off
with the Quadrantid

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meteor shower, which peaks after
midnight on January 4th.

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Light from the third-quarter
moon will brighten

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the sky on the peak
night, causing fainter

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meteors to be lost from view.

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But the shower does produce
a decent number of bright

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meteors called fireballs, so
it can still be worth your time.

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If viewing
from a dark sky location,

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you may see 20-25 meteors
per hour at the peak.

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You can catch a few meteors
in the few days before or after,

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as well.

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In fact, the shower is active
through around January 12th,

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so you might catch a fireball
in the week after the peak

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when the Moon has
moved out of the predawn sky.

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On January 8th, 

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in the hour before sunrise,
look for brilliant Venus

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rising with a slim crescent Moon
in the southeast.

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Bright star Arcturus hangs
high above them.

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The Moon will appear quite close
to the red giant star

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Antares, the fiery red
heart of Scorpius, that morning.

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And for observers
in parts of the Western U.S.,

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the Moon will actually occult,
or pass in front of, Antares

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as the pair
are rising that morning.

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And if you have a view
of the horizon,

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this is also good morning

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to spot Mercury
before the sky brightens.

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It's quite low, but rises

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above 10 degrees off the horizon
as dawn warms the sky,

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and it will be shining
even brighter than Arcturus.

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Next up, the crescent moon
visits Saturn on the 13th

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and 14th.

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You'll find the pair
in the southwest

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for a couple of hours
following sunset both nights.

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Then the Moon pairs up
with Jupiter

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in the evening
on the 17th and 18th.

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This is actually a great week
to pull out the telescope

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or binoculars,

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because as soon as it's fully

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dark, you can work your way
across the sky,

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starting with Jupiter
and its moons, our own Moon,

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the Pleiades, Aldebaran
and the Hyades

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star cluster,
and the Orion Nebula.

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One of the
things that makes skywatching

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so interesting is that
the sky is always changing.

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The stars rise in the east
and set in the west each night.

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The Moon gradually waxes

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and wanes as it goes
through its monthly cycle.

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And likely you've also noticed
that which stars you can see

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on a given night changes slowly

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over the course of the year.

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The bright stars
and constellations

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we see on warm
summer nights are not

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the ones that fill
the chilly sky in winter.

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This is because the stars rise
4 minutes

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earlier each day,
and it adds up over time.

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In just 1 week,
a given star will rise

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28 minutes
earlier than it does tonight.

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And in 1 month,
the same star will be rising

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about 2 hours earlier.

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So at 4 minutes
per day, or 2 hours per month,

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after 6 months,
the stars of summer are rising

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a full 12 hours earlier
than they did back in June,

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placing them
high in the daytime sky.

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But in their place,
the evening sky belongs

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to the stars of winter.

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This slow-motion cycle
in the sky plays out annually

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as Earth moves in its orbit
around the Sun.

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Our view outward into space
during the night

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depends on where
Earth is in its orbit.

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At one part of the year,

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our view of space
from Earth's night side

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looks in one direction,
and six months later

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the view is in the opposite
direction.

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And so our nighttime
view of the cosmos changes

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over the course of the year,

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because the stars aren't moving,
we are!

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And that change happens at
a pace of 4 minutes per day.

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Here are the phases of

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the Moon for January.

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Stay up to date on NASA's
missions

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exploring the solar system
and beyond at science.nasa.gov.

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I'm Preston Dyches from NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory,

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and that's What's Up
for this month.