Wednesday, January 4, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
7
Stars over Sisters
By Amy Hills
Correspondent
As the snow piles up
and the New Year begins,
January brings beauti-
ful night skies to Central
Oregon.
January is a very special
month astronomically for
containing the Quadrantids
meteor shower, which
is the first major meteor
shower of the year. Usually
active between the end
of December and the sec-
ond week of January, the
Quadrantids peak late the
night of January 3 and early
morning of January 4, with
up to 40 meteors per hour at
its highest point. The moon
at its first quarter will set just
before midnight on the third,
leaving a dark sky perfect for
viewing the shower.
The meteors can be spot-
ted all over the night sky but
they appear to originate from
the constellation Bootes. The
meteor shower is caused by
dust grains remaining from
an extinct comet called 2003
EH1 when they enter the
earth’s atmosphere and are
incinerated by the heat of
friction.
Some of the brightest
constellations in the night
sky will be Taurus, Orion,
Auriga, Ursa Major, and
Canis Major. Taurus is a
constellation of a mighty
bull with the two left-most
stars representing the horns.
Taurus is just to the right
and north of Orion. Orion,
an absolutely breathtaking
constellation, will be visible
at 11 p.m. to 12-midnight
high in the southern sky this
month. Orion is a constella-
tion of a mighty hunter and
can be easily identified by
his belt, three closely packed
stars that are somewhat eas-
ily spotted in the sky.
Ursa Major will also be
quite visible this month.
Ursa Major, also known as
the Big Dipper, is a constel-
lation representing a great
bear that contains many deep
sky objects. Canis Major is a
constellation of a large dog
and is right next to Canis
Minor, a slightly smaller
dog. These two dogs belong
to Orion, the great hunter of
sky lore. All of these constel-
lations are interconnected in
mythology.
The Winter Hexagon is a
formation of six very bright
stars that create a hexago-
nal shape in the sky, which
is fully visible in winter. It
includes Capella in the con-
stellation Auriga, Aldebaran
in Taurus, Rigel in Orion,
Sirius in Canis Major,
Procyon in Canis Minor, and
Pollux in the constellation
Gemini. A smaller but more
regularly shaped formation
is the Winter Triangle, which
consists of Procyon, Sirius
and Betelgeuse. These two
formations will be visible
until March.
This month, both Venus
and Mercury are at their most
visible points. Venus begins
the month in Aquarius but
moves to Pisces later in the
month. Venus reaches its
greatest eastern elongation
on January 12, which puts
it highest above the horizon
just after sunset, in the west-
ern sky. Mercury reaches
its greatest western elonga-
tion on January 19, which
also puts it highest above
the horizon shortly before
sunrise in the lower eastern
sky.
On January 5 the moon
will be at first quarter.
January 12 will be a full
moon, and January 19 the
moon will be at last quarter.
There will be a new moon
PHOTO COURTESY NASA
Spiral galaxy M101, often refered to as the Pinwheel Galaxy, is one of the finest deep sky objects in the
constellation of Ursa Major.
on January 28, which is an
opportune time to observe
galaxies and fainter stars as
they will be easier to spot
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