Nan at Night by Nancy Hoyt
-Thursday the 21st: Two fiery red giants are in great view tonight, Aldebaran, the angry “eye” of Taurus the bull is in the southeast at nightfall. Pollux, one of the twins of Gemini, is in the east above the planet Mars. Just like Mars they both emit an orange-red hue.
-Friday the 22nd: The moon is in its first quarter stage tonight as the Sun illuminates half of the lunar hemisphere facing Earth. The sunlit portion will grow larger each night until the moon is full on January 29th.
-Saturday the 23rd: Hydra, the water snake, creeps into the evening sky this month. Its brightest star, Alphard, wiggles into view in the east-southeast around 9 p.m. It’s not very bright, but it is in a desolate region of the sky, so it’s not hard to find.
-Sunday the 24th: The orange planet Mars is well up in the east a couple of hours after sunset. It outshines everything else in the sky at that hour, except the moon, so it’s not hard to miss.
-Monday the 25th: The planet Mars is the showstopper as it’s closest to the Earth this week, so it shines at its brightest. It rises around sunset looking like a bright orange star, glides across the sky during the night and sets at sunrise.
-Tuesday the 26th: Thirty years ago on January 26, 1980, Voyager 1 confirmed that two small moons shared an orbit around Saturn as it made its fly-by. Janus and Epimetheus encounter each other every few years, essentially swapping positions with each pass.
-Wednesday the 27th: The little planet Mercury is peeking into the dawn sky the next couple of days. It is in the east-southeast about 45 minutes before sunrise and looks like a bright star. It is so low in the sky though, that any obstructions along the horizon will block it from your view.
-Thursday the 28th: Mars is making its best showing of the whole year in the next three days. Look for it just below and left of the moon tonight at is glows its ardent red.
