2019 Week 2: (January 6-January 12)

We are in the first full week of 2019 and the weather is quite mild.  With clear skies there are a lot of amazing things to see!

Date	Event
January 6	Uranus Stationary
January 10	Neptune 3°N of Moon
January 12	Mars 5°N of Moon

Uranus will complete its retrograde motion and begin moving toward the east against the background stars.  It will soon be within the borders of Aries, moving to its second constellation since I started astronomy back in 2016.

Neptune and Mars will be in tight with the Moon on the 10th and 12th respectively.

Familiar constellations dot the Winter sky.  Orion is high in the sky around 11pm and makes for a beautiful sight.  Place your binoculars on his belt and move them south and you will see the Great Orion Nebula.  At 1334 light years away, this is one of the most active star creating regions in our galaxy.

The Orion Nebula

The Twins known as Gemini follow closely behind Orion.  You can find them by drawing a line from Orion's bright blue knee through his bright red shoulder to a pair of bright stars. 

On a clear night see if you can trace out the Winter Hexagon.  Each vertex is a bright Winter star consisting of (with their brightness rank): 7 - Rigel, 14 - Aldebaran, 6 - Capella, 17 - Pollux, 8 - Procyon, 1 - Sirius.

There is only one rocket launch scheduled for this week.  A Falcon 9 is sending 10 satellites into space to replace the original Iridium constellation that observers love watching.  You can catch this launch live at https://spaceflightnow.com.

Date	Event
January 8	Falcon 9 - Iridium Next 66-75 (08:48)

Spend some time outside in the mild Winter weather and see some fantastic sights!  We sometimes don't get the chance to see some of these because it is so cold and snowy outside!