Stars over Sisters

The month of January is a prime time to view the constellation of Auriga the charioteer in the northern sky.

Auriga depicts a charioteer holding the reins of the chariot in his right hand with a goat over his left shoulder. Auriga is associated with the Greek hero Erichthonius, who was raised by the goddess Athena. He invented the quadriga, a four-horse chariot, which he used in a battle that gained him the crown of Athens. Zeus was impressed with his feats and placed him in the sky, along with his chariot, which resembled the chariot of the Sun.

The goat over Auriga's shoulder is denoted by Capella, the brightest star in the constellation. Capella represents Amalthea, the she-goat that fed Zeus as an infant while he was hidden away by his mother from Zeus' vengeful father. The milk that spilled over from Amalthea then formed the Milky Way.

To find this pentagon-shaped constellation, look to the north of Orion.

Capella, the sixth brightest star in the night sky, is one of the few bright stars that, like our sun, is yellow in appearance. The color similarities indicate that the surface temperatures of both are roughly the same.

Capella is actually a quadruple star system comprised of two binary stars. One binary system features two giant stars, while the other is made of two faint red dwarf stars. Capella is relatively close by at a distance of 42.2 light-years.

Auriga is home to three very fine open star clusters. M36 is a grouping of about 60 relatively young stars arranged in parallel rows. There are an estimated 100 stars in the M38 cluster, most of them young, hot stars with a mix of cooler yellow giants. Both these clusters lie at a distance of about 3,900 light-years.

But the richest and most visually pleasing of the three clusters is M37. It is comprised of about 150 stars located some 4,200 light-years away. American astronomer Robert Burnham, Jr. described this cluster as "a virtual cloud of glittering stars." It is located nearly 4 degrees east-southeast of M36 and can be identified in a telescope by a bright orange star near its center.

The peak of the Quadrantids meteor shower occurs on January 2 and 3. Since the moon will be just a thin crescent most of the meteors, about 40 per hour, should be visible. Look to the northeast after midnight.

The month of January will feature two supermoons - on the first and 30th. A supermoon is defined as a "new or full moon which occurs with the moon at or near its closest approach to Earth."

In this case, both supermoons are new moons. Two supermoons in the same month will not occur again until January 2018. The first quarter moon phase will occur on January 8, the Micro Moon (the smallest full moon of the year) on January 16, and the last quarter on January 24.

Jupiter will shine prominently in Gemini and be visible all night long. Brilliant Venus hovers very low in the west early in the month, then disappears from view by January 11.

Currently located in Virgo, Mars rises at midnight at the beginning of the month; one hour earlier by month's end. Saturn is in Libra and rises at 3 a.m. on New Year's Day.

The earth will be closest to the sun (perihelion) at 3:59 a.m. on January 4, as our planet makes its annual pilgrimage about its parent star.